Upward Communities Research
Workforce housing, teacher housing, essential worker housing, area median income, cost burdened. Districts meet these terms early and they are not interchangeable. This report sets out what each one means and where the distinctions matter.
Four terms get used interchangeably in this field and they do not mean the same thing. The distinctions matter because they determine which funding sources a project can use and who is allowed to live there.
Housing aimed at households that earn too much to qualify for deeply subsidised affordable housing and too little to afford market rent in their own community. There is no single federal definition. In practice the band is usually described as roughly 60% to 120% of area median income, and different programmes draw the line in different places.
Workforce housing where tenancy is restricted to school district employees. This restriction requires legal authority. California's Teacher Housing Act (SB 1413, Leno, 2016) permits local education agencies to establish housing programmes, to use local or state funds including affordable housing tax credits, and to restrict tenancy to "teachers and school district employees." A follow-up measure, AB 3308 (2020), clarified that housing with those tenancy restrictions can still use public funding sources including affordable housing tax credits.
The same idea applied to a broader group: teachers plus first responders, healthcare workers, and municipal and county staff. Widening eligibility can improve a project's financing options and its politics, at the cost of diluting the recruitment benefit for any single employer.
The midpoint household income for a metropolitan area, published annually by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and adjusted for household size. Affordability limits in most housing programmes are expressed as a percentage of AMI, which is why the same rent can be classified differently in two neighbouring counties.
Spending more than 30% of gross income on housing. This is the standard federal threshold, and it is the test the National Council on Teacher Quality used in 2025 to classify a district as unaffordable for its own teachers.
Teacher housing is rental housing where tenancy is restricted to school district employees, usually at rents set below the local market. Restricting tenancy by employer requires legal authority. California established that authority through the Teacher Housing Act (SB 1413) in 2016.
Affordable housing generally serves households well below area median income and uses deep subsidy with strict income limits. Workforce housing targets households that earn too much to qualify for those programmes and too little to afford local market rent. Teacher housing is usually workforce housing with an employment restriction added.
Sources
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in partnership with any organisation cited below.
Learning Policy Institute. (2017). What's the Cost of Teacher Turnover? Published 13 September 2017. Source for the more than $20,000 per new hire figure in urban districts, the 6 of 10 replacement figure, and the 20% beginning and 30% mid-career pay gap.
Learning Policy Institute. (2024). About 2024 Teacher Turnover Calculations. Published 17 September 2024. Source for $11,860, $16,450 and $24,930 per teacher replaced, in January 2024 dollars, and for the stated exclusion of student learning losses. Companion to 2024 Update: What's the Cost of Teacher Turnover?
Tan, T., Wei, W., Carver-Thomas, D., & García, E. (2026). Teacher Turnover in the United States: Who Moves, Who Leaves, and Why. Learning Policy Institute. Source for 15.1% turnover, the 8.0% and 7.1% split, 74% voluntary and non-retirement, and 20.1% against 14.7% by certification status.
Comai, S., Kemper Patrick, S., & Tan, T. (2025). 2025 Update: Latest National Scan Shows Teacher Shortages Persist. Learning Policy Institute blog, 15 July 2025. Source for 411,500 positions, 1 in 8, and more than 6 million students.
Carver-Thomas, D., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2017). Teacher Turnover: Why It Matters and What We Can Do About It. Learning Policy Institute. Source for the estimate that about 90% of annual national teacher demand is created by teachers leaving. Note this is a 2017 estimate.
Bowser, K. (2025). Priced Out: The Growing Challenge of Teacher Pay and Housing Costs. National Council on Teacher Quality, District Trendline, 8 May 2025. Source for home prices up 47%, rents up 51%, beginning salaries up 24% from 2019 to 2025; for the 72 district sample; for 39 of 72 and 34 of 72 unaffordable for beginning teachers; for 18 of 72 and 8 of 72 at ten years of experience; and for San Diego Unified at 45%.
Allegretto, S. (2025). The Teacher Pay Penalty Reached a Record High in 2024. Economic Policy Institute. Source for the 26.9% regression-adjusted weekly wage penalty and the 17.1% total compensation gap. These are weekly wages, not annual pay.
Hinkley, S., & Proussaloglou, E. (2025). Housing California Educators: Insights from Nine Education Workforce Housing Developments. Center for Cities + Schools, UC Berkeley, and cityLAB, UCLA. April 2025. Source for all nine unit counts, the 2 to 6 storey and 18 to 141 units per acre ranges, one-bedroom affordability at or below 30% of entry-level income, financing mechanism by project, the 7.5 year average concept to occupancy, the five year contract to move-in figure, the Jefferson Union 85% and 90% retention figures from that district's 2023-24 Local Control and Accountability Plan, the Casa del Maestro rent trajectory from about 50% to about 80% of market, the halved commute time, the 36% storage and 25% safety satisfaction figures, and the permitting and construction delay findings.
Gottlieb, A., Lagana, M., Spearman, K., & Schoales, V. (2025). We Can't Live Where We Teach: Teacher Perspectives. Keystone Policy Center, August 2025. Source for the survey of more than 3,200 Colorado educators, 58% interest in district housing, and the 70% comfortable with the district as landlord figure, which the report itself notes drew limited responses.
Texas and Florida board decisions reported by: Community Impact and KUT News on Hays CISD; KXAN on Lockhart ISD; Ocala Gazette on Marion County; Taylor Press on Taylor, Texas.
The first two steps in the process above take an afternoon and need nothing from us. If you would rather talk it through, or you want the affordability test run against your own salary schedule, we will do that.
Get in touch →Upward Communities develops workforce housing for public sector employees. We have a commercial interest in this subject and would rather say so here than have you find out later. Everything on this page is sourced so you can check it without taking our word for anything.
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