• Housing is a core classroom issue. When educators cannot afford to live in San Diego, the resulting high turnover and long commutes destabilize classrooms and weaken student-teacher relationships, particularly in high-need schools.

• The affordability gap is untenable. A typical San Diego one-bedroom requires an income of $100,000, yet a first-year SD Unified teacher earns approximately $62,000; consequently, over 60% of surveyed staff are housing-cost burdened.

• Instability drives district-wide decline. Housing costs force talent to leave, which disrupts learning, drains budgets, and accelerates enrollment loss.

• Housing justice and student success are inseparable, requiring more urgent, sustained action to ensure our educators can live where they lead.

Through persistent advocacy and bargaining, San Diego educators have helped the District move with the urgency that the regional housing crisis requires. By securing the 2024 Memorandum of Understanding, SDEA won concrete commitments, including a legal guarantee that 50% of Measure U-funded units are reserved specifically for its members. This collaborative work has established a formal framework of standards that ensures new San Diego Unified housing projects are built and managed in strict alignment with educator values.

• Maximize the total number of new housing units created

• Maximize affordable and below-market-rate units

• Cap rents at 30% of employee income to ensure affordability

• Build diverse communities with residents at diverse income levels

• Provide equal access to all site amenities regardless of income level

• Prioritize applicants currently experiencing homelessness

• Eliminate application fees for low-income tenants

• Ensure some units accommodate families with student dependents

• Require pro-labor construction and operations standards

• Protect housing eligibility for 39 months for any employee affected by a Reduction in Force

• The Keystone Education District proposal provides the most affordable housing to the most educators and other school employees. It treats our teachers with the respect they deserve as the professionals who drive student achievement. Respect means listening to what teachers have organized for, bargained for, and clearly stated they need—and then delivering it.

• Keystone delivers 1,500 permanently rent-restricted homes reserved for San Diego Unified employees and retirees—50% more housing than any competing vision for the site. It contains ZERO market-rate housing. Keystone meets the goal publicly set by SDEA leadership to house at least 700 members and is the only proposal capable of providing affordable homes to 10% of the District’s workforce, while honoring the District’s commitment to set aside 50% of all new homes for teachers.

• Keystone serves the "missing middle" income bands where educators struggle most - earning too much for subsidized housing and not enough for market rate. Rents are fixed at 30% of an educator’s actual salary, providing a "sturdy staircase" for career growth that eliminates the "cliff effect"—meaning a union-won raise will never lead to an eviction notice. Furthermore, with 600 family-sized units, the plan provides the permanent space that teachers need to raise their own families in the neighborhoods where they serve.

• Keystone is rooted directly in educator advocacy. The proposal was shaped to align with the workforce housing principles developed through the District–labor process and formally embedded in the 2024 MOU. It adheres to the Advisory Committee’s guiding principles and integrates the specific goals SDEA has championed for years. Keystone turns these aspirational goals into real keys to real homes for more than 1,000 educators.