Study of affordable housing for teachers rejected

President Carrillo fails to drum up enough support for idea

School board President Steven Carrillo’s second effort to initiate a feasibility study of whether the Santa Fe school district could build affordable housing to recruit new teachers failed this week after a sometimes testy 75-minute exchange.

None of the other four board members stood with Carrillo during the Tuesday night discussion, despite his contention that his efforts are in line with county and city plans to provide affordable housing for workers.

Among other concerns, some board members said the study could be a waste of time, that the proposal is not fair to current district employees grappling with high rent and mortgage payments, and that Carrillo’s proposal might turn district leadership into a property management group.

“We’re not getting into the housing business,” Carrillo countered.

He said the study results could in fact discourage such an initiative, but that the district would at least have a sense of what it would take to pursue a housing project and let other entities, such as the city and county, know which district-owned sites might be available for building.

Board member Kate Noble was not convinced. “If we are going to venture into housing, which is not our core business,” she said, “we need to do it right.”

Board Vice President Maureen Cashmon agreed, saying such efforts should be left to the city and county and that “every one of our employees needs rent assistance, home ownership assistance.”

Board member Rudy Garcia echoed those thoughts, saying that while he likes Carrillo’s idea, the district should wait until city and county housing initiative committees present their reports before the district moves on it.

Carrillo unsuccessfully tried to win board approval for a similar proposal last month. He and county housing official Joseph Montoya told the board Tuesday that the federal Affordable Housing Act allows school districts to provide land specifically for teacher housing.

Both Carrillo and Montoya said the city and county are grappling with an estimated shortage of 5,000 affordable rental units for residents.

The Albuquerque-based New Mexico Apartment Advisors Inc. recently put that number closer to 7,000.

Carrillo wanted a study group to determine whether the district should pilot a housing plan starting with a 12-unit facility built on district property, perhaps adjacent to a school.

Near the end of the debate, Carrillo, clearly disappointed, told the board that too often such political bodies overanalyze such ideas and slow them down, if not kill them off.

“If this idea dies here tonight, we’ve lost an incredible opportunity,” he said.

The other four disagreed, voting against Carrillo.

“I don’t accept this kind of defeat lightly,” Carrillo said. “I will go lick my wounds privately.”

“I don’t accept this kind of defeat lightly. I will go lick my wounds privately.” School board President Steven Carrillo