A Northern California school district has recently made headlines for an unusual request they put out to parents. They asked families to consider renting out spare rooms to teachers. This was in response to staff reductions and exorbitant housing costs that have made it challenging for teachers to reside close to their places of employment. The Milpitas Unified School District issued the request to families in late August.

This is embarrassing to say the least.

To be fair, we have known for a long time there is a mismatch with the cost of living and teacher pay. However, it’s weird to hear a municipality say it out loud. Normally you get the canned response about “working towards” paying teachers more or an appeal to a higher government entity for more funding. It is rare that you see a school district operate with enough urgency and desperation to try a “creative” solution like this. But according to the school district, 10 teachers left last year because of the cost of living in the Santa Clarita County area. So desperate times call for desperate measures.

The school district has a Google form up on their site soliciting community members for potential rooms. For what it’s worth, they have received responses. However, it should go without saying that this is not a sustainable solution. Teachers are not going to want to live like interns long-term. As a teacher the last thing I want to see when I get home is a student. Additionally, most teachers would like the option of having their own families one day which is something that would be difficult renting rooms in someone else’s house.

The only long-term solution to the problem of a teacher’s inability to live in the area is to pay them more. Of course, you could build more houses and increase the supply. That would bring down demand and the price… but if you are in an area where this is an issue you are probably in an area with people who don’t want more housing AKA NIMBYs. Many teachers desire jobs in rich public-school areas but this situation is proof that most teachers aren’t going to commute hours every day just to work in an affluent school district. Something has got to give and the nature of local politics and zoning dictates that it won’t be the supply of houses. So, teachers have got to make enough to live in that area.

Someone looking at this title would say anyone working in an area should be able to afford to live in that area. While that is a noble goal, other professions are not paid for with public money and property taxes that are explicitly designed to pay the teachers in the school district. So yes, affordable housing is an issue for everyone, but affordable housing for teachers is a unique problem because on paper it should not even exist. How can an area collecting property taxes from million-dollar homes not afford to pay teachers the cost of living?

Unfortunately, that’s a question more areas are having to ask themselves.