Novato schools seek workforce housing option

Novato school officials are looking to lower-cost workforce housing to help fill future staff vacancies.

Members of the district's workforce housing advisory committee meeting met Monday to discuss local and regional school district workforce housing efforts.

Chris White, principal of Oakland-based consulting firm Brookwood Partners, told the advisory committee that a 2022 workforce housing project at the Jefferson Union High School District in Daly City not only eliminated staff vacancies, but is expected to generate up to $2 million in future lease revenue for the district.

“We leased up the property in a couple months,” White said. “The school district had no job vacancies for the 202223 school year.”

Committee members toured the project, at 705 Serramonte Blvd. in Daly City, on March 21. It occupies 4.5 acres of a 22-acre former district high school site.

Brookwood Partners received approval from Daly City to develop the remaining 17.5 acres with market-rate and affordable housing for the public, White said.

While the Jefferson Union workforce housing project was financed by a district general obligation bond and a loan, the new market-rate and affordable housing developments would be done with long-term ground leases, providing ongoing revenue to the district, he said.

“This is the new creative way that school districts are looking at handling their under-utilized and surplus properties,” White said. “It's often by necessity, given the difficulty that districts are having in retaining teachers and staff to meet their educational missions, as well as the housing crisis all over California.”

White and Brookwood Partners principal Alan Katz are on a not-to-exceed $135,000 contract with Novato Unified to produce a feasibility study to determine which districtowned properties have the potential for workforce housing development.

The study is expected to be presented to the board of trustees June 25. The trustees could vote to approve the feasibility study at their Aug. 6 meeting.

If the district moves forward on a site this fall, the actual project could take five to eight years to complete, said Derek Knell, staff housing development director for the Novato Unified School District.

Knell said the district has nearly completed a new staff survey asking employees about their housing needs, income restrictions and commuting situations to gauge their interest in a potential workforce housing project.

“We have close to 30% of our workforce expected to re