By HANNAH KANIK | San Francisco Business Times | November 25, 2024
Two developers are teaming up to address Berkeley’s shortage of affordable housing for teachers.
Los Angeles-based Abode Communities and Berkeley-based Satellite Affordable Housing want to replace a surface parking lot in Berkeley with more than 100 affordable homes designated specifically for teachers who have been priced out of the area as cost of living and rents have spiked.
“Teachers in California are feeling the housing pinch, especially in Berkeley where housing costs are among the highest in the state,” said Holly Benson, President & CEO of Abode Communities. “By creating equitable housing options, teachers can live where they work and focus on what matters most – students."
Berkeley Unified School District owns the land, which currently serves as the Berkeley Adult School’s parking lot. The joint venture said in application materials filed with the city that the units will have a preference for Berkeley Unified School District employees. Construction is scheduled to start in March 2025.
The 110-unit multi-family development at 1701 San Pablo Ave received $24.5 million in funding from the city of Berkeley's Affordable Housing Bond revenue from Measure O — a $135 million bond measure to support the development and preservation of affordable housing. Other potential sources of funding incude the California Housing Finance Agency's Middle Income program, the California Department of Housing and Community Development's Infill Infrastructure Grant program, state and federal tax credits and a conventional mortgage, per the project's website.
The developers used Senate Bill 35, which provides a ministerial path to approval for projects with more than 50% designated affordable units, and the state density bonus program to boost the project’s capacity and streamline the permitting and approval process.
The housing caters to the “missing middle” — which are households that make too little to afford a home in the area, but too much to qualify for traditional affordable housing. Of the 110 units, 12 units will be designated for extremely low income households, 20 units for very low income households, 48 units for low income households, and one will be a managers suite.
The school district had been investigating the feasibility of developing workforce housing for several years, issuing a request for development proposals in 2021.
The city earlier this year approved rezoning part of its zoning code to encourage the development of more middle housing, making it possible to build higher-density, multi-unit projects like townhomes and four-plexes in single family neighborhoods.
The move effectively eliminated all single family zoning in the city, save for some areas in the hillside at high risk of wildfires, and established objective standards for higher density projects that, if met, would be approved by right.
