New program helps San Jose teachers who can’t afford homes here

Startup plans to aid struggling educators by assisting with down payments in the South Bay’s costly market

“I’ve always seen myself growing old and having kids in ahome that I own. And to think that that is not possible is concerning, or maybe a little sad.”

— John Daniels, teacher at James Lick High School

SAN JOSE » Teachers struggling to afford the high cost of housing here caught a break Thursday, with the launch of a new initiative that could help many buy a home.

Landed, a San Francisco-based startup that assists local teachers with their down payments, said it’s expanding its reach to San Jose — offering its services to about 10,000 educators in eight school districts. And by next month, the startup also plans to extend its reach to the East Bay, offering assistance to teachers in western Contra Costa County.

The moves are good news for teachers in both areas, who often find themselves unable to pull together enough cash for a typical 20 percent down payment on one of the region’s exorbitantly priced homes. Those high price tags have forced teachers to rent indefinitely, endure grueling commutes or find jobs in cheaper school districts — leaving local kids in the lurch.

“It’s bleak,” said Mariann Engle, superintendent of the Mt. Pleasant Elementary School Dis- trict in San Jose. “Itmakes it very difficult for themto remain in our community. … Many are leaving the area. They’re going out to the Valley. Some have gone to the Oregon area.”

Just 2 percent of homes for sale in San Jose were affordable to those making the city’s average teacher’s salary of $75,133 last April, according to real estate website Trulia. That’s based on a median home price in San

Jose of $917,903.

John Daniels, who teaches history and social studies at James Lick High School in San Jose, dreams of buying a home for himself, his wife and their oneyear- old. Both he and his wife have Master’s degrees and more than 10 years of work experience, but they can’t afford a decent house within reasonable commuting distance.

“I’ve always seen myself growing old and having kids in a home that I own,” Daniels said. “And to think that that is not possible is concerning, or maybe a little sad.”

Last week Daniels, who rents a duplex in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood, looked up teaching salaries and home prices in Boise, Idaho. It’s not a move he wants to make.

Landed tries to help by splitting a teacher’s down payment— the teacher typically contributes a payment worth 10 percent of the home’s value, and Landed puts in another 10 percent. The money comes from Landed’s investors, who get their 10 percent back when the teacher sells the house, plus 25 percent of any appreciation in the home’s value.

To serve San Jose teach- ers, Landed is working with the East Side Alliance, a partnership of eight local school districts that serve 85,000 students. It’s Landed’s biggest teacher community so far. Any teacher, administrator or staff member who has worked for one of those school districts for at least two years is eligible to receive up to $120,000 from Landed toward a down payment on a home.

That could be a crucial lifeline for San Jose’s teachers, said Marisa Hanson, president of the East Side Teachers Association. Between 50 and 100 teachers leave East Side Union High School District each year, because they’ve chosen to teach somewhere else, they’ve retired or their contract wasn’t renewed. Her district struggles to recruit teachers to replace them— especially for highdemand jobs like special education and speech therapy. And that takes a toll on the district’s students, Hanson said.

“It does affect kids,” she said, “because then they get new teachers to replace the ones that left. Less experienced teachers.”

Launched in 2015, Landed has worked with teachers throughout the Peninsula. The startup launched a new program for teachers in Marin in December, and in Los Angeles County and Denver last fall.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donated $5 million to the startup over the summer, a nod of confidence that Landed’s cofounder, Stanford graduate Alex Lofton, says opened the door to even more investments fromother areas. Lofton intends to expand to Seattle and the East Coast by the end of the year. Eventually, he hopes to broaden the program’s reach to include nurses and first responders.

Daniels said he might consider using Landed to help him buy a house, but he balked at the idea of giving up 25 percent of the home’s equity. Still, itmight beat the alternative.

“I’d rather deal with that,” he said, “than move to Boise, Idaho.”