San Diego's playbook could end California's housing crisis
Embedded Files
Tonight - Monday, Jan. 26 - Show up to support Keystone - Special Board of Education meeting at 5pm at 4100 Normal Street
Both the City of San Diego and San Diego Unified have played a leadership role in solving the state's housing crisis. There are statewide implications to what happens with the school district's flagship property, 4100 Normal Street.
Keystone showcases San Diego's commitment to tackle the housing crisis
Keystone is a textbook Complete Communities project that maximizes the infill site in order to meet the City's and State's housing needs. The project provides 1,500 units to the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) without demanding any Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) or city subsidies, delivering a financial win for all taxpayers. The project's scale provides crucial, immediate relief to regional rent pressures and showcases the City's pro-housing policies.
San Diego Unified will maintain its leadership role by selecting Keystone
While many districts are still just studying the housing crisis, San Diego Unified is moving forward with a massive plan to build 1,500 units on public land. The District's flagship property, the Brucker Education Center, is central to achieving that dramatic goal.
The choices made regarding the Brucker site will guide the decisions other school districts make around the state. By choosing to be bold, San Diego will deliver a roadmap for housing justice that the rest of California can follow.
Keystone responds to the housing crisis with clarity and speed
Keystone responds to the housing crisis with clarity and speed
Keystone streamlines development with one integrated entitlement and financing process for all 1,500 homes, minimizing political and legal points of failure. The plan deliberately avoids reliance on multiple, competitive LIHTC tax-credit allocations, which carry inherent state funding risk and complex deadlines. In contrast, the Affirmed proposal breaks the site into four separate LIHTC projects, unnecessarily multiplying legal and political risks.
Keystone's high-density, income-restricted design is built to sit squarely inside California’s strongest pro-housing laws, including the Housing Accountability Act. This legal strategy provides strong protection from frivolous anti-development complaints. Courts have already upheld similar density bonus projects in San Diego against previous challenges.
California schools could build more than 2 million new homes by following the Keystone model
Keystone is the living example of the Education Workforce Housing Handbook, delivering 1,500 income-restricted homes to address the crisis at a meaningful scale. Selecting this bold, research-based village over a small pilot will position San Diego Unified as a definitive statewide leader. This project provides a concrete, scalable template for other districts to follow to move the needle on the teacher housing crisis.
Research from cityLAB at UCLA, UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities + Schools, and the California School Boards Association shows that California school districts collectively own over 150,000 acres of land, with 7,000+ sites that are at least one acre and potentially suitable for housing. Analysts estimate that this land could support hundreds of thousands of housing units statewide, particularly in high-cost, job-rich areas where housing shortages are most acute. Importantly, more than 60% of these sites are located in communities where teachers cannot afford market rents, meaning development would occur exactly where the shortage is doing the most damage to the workforce and local economies.
The same research concludes that education workforce housing is one of the few scalable housing strategies that does not require cities to acquire new land, because districts already own it. That’s why the reports explicitly describe school-based housing as a way to “make a measurable dent” in California’s housing shortfall—especially when replicated across districts. No single project solves the housing crisis, but if districts across California followed the Keystone model, the evidence shows it would meaningfully expand housing supply and relieve pressure on rents where the need is greatest.
Transit-oriented development
Transit-oriented development
Keystone maximizes the Education Center's central infill value by creating a dense, job-adjacent workforce community at a major transit node, directly aligning with City mobility plans and Vision Zero goals. The project includes public realm co-benefits like well-lit links to the regional bikeway and improved pedestrian networks. The planners have also committed to partnering with the City to finally fix the dangerous Park & Normal intersection.
Generating new tax revenue for local government
Keystone turns an under-used bureaucratic facility into a revenue generator for the City of San Diego. The project includes 4,000 square feet of micro-retail, serving daily needs without necessitating car trips to other local businesses. This "Shop Life" concept activates ground-floor spaces with independent local businesses and cafes, creating an active and porous edge that invites neighbors into the community. Not only do these stores generate sales tax revenue for the City, the large number of new residents will contribute to the vitality of the nearby Hillcrest business district.
In contrast, the Affirmed proposal contains NO retail.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse