In short, teachers face, “a widening gap between income and housing affordability,” according to . 

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development defines “affordable” as “paying no more than 30% of gross income for housing costs, including utilities.” NCTQ had looked at a select sample of 69 large urban districts and found 18 where beginning teacher salaries met the definition for “unaffordable” as of 2019.

By 2024, that number had risen to 39, or about half the sample. In 10 of those districts, the rent for a one-bedroom apartment cost 40% of a beginning teacher’s salary. In Boston, for example, it would eat up nearly 43%. 

Bowser notes that the picture today is even grimmer when looking at a teacher’s prospects for purchasing a home. Using some (ambitious) estimates about how much an educator could save toward a down payment on a mortgage and comparing it with local real estate prices, Bowser finds that teachers would struggle to purchase a home in 54 out of 56 sample districts.

These are extreme numbers. But who or what is to blame? And what can be done? 

One potential solution starts with a simple premise. If teachers can’t find affordable housing, school districts could partner with developers to build apartments and become landlords to their own employees. This has been a particular focus in , where state Superintendent of Public Education Tony Thurmond and a coalition of legislators and developers are encouraging districts to repurpose empty buildings and unused land to address housing needs.

That may seem like a good idea at first blush, but have been plagued by delays and rules that prevent “low-income” housing subsidies from going to people who are not truly low-income. In other words, teachers often to qualify for extra financial assistance.

The idea that districts can solve teacher housing issues is also complicated by the fact that educators are far from the only group of workers who struggle to make ends meet in high-cost urban areas. Indeed, recent studies have found that high housing costs have led to and for people to climb the economic ladder. If police officers, social workers, janitors and cleaners, bus drivers, food service workers and many other types of low- and moderate-income employees are all being priced out of many American cities, there’s only so much a school board can do. In that case, the “teacher” housing problem is largely a generic, community-wide affordability problem that will be solved only by housing units.

But even if individual school boards cannot solve this big, societal trend, education policymakers are not helping. In fact, their choices have made the housing affordability problem worse. How? By not turning rising revenues into higher salaries, they’ve chosen to prioritize a larger education workforce over a better-paid one. In turn, that makes it harder for teachers and other school employees to afford housing in the places where they work.  

As I noted in a recent project for The 74, school spending is keeping up with or even outpacing inflation in many parts of the country, but those investments are not translating into higher compensation for district employees. If those salaries had merely kept up with total education spending, they would be 34% higher. At the national level, that would have worked out to a $22,000 raise for the average school employee. 

In Portland, Oregon, for example, NCTQ’s Bowser that it would take 41% of a beginning teacher’s salary to rent a one-bedroom apartment. But that’s not for lack of investments in the district. As we found in our report, Portland’s revenues rose 54% from 2002 to 2022 in inflation-adjusted, per-pupil terms. (That is, the district revenues increased much faster than inflation.) And yet, the average salary paid to Portland school employees fell by 8%. Portland, like many parts of the country, did not turn budget increases into salary gains for its workers. 

These trends have continued in recent years. While Portland housing prices surged over the last five years, the district lost 10% of its student enrollment. At the same time, it added the equivalent of 445 full-time employees to its (an 8% increase). In other words, instead of leaning into the housing problem and trying to pay its existing workers higher salaries, the Portland school district actually made the city’s housing problems just a bit worse by hiring more, lower-paid workers.
I don’t want to just pick on Portland here. As we showed in our project last month, 90% of districts are making these types of choices. But they effectively mean that school district leaders in some of the biggest, most expensive places to live are making budgetary decisions that add to the housing difficulties in their communities.

This story, by Report for America corps member Carly Berlin and Vermont Public reporter Lola Duffort, was produced through a partnership between VTDigger and Vermont Public.

The motels that serve as emergency shelters in Vermont have been home to hundreds of children. They include 8-year-old Summer, who loves Disney’s Inside Out and potato chips, and a 6-year-old named Sariyah, who always chooses to go down the biggest slide at the playground near her elementary school.

But as restrictions on the motel program come to bear this fall — resulting in a mass  – the landscape of available shelter for families with children is particularly tight. 

There were  living in motels before the limits took effect in mid-September, but only 203 shelter units statewide that accept families with children. And those slots, by and large, are already full.

Some will win the shelter lottery when their voucher expires. That’s the case for Summer and her family, who are moving into a temporary unit managed by Capstone Community Action. Sariyah and her grandmother accepted an offer from a stranger for a place to stay. When those accommodations fell through, they took a charitable donation to help pay for a hotel room.

Other families – including James and Teala Ouimette and their two young daughters,  last month – will have no other choice but to pitch a tent. When the Ouimettes tried to access a family shelter in Burlington before leaving their hotel room, they were told it had a lengthy waitlist.

The number of families experiencing homelessness in Vermont has grown precipitously in recent years. Particularly as motel shelter capacity retracts, providers now have to balance the long-term goals of boosting shelter and housing options for families, while triaging those families’ acute needs.

“We just got a request for a cooler to keep milk cold for toddlers at a campground,” said Paul Dragon, executive director of the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. “This is unprecedented.”

‘We’ve kind of lost control’

Not too long ago, Vermont believed that ending family homelessness outright was within reach. In 2015,  to eliminate child and family homelessness by 2020, which involved giving families with children  and rehabbing run-down housing. And as recently as January 2023,  to solve child homelessness, arguing that doing so would “help break the generational cycle of poverty.”

But as the scale of the problem has grown amid a deepening housing crisis, some feel that goal has slipped out of reach. Not only have the numbers grown, but so have the needs of unhoused families.

“Now I feel like we’ve kind of lost control,” Dragon said.

An annual federally-mandated census in January , but this census is widely considered to be an undercount, and does not include those who are couch surfing. According to preliminary data collected by the state Agency of Education, which does count couch surfing and other types of doubling up, there were 1,927 unhoused students enrolled in Vermont public schools last school year — nearly double the figure from five years prior.

Vermont has capacity to shelter 61 households with children at dedicated family shelters that receive state funding. Those family shelters are located in Bennington, Brattleboro, Burlington, Hartford, and in scattered temporary apartments in Washington County, according to information provided by Lily Sojourner, director of the Department for Children and Families’ Office of Economic Opportunity. 

Another 82 shelter spaces are available for households experiencing domestic violence (with another nine currently in development), which can include children. Another 60 units can serve families but are also open to a broader population. 

In three Vermont counties — Orange, Essex, and Grand Isle — there does not exist a single formal shelter option for families. 

Decades of research has cataloged the  of homelessness on children.  are more likely to have developmental delays, to do poorly in school, and experience higher rates of victimization, bullying, suicidality, substance abuse, and hospitalization. And children who experience homelessness are less likely to have .

Precisely because children are so vulnerable, family shelters are more resource-intensive, space-intensive, and staff-intensive than those serving individuals. And so there are fewer of them.

COTS has long run two family shelters in Burlington. Both are staffed around the clock so families don’t have to leave during the day, said Rebekah Mott, director of development and communications for the organization. The family shelters also have a dedicated family housing navigator, as well as an education liaison and a new mental health specialist fully-funded through private donations. 

Providers for the most part agree that congregate shelters – typically, cots or bunk beds lined up in a large space – aren’t best for families. Family shelters in Vermont are generally “semi-congregate,” meaning families might have their own room, but share a kitchen and common spaces, or fully “non-congregate.”

“I think the prospect of getting one up and running from scratch is probably…seems very difficult and overwhelming,” Mott said.

‘It’s shameful, to be really honest’

With shelters full, the city of Burlington has set aside temporary campground space for unhoused families with children, and, alongside the school district, put out a public callout for camping equipment in the wake of the new motel limits taking effect. 

Victor Prussack, the school district’s engagement director, expressed bewilderment that some students were living outdoors. Citing student privacy rules, he declined to give the precise number.

“It’s shameful, to be really honest,” he said. “I don’t understand how we allow that to happen in this day and age and in the state of Vermont.” 

There’s also a concern amongst local officials that the effort, although perhaps necessary, also endorses the status quo.

“We don’t feel great about reaching out to our community and saying, ‘Hey, could you give sleeping bags? Could you give tents? Could you give cooking fuel?’,” he said. “Because to me, that is supporting what the state is not&�Բ�����;��Ǿ��Բ�.”

Despite their limitations, schools throughout the state are trying to plug in the gaps. They often host food pantries, collect clothes, provide counseling, and, as is federally required, will arrange transportation for their unhoused students, even if seeking shelter forces families to move out of the district.

At the Hilltop Inn in Berlin, a white sedan arrives every school day to bring Summer 45 minutes south to Bradford Elementary. The 8-year-old, who has autism and is now learning to speak in full sentences, is well supported at school, her mother, Kimberlin Gowell said. And the elementary, which she has attended for the last three years, has also become a refuge from life in the motel, which sometimes overwhelms Summer.

“She loves school,” Gowell said.

But even as schools attempt to provide some measure of material support and constancy for children experiencing homelessness, local school officials say there’s only so much within their power.

“We have families reaching out to the school, seeing if there’s anything we can do to help support them. And the reality is that what we can do in schools is limited,” said Bianca McKeen, the assistant superintendent for the Rutland City school district, where there were 104 unhoused children enrolled last year — 5% of all students.

‘Anywhere I can keep her safe’

Asked how much additional family shelter she thinks the state needs, Sojourner, of the Department for Children and Families, emphasized the need for Vermont to create more housing.

“We can’t lose sight of that North Star,” she said. “I think if someone said, you know, ‘Would you rather build housing or more shelter capacity?’ I would want more housing.” 

Dragon agrees that Vermont needs to bolster its housing stock to address homelessness. CVOEO administers a rapid-rehousing program for unhoused families, offering vouchers for rental assistance. But 60 families have vouchers in hand – including some who are being exited from the motel program – and can’t find anywhere to use them, Dragon said.

“I think in lieu of adequate housing for families, we have to provide more shelters, especially if we’re not going to continue with the hotel program,” Dragon said. “Nobody likes to see more shelters, but that’s the place that we’re in.” 

As motel vouchers expire for hundreds of Vermonters over the next few weeks, , including from the very lawmakers who wrote the new limits into law. But for now, families will have to figure out how to survive until the program’s rules loosen up again in December.

Sariyah and her grandmother, Terri Ann Garrett, briefly stayed with a stranger who reached out to them after  a few weeks ago. They’ve since returned to the Barre motel where they’d previously had a state voucher; a charitable donation has covered a room for them and Garrett’s husband. But Garrett doesn’t know how long that help will last. She is trying to get them into an apartment of their own.

Sometimes, she and Sariyah talk about imagining their dream home. 

“Hers is somewhere with a pool that is all hers, with a Lamborghini,” Garrett said, laughing, as she watched Sariyah run around the playground on a recent afternoon. Then she grew serious.

“My idea of a perfect home is anywhere I can keep her safe,” she said.

Alaska school districts risk losing access to up to several hundred thousand dollars in federal funding aimed at homeless students if they aren’t able to commit to spending it by the end of September.

The was included in a federal law providing pandemic relief, and national advocates have been pushing for Congress to extend the deadline, as it became clear that money could go unspent.

The exact amount Alaska districts could lose isn’t clear. Alaska districts have spent nearly 70% of their $2.3 million boost, leaving more than $700,000 unspent, according to the . The Department of Education and Early Childhood did not respond to a request for the most up-to-date figure or whether districts are on-track to spend down the balances.

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U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, worked on an amendment to the 2021 American Rescue Plan that secured $800 million nationally for students experiencing homelessness nationwide. Alaska districts received about eight times their usual annual funding.

The National Conference of State Legislatures called on Congress to extend the timeline to spend the money, under the terms of a longstanding federal law, known as the , aimed at ensuring homeless children’s access to schooling.

Barbara Duffield, the executive director of the national advocacy group SchoolHouse Connection, said the NCSL’s resolution is significant, even if it is likely too late for an extension from Congress.

“The window for that extension, sadly, has gone,” Duffield said. “Not for a valiant and a smart and a popular fight, but because of all these other dysfunctions in Congress.”

She said the resolution did more than ask for an extension; it showed the importance of the funding across states and territories.

“It puts a body of state legislators on record as saying we should have had more time. And moving forward, there needs to be more of a priority in investing in this population,” Duffield said.

The most recent state data shows that , and that the number has risen over the last several years. Most of those students live with another family, but about a fifth live in shelters and 10% are unsheltered.

Increased funding and programs typically leads districts to identify more students who are homeless, according to SchoolHouse Connection’s research. That data shows that the actual number of students that are homeless is typically 50-100% more than the official school count.

School districts in Anchorage and Kenai used the money to bring on additional staff to work with unhoused students. The Child in Transition Program in the Anchorage School District used its additional funding to hire two full-time staff for remote sites and five part-time staff in high schools that are there to support students on campus and connect them to services. David Mayo-Kiely runs the program, which has operated since the 1990s and has 10 staff members.

“They check in on attendance, they check in on grades. They’re just sort of there to be another ally for these students, someone they can go to,” he said.

Those roles are important because of how homelessness can negatively affect students at school. Students who are homeless are chronically absent at roughly the rate of their housed peers, which is known to be detrimental to academic performance. They are also nearly 30% less likely to graduate than their housed peers,.

ASD’s program also spent money on internet hot spots for students, professional development for the staff, and supplies. Mayo-Kiely said the district will leave only a very small amount of money unspent.

“The funding has been wonderful for us,” he said. “We were interested in having an extended funding, but we had been planning the entire time that this funding would be expiring by the end of this calendar year.”

And he said the funding will have a lasting effect, even though it expires at the end of the year: The investment in staff demonstrated how important those on-campus “allies” were for students, so now the district is using money from other grant programs to continue funding them.

The that urged Congress to extend the deadline was a priority of Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage and chair of the Senate Education Committee, after the Alaska Legislature failed to pass a similar resolution drafted by her office. Tobin is a member of the NCSL Education Standing Committee.

“Our hope with this resolution is to say, ‘Could we continue to use McKinley-Vento funds in this manner — hiring additional support personnel to provide wraparound services for the entire family?’ and also for us to think about how we might be able to reserve some of the remaining funds to continue serving students into the FY25-26 school year,” she said.

The funding that came with the pandemic boost also has more flexible spending rules that mean districts can spend it on student transportation to the same school, even if the student’s address changes — such as if they move in with a friend’s family or begin living in a shelter. Districts can waive certain enrollment requirements temporarily to make sure the student starts on time, and even help with school supplies.

“We have a significant increase in youth experiencing homelessness that has persisted, and we know that it’s not going to be an easy fix,” Tobin said. “Particularly with the lack of affordable housing in the Anchorage bowl, with some of the instability and low wages in some of those entry and mid-level positions. So we’re really anticipating that this population is going to continue to need additional resources and attention.”

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alaska Beacon maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Andrew Kitchenman for questions: info@alaskabeacon.com. Follow Alaska Beacon on and .

In a flurry of recent legislation and initiatives, California officials are pushing school districts to convert their surplus property into housing for teachers, school staff and even students and families. Some districts have already started; now the state wants every district to become a landlord.

“I believe that California has enough resources and ingenuity to solve (the housing shortage), and the data shows that California’s schools have the land to make this happen,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said at a press conference in July. “As school leaders, we can get this done for our communities and restore the California Dream.”

But some superintendents and education analysts are skeptical, saying the idea won’t work everywhere and school districts might be better off focusing on education, not real estate development.

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“I’m grateful someone’s paying attention to this, but I feel like educators are being asked to solve so many problems,” said Mendocino County Superintendent Nicole Glentzer. “Student performance, attendance, behavior … and now the housing crisis? It’s too much.”

Last month, Thurmond for districts that pass bonds to build staff housing, and the Department of Education is for district officials to learn the ins-and-outs of real estate development.

His move comes on the heels of a from UC Berkeley and UCLA that found school districts in California own 75,000 acres of developable land, enough to build 2.3 million housing units — which could wipe out the state’s housing shortage.

It also follows the , which allows school districts to pursue funding sources for housing projects, including state and federal tax credits. Other pieces of legislation, including that went into effect in January, further streamlined the development and funding process. Other laws allow teachers to live in affordable housing even though their income might exceed the qualifying limits.

If , a $10 billion school facilities bond, passes this fall, schools could use that money to not only repair classrooms and other structures, but build teacher housing.

‘It’s changed my life’

A handful of districts have already embarked on projects.

Los Angeles Unified owns several buildings, including a that opened in April and a reserved for low-income families. San Francisco Unified plans to open a this fall. Santa Clara Unified has owned a 70-unit complex for more than two decades.

In San Mateo County, the Office of Education is working with a to buy an existing apartment building for local teachers. In Marin, the Office of Education joined with the county and state to build teacher housing on state-owned land near San Quentin Prison.

In San Diego, preschool teacher Carolina Sanchez Garcia said she cried when she learned she won a spot at the 264-unit Scripps Ranch apartment complex, built through a partnership between San Diego Unified and an affordable housing developer.

Due to the high cost of housing in San Diego, she had been commuting from Tijuana, Mexico for more than a decade. To get to work on time, she’d get up at 2 a.m., move her five kids into the car where they’d go back to sleep, and make the trek across the border to work. Her kids would brush their teeth and get ready for school at a Starbucks.

Now, her commute is only 15 minutes.

“It’s changed my life,” Garcia said. “My kids are sleeping more. I’m sleeping more. It’s made me a better mother and a better teacher. Now, I start my day feeling positive and energized.”

Garcia pays $1,300 a month for a three-bedroom apartment, roughly half of market rate. The rent is similar to what she paid in Tijuana, but now she has time to cook dinner for her family, prepare for class and help her children with homework. Her kids can participate in after-school activities and spend time with friends. Her gas bill is also lower.

“I am so grateful,” Garcia said. “I think all districts should do this. Teachers need help.”

Kyle Weinberg, a special education teacher who’s head of the San Diego Unified teachers union, said the district’s housing endeavors have been successful because teachers share in the planning process, ensuring that the units’ location, size and rents meet teachers’ needs. The district paid for the Scripps Ranch development through an agreement with a private developer, and plans to pay for the next development with money from , a $3.2 billion school facilities bond that passed in 2022.

Subsidized housing is necessary, Weinberg said, because of the high cost of living in San Diego. To live in a 1-bedroom apartment in San Diego, starting teachers, who earn about $60,000, would have to pay roughly 63% of their take-home pay on rent. Teachers have long commutes and suffer from burnout, he said.

The union’s goal is to have 700 units available, serving at least 10% of the teaching staff.

“We have a staffing crisis in our district,” Weinberg said. “We need to explore all possible solutions. Along with salaries and benefits, expanding workforce housing is one of those options.”

Almost zero teacher turnover

The model state officials often point to is in Daly City. The Jefferson Union High School District opened the 122-unit apartment complex in 2022, and it now houses a quarter of the district staff. A 1-bedroom apartment rents for $1,450 a month, about half the market rate.

The district paid for the $75 million project by passing a $33 million bond specifically for teacher housing, and borrowed the rest. The rents generated by the project cover the bond payments. The district hired a property management company to handle maintenance and other issues.

Daly City is sandwiched between Silicon Valley and San Francisco, which have some of the  . Teachers commute from the East Bay and beyond, and the district grappled with a persistent 25% staff turnover rate annually, said district spokesperson Denise Shreve.

Since 705 Serramonte opened, the district has had near zero turnover.

“Students now start off the school year with a teacher in their classroom, instead of a long-term substitute,” Shreve said. “You have to look at the long-term benefits. We now have teacher retention and students are better off because of it.”

Lisa Raskin, a social science teacher and instructional coach for the district, said she’s struggled with housing over her 20-year career but never considered leaving. A San Francisco native, she’s committed to staying in the area — which has meant that she’s always had roommates.

When she moved into 705 Serramonte, it was her first time living in her own apartment.

“I can be with community if I want, or I can be alone. I love that,” Raskin said, noting that her neighbors and colleagues often host barbecues, game nights and other gatherings. “We call it ‘adult dorms.’ I feel safe here.”

Superintendents already overworked

But not every district can pass a bond for teacher housing. Many to repair school campuses. And some superintendents say they’re already so overworked that undertaking a complicated project like real estate development is a near impossibility. California had a superintendent turnover rate of more than 18% last year, according to , in part due to workload.

Glentzer, the Mendocino County superintendent, said housing development would be a challenge for smaller, rural and lower-income districts. Those districts face teacher and housing shortages like their wealthier, urban counterparts, but lack the ability to raise the money and hire the staff to oversee projects.

Besides, the housing shortage affects lots of people in the community — not just teachers. Mendocino County has been scarred by numerous wildfires over the past few years, plus a boom in vacation rentals that have decimated the local housing market, leaving some people to live in trailers or even their cars.

A better solution, she said, would be for housing to be left to regional authorities and for the state to fund school districts sufficiently to pay their teachers more.

Still, she understands the need. She herself lived in a district-owned home when she was superintendent of Potter Valley Community Unified School district northeast of Ukiah. The  two-bedroom bungalow was next to the football field, and she enjoyed the reduced rent and proximity to work.

“There’s no question we need housing,” Glentzer said. “But when you’re the superintendent and the principal and head of maintenance and you’re teaching Spanish, how are you supposed to find the bandwidth for this? I have a degree in education. I never took a real estate course.”

Marguerite Roza, director of the policy research center Georgetown Edunomics Lab, agreed. School districts might be better off paying teachers more or targeting raises for teachers who are in high demand, such as those who work in special education, math or science.

She also noted that except in those three fields, the teacher shortage is ebbing. With federal Covid relief money expiring and student enrollment declining, many districts may be laying off teachers — not hiring, she said. , a teacher hiring board, this month showed nearly 2,000 openings for special education teachers in California, for example, but fewer than 100 for third grade teachers.

“By building housing, districts might be addressing a crisis that no longer exists.” Roza said. “School districts’ expertise and focus is to provide education. To assume school districts could take on the responsibility of being landlords efficiently is concerning.”

Growing interest in teacher housing

To help school districts learn the basics of real estate development, the California School Boards Association has been hosting workshops and providing resources for the past two years. So far, 152 of the state’s 1,000 school districts have signed up to study the idea, and the numbers have been growing, said spokesperson Troy Flint.

He acknowledged that smaller districts may not have the staff to get projects off the ground, but some are working on projects together or collaborating with their local county offices of education, he said.

“Districts see the immense value workforce housing can offer their staff, students, and communities,” Flint said. “There is widespread interest in education workforce housing as an elegant way to address the housing affordability crisis. Workforce housing also brings quality-of-life, community, and environmental benefits — and may even help address declining enrollment as district staff can afford to live with their families in the communities they serve.”

This was originally published on .

The district’s new chief thought spring was too late for such a drastic move: Parents had already made plans for the fall term.

“I thought, ‘Why are you closing a school right now? ’ ” Dorland said. “ We’re preparing for next year.”

Enrollment at , a school in Arvada, outside Denver, hovered around 100 students — representing a 45% drop since 2017. Some grade levels had dwindled to a single classroom and the district was losing money on basic services like busing and lunch. Most extracurricular programs had disappeared.

But closing schools was “political suicide,” Dorland thought.

Then she started visiting classrooms herself. “We had families deciding to leave these small schools even though they loved them,” she said. 

Since her arrival, Jeffco has shuttered 16 schools. Four more are slated to close at the end of the school year.

School communities forced to say goodbye to legacy institutions go through something akin to the stages of grief. Residents with emotional ties to schools their parents and grandparents attended frequently push back. But Dorland has earned respect for a straightforward approach to a process leaders will confront in the coming years. While implementing a daunting closure plan, she didn’t ignore the human cost, assigning staff members to ease both principals and families through the transition.

“A lot of people don’t have that muscle — to just look someone in the eye and say, ‘I know this is devastating, but I’m looking at the district as a whole,’ ” said Trace Faust, senior project director at the Keystone Policy Center, a Colorado nonprofit that held community meetings to discuss the closures. “That’s a bold thing to do, and that’s what districts need right now.”

In Colorado, as in much of the nation, experts chalk up enrollment declines to a drop in birth rates and housing prices that remain out of reach for most young families. The “gateway to the Rockies” is such a desirable place to live that older after their children grow up, leaving fewer houses on the market. 

A need to grieve

At Fitzmorris Elementary, one first grade class had just five students. Small schools lacked their own music and physical education teachers. And afterschool providers canceled programs because only a handful of students signed up.

After a second last-minute vote to shut down Fitzmorris in the spring of 2022, board members decided they could no longer address closures piecemeal. The district recommended shutting down 16 schools and held a series of community meetings before casting a final, unanimous vote in November. The timing gave families the rest of the school year to absorb what the changes would mean for their children.

But some of those gatherings didn’t get off to a great start. With talk of “re-envisioning” schools and the benefits of consolidation, the staff from Keystone was several steps ahead of the community — even “tone deaf” to parents’ concerns, Dorland said. 

Faust agreed those first meetings “honestly missed the mark. The community needed to grieve and needed to be mad.”

That’s when principals began to take a larger role in the conversations. School leaders could “get the room back together if things were going sideways,” Faust said. Some stationed themselves in their school libraries for days to talk to parents one on one.

What Dorland didn’t want, however, was parents coming to the forums hoping to get leaders to reconsider. 

“I don’t believe in pretending like communities have a choice when they don’t,” she said.

‘Don’t want a mass exodus’

That left some parents feeling shut out. Families from Kullerstrand Elementary, a Title I school in the Jeffco city of Wheat Ridge, wrote letters and protested at public hearings.

“Their minds were already made up, which was really sad,” said Kim St. Martin, Kullerstand’s former PTA president. 

After the board’s latest vote in October to this spring, some parents threatened to leave the district. 

“That’s a tricky situation, because we don’t want a mass exodus,” said LaVerne Manzanares, a former reading specialist who now helps families with children attending new schools.

Michael Zweifel, a former principal whose school, New Classical Academy at Vivian, was one of those closed, also shifted to a new role. She began supporting administrators at “receiving” schools that suddenly had to accommodate more cars in their parking lots and students in the lunch line. They’ve opened up spots on school leadership committees for teachers from closing schools, and held ice cream socials, movie nights and picnics for families to meet.

The closures were especially jarring for families in Wheat Ridge, a tight-knit community between Denver and the Rockies. The district closed three of the small city’s elementary schools, sparking anxiety about the future of its local high school. 

Alanna Ritchie, whose first grader attended Wilmore-Davis Elementary, was among who wanted Wheat Ridge city council members to pressure district leaders to change their minds. During a September 2022 council meeting, she warned the mergers could lead to the opposite problem — overcrowding — and that some of the receiving schools couldn’t accommodate additional traffic.

The convenience of walking to school is a “right” that was being “ripped away from our own children,” she said. “Small, connected neighborhood schools — it’s what defines us as a true community.”

St. Martin, the former Kullerstrand PTA president, still gets choked up over losing her neighborhood school. It was important to her, she said, that her children attended a more racially diverse school. Now they attend predominantly white Prospect Valley Elementary.

“Selfishly, I loved my relationships,” she added. “You could talk to any teacher.” 

‘Day and night contrast’

While some parents wish they could have had more say over which schools closed, experts say Dorland’s plan was better than leaving families in limbo. Brian Eschbacher, an enrollment consultant, said the uncompromising way she managed the closures is a “night and day contrast” to how Denver Public Schools, her previous employer, handled a similar issue.

Denver leaders a definitive list of schools to be closed last school year. They from the community, but ultimately abandoned a closure plan in the face of emotional appeals from parents.

Denver’s union-backed school board placed a lot of the blame for enrollment loss on . But Eschbacher, who previously led planning and enrollment services for the district, said the city has contributed to enrollment decline by continuing to approve construction of luxury that don’t attract families with young children. 

“I always tell boards, ‘This is outside of your control. This is about births and housing, and you don’t control either,’ ” he said.

Meanwhile, the challenges that defined Dorland’s early tenure aren’t over. Her plan to close two K-8 schools — Arvada and Coal Creek — has strong opponents, including Danielle Varda, the only person on the five-member board to vote against closure. She thinks the decision to shut down the two schools was rushed. Closing Arvada K-8 will cause further disruption for students who have been through previous mergers, she told the board. The district would also have to expand programs for English learners and immigrants at other schools when Arvada K-8 already offers those services.

“This plan perpetuates systemic oppression that these families have faced much of their lives,” she said.

Dorland acknowledges that parents in Wheat Ridge, where families have lived for generations, are “probably still angry.” She wishes she had done more to help city and county officials understand why the district couldn’t put off closing schools any longer. But once the decision was made, the consolidation process moved quickly.

“We had run out of runway,” she said, “and we had to take off.”

The Bentonville School District is considering building affordable housing for teachers who are struggling to secure homes amid skyrocketing home prices in Northwest Arkansas.

Superintendent Debbie Jones said district officials first realized the severity of the problem in 2021 when teachers who signed contracts resigned before the start of the academic year because they couldn’t afford housing in the area.

The Rogers School District, another large district in Benton County, has also had employees rescind job offers after realizing they couldn’t afford moving to the area, Communications Multimedia Specialist Jason Ivester said.

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“It is an ongoing concern that we are constantly looking at,” Ivester said.

The affordable housing issue complicates teacher recruitment, which is already challenging because the pipeline is shrinking as fewer people go into education, and a solution is going to take a community effort, Jones said.

To that end, the Bentonville School District has partnered with the Excellerate Foundation, a grant-making organization that has previously worked on housing issues in the region. President and CEO Jeff Webster approached Jones with a possible solution to the district’s affordable housing problem and presented his proposal at the Bentonville School Board’s .

The proposed project would involve construction of a community center, 50 to 60 multi-family rental units and 20 single-family rental homes on land adjacent to Bentonville High School. Developers would also build 20 single-family homes that could be sold for $180,000 to $200,000.

The average sale price of a home in Bentonville was about $475,000 last year, according to a . In July, the median sale price of home in the city was $507,500, according to .

Webster told the board there will be no cost to the district, which can donate the nine acres, six of which are usable because of a floodplain. Webster estimated the project will cost $20 million to $25 million and said the development would be built by Strategic Realty, whose founder and CEO is Sen. Jim Petty, a Republican from Van Buren.

Excellerate will invest millions into the project and act as “the quarterback” by bringing different funding sources to the table, Webster told the Advocate.

“It’s everybody doing their part, and we’re just trying to step up and play our role,” he said.

Jones said she didn’t understand the depth of the affordable housing issue until she received an email from a teacher earlier this year.

“We gave a 6.5% salary increase this year, and she said, ‘I’m a single parent and I can finally breathe…but the housing is a whole different challenge,’ and we know it is,” Jones said.

During the 2022-2023 school year, Bentonville had the third highest starting salary for teachers in the state at $48,755. The LEARNS Act of 2023 raises Arkansas’ minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000.

����ԳٴDzԱ���������’s for a new teacher with a bachelor’s degree and no experience is $51,924 for the 2023-2024 school year.

Webster said he expects the project to be completed within two years, but the district is awaiting a legal opinion from Arkansas’ Attorney General before moving forward. Rep. Mindy McAlindon, R-Bentonville, has submitted questions to the AG’s office to ensure the novel project is legal.

If approved, Webster said the project could become a model for others. No districts have pursued such a project in Arkansas, but organizations in other states have.

For example, a California school district south of San Francisco opened 122 apartments for teachers and staff last year, while the American Federation of Teachers opened a building with apartments and shops for teachers in West Virginia, according to .

Arkansas School Boards Association Policy Services Director Lucas Harder said the housing issue that affects teacher recruitment in the Natural State more often deals with a lack of housing in remote areas.

“It’s one of those things that always comes up every so often, especially in the Delta or some of the more rural areas, where it can be hard to get someone to come and move out there, either because there isn’t housing or there aren’t other things available,” Harder said.

Sen. Linda Chesterfield, a former educator and Democrat from Little Rock, tried to address this issue in 2003 when she was a member of the Arkansas House and lead sponsor of . The law created the Arkansas Teacher Housing Development Foundation to develop affordable housing and provide housing incentives to attract high-performing teachers to high-priority school districts.

The law was repealed in 2016.

A growing problem

If the Bentonville School District moves forward with its affordable housing project, the development will be built just south of Walmart’s Home Office, which is under construction on 350 acres. The world’s largest retailer has spurred a lot of economic development in Northwest Arkansas, which has come with rising home prices in recent years.

The average price of a home in Benton County in the second half of 2022 reached $401,875, nearly 76% higher than five years ago, according to released in March. The average price was $376,018 in Washington County, 71% higher than five years ago.

A variety of organizations and municipalities have taken steps to study and develop plans to address the region’s affordable housing crisis. In March 2021, the Northwest Arkansas Council launched a with the goal of providing housing solutions for the region’s critical workforce.

The center rebranded as Groundwork in July when its executive director announced a in downtown Springdale that will include 30 units permanently reserved for households earning below the region’s area median income.

In late 2021, the Bentonville City Council adopted a resolution to establish a group to study workforce and affordable housing. Webster served as chairman of the Bentonville Housing Affordability Workgroup, which met for a year and released a in January. The group’s work included a recommendation for developer incentives and process improvements called Project ARROW.

In early August, the Excellerate Foundation , a wholly-owned subsidiary, to accelerate the creation of affordable housing in the region.

“The affordable housing crisis has been with us for years, but it continues to intensify in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, historic inflation and a population growth rate that shows no signs of slowing down,” Webster said in a statement. “Excellerate Housing will help those who have been hit the hardest by the lack of affordable housing, especially the region’s ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population.”

The 25-year-old foundation has worked in the housing space for about six years. Among other things, Excellerate led the creation of the NWA Regional Fund through which local banks invested more than $40 million in equity to support five new affordable housing developments. The fund supported 345 rental units for lower-income families that will run, on average, 49% below current market rate rent.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sonny Albarado for questions: info@arkansasadvocate.com. Follow Arkansas Advocate on and .

Georgia is one of them, something Valencia Stovall, a former state legislator, tried to change in 2020. 

She sponsored a bill that would have allowed a parent to use an address outside their attendance zone as long as the person living there gave permission. The legislation also would have exempted such parents from fraud or forgery charges.

“No parent wants to drive an hour and a half in traffic to get their child in another school,” said Stovall, a Democrat who supports school choice. “They are thinking about the future of their children, and they know education is the key.”

The bill didn’t pass, and to date, only Connecticut has decriminalized what the report — published Tuesday by nonprofits Available to All and Bellwether — calls “address sharing.” 

In a post-pandemic era where more parents are shopping around for schools that better suit their children’s needs, the authors hope other states follow Connecticut’s lead. According to co-author Tim DeRoche, who has previously written about exclusionary , the issue falls under the radar because it’s more common for districts to “quietly kick the kids out of schools, using the threat of prosecution.”  

When districts do involve law enforcement, criminal charges and stiff fines often land on the backs of Black, Hispanic and low-income families, he said. The report points to a in Philadelphia where across 20 districts, families questioned about their residency or disenrolled from schools were disproportionately nonwhite.

“The enforcement is highly selective,” he said. If a school isn’t overcrowded, officials might not report a good student who fits in and doesn’t get in trouble, DeRoche said. “There is a lot of winking and nodding that goes along with this.”

The authors urge states to repeal laws that target address sharing and refrain from using general statutes, like those against theft or perjury, to charge parents who lie about their residence. They also support open enrollment laws that allow families to choose a school in any district, regardless of where they live.

“When Good Parents Go to Jail” follows a 2021 Bellwether report that shows how district boundaries separate families by race and class, with low-income and minority parents often unable to attend a better school in a nearby district even when the district is within walking distance of their home.

Data for sale

As long as attendance is tied to a student’s residence, DeRoche said, districts will be on the lookout for families trying to skirt the law.

“In some ways, districts have to enforce it because these coveted public schools are largely full,” he said.

Those highly desirable schools and districts use a range of investigative tactics to identify offenders, the report shows. 

In released with the report, private investigators say they sometimes use video with night vision software to capture students’ faces on dark winter mornings. Districts also use tip lines and offer rewards to encourage those with knowledge of address sharing to make a report.

, a business that works with over 150 districts in multiple states, purchases U.S. Postal Service records and other databases to track down where students actually sleep at night, said Mike Auletta, a New Jersey-based private investigator who runs the company.

“It’s very difficult these days for a person in the wild to completely conceal where they live,” he said. “You’d be surprised how much of your data is for sale.”

With two young children and a wife who teaches special education at a public school, Auletta said he understands both sides of the issue. But districts are trying to protect their bottom line. Address sharing “strains budgets,” he said. “Now we don’t have enough teachers. Now we have 40 kids in a classroom.”

During the pandemic, which upended students’ living arrangements and caused educators to worry that some had stopped attending school anywhere, districts lightened up on enforcement. But now, more are conducting residency audits because “they’re done putting out fires,” he said.

‘Safe and educated’

Some officials just want to grasp the extent of the problem, while others, especially those with top-ranked sports teams or highly regarded special education programs, enforce the rules more aggressively.

Residency fraud can impact more than just the student in question. A had to forfeit football titles for the 2013 and 2014 seasons because a player’s family provided false residency documents.

In one of the most well-known examples of “boundary hopping,” Akron, Ohio, mother was convicted of two felonies for falsifying records in 2011 after she used her father’s address to enroll her two daughters in the suburban Copley-Fairlawn district.

She spent nine days in jail, but former Gov. John Kasich later to misdemeanors.

“If I had had my way, I would have never gotten into trouble,” said Williams-Bolar, now a parent liaison for Available to All. “It’s very scary for an average parent that just wants their child safe and educated.”

was split. Supporters argued she and her children were victims of an inequitable system, while critics said her punishment was justified. Similar debates over the ethics of address sharing show up on community and sites . 

 A Philadelphia man recently defended his actions in a commentary about school choice. “What the hell — the statute of limitations must be up: I lied, so my son could go to top-rated McCall Elementary School in Society Hill,” . “And I make no apologies for it. We didn’t have financial capital at the time, but we had social capital.” 

Parents confronted with such decisions sometimes contact Williams-Bolar to share their stories, but she understands why most are reluctant to speak publicly. 

“Many parents are worried that they will be the next Kelley Williams-Bolar,” she said. “No one wants a mug shot.”

A push for open enrollment

Some states use civil penalties, such as fines or community service, to discourage address sharing. But back tuition for an out-of-district student can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the report. The District of Columbia attorney general, for example, multiple parents who live outside the city for lying about their residency. One family owed over $700,000.

In addition to decriminalizing address sharing, Available to All wants states to expand open enrollment policies that allow students to attend school outside their district or zone, like and did this year. 

Most states have some provision related to open enrollment on the books, but barriers like tuition still keep families from taking advantage of the opportunity, DeRoche said. have laws that make the process easier, like offering transportation, according to the libertarian Reason Foundation.

The debate over open enrollment played out in Missouri this year, with education leaders, especially in rural areas, that would allow districts to opt in. They argued their schools would lose enrollment and the funding that goes with it. And they said it’s difficult to compete for students when they can’t raise as much in property taxes as wealthier districts. The in the Senate, but is likely to return next year.

The idea can be just as controversial in dense urban areas where well-off families pay steep home prices to buy into neighborhoods with the most sought-after schools, DeRoche said. 

“These are families with [Black Lives Matter] , but they go apoplectic if you suggest that maybe this school shouldn’t be closed to families outside the zone,” he said. “[That] leads to the distorted home prices, which exacerbates the problem that only wealthy folks can attend the best public schools.”

Disclosure: Stand Together provides funding to Available to All, Bellwether and The 74. Andy Rotherham co-founded Bellwether and sits on The 74’s board of directors.

From nine stories high, she can gaze down at a sun-smothered, urban Arizona sprawl featuring a school she began serving in 1981 – the top of an auditorium here, her last faculty office there.

The former political science professor is so fond of Arizona State University that she retired on campus.

“One of my former professors said, ‘Stay on campus as long as you possibly can. … Because those students will keep you young,’” she recalls. “I realized the wisdom in what he said.”

Dr. Jones lives in a high-end, intergenerational senior living residence that opened on the Tempe campus last year. With perks like access to classes and campus IDs, Mirabella at ASU is billed as an immersive alternative to traditional lifelong learning. Retirees here are convinced they have more to give, rejecting a mindset of decline for one of usefulness and growth.

Take Karen Busch, for example. She’s embracing life at Mirabella after tough pandemic months and the death of her husband.

“I feel now like I have a much better purpose again to life,” says the senior with spiked, rose-colored hair. 

Christine Hudman Pardy had achieved the artist’s dream: a passion-filled career and financial stability. But when the pandemic hit and she lost it all, she turned inward to face her external circumstances.

But seniors aren’t the only ones benefiting.

Intergenerational living: A two-way street

Pencie Culiver and Deven Meyers both wear thick watches on their left wrists. At Mirabella’s street-level bistro one October afternoon, they joke around as if pals forever – no matter their ages are decades apart.

Mrs. Culiver, a Mirabella resident, shared burgers with her future husband at ASU football games in the ’60s. Now back living on campus, she and Ms. Meyers, an ASU student, sometimes do double dates.  

“She energizes me. She gives me hope for the future,” says Mrs. Culiver of her new friend. 

“Honestly, it’s just fun to hear her stories,” says the business health care major.

They were paired through an intergenerational “pen pal program,” though they prefer meetups over missives. As director of lifelong university engagement, Lindsey Beagley is tasked with promoting such cross-campus exchanges.

“I do think part of my job is to challenge assumptions on both sides, right? About the different generations,” she says.

Mirabella’s sleek 20-story tower opened its doors last December. Surrounded by traffic and eateries, it sits on the urban edge of the Tempe campus, which hosts roughly 55,000 students. U.S. News and World Report  for innovation.

“We believe strongly at ASU in the idea that we should all be lifelong learners,” says Morgan Olsen, executive vice president, treasurer, and chief financial officer of the school.

Mirabella’s couple-hundred residents, ages 62 and older, are largely white and presumably well-off. (Entrance fees range from $382,400 to over a million dollars, on top of monthly service fees up to $7,800.) Some residents have moved there from across the country, while several have ties to the university as alumni or former employees, like Dr. Jones, who mentions enjoying an undergrad course on world religions and recreational art classes at Mirabella.

“They say to get outside your comfort zone,” she says at home, enthroned on a yellow leather recliner. “No greater discomfort than taking a watercolor class.”

By staying on campus, Dr. Jones also gets to witness her professional legacy unfurl. As the first tenured woman in the political science department as well as the first to serve as its chair, she recruited several women to ASU during her career – a point of pride for the retiree.

“It’s not hard to recruit good women,” she says. “It’s hard to create the environment that will help them succeed,” adding that she maintains casual meetups with some of the women still there. 

Down the hall lives Dr. Busch, with the short, soft-pink hair, a retired director of faculty development who moved from Michigan. This spring she launched a weekly conversation group in Spanish that she hopes more students will join.

Another Mirabella resident, Richard Ruff, who, with his wife, Janet Spirer, divides his time between here and San Diego, also connects with students on academic topics. A retired organizational psychologist, he mentored students this past semester through the Center for Entrepreneurship. Along with helping him feel purposeful, the gig afforded him welcome insight into kids these days.

“They’re scary smart,” says a gray-sweatered Dr. Ruff.

Mirabella at ASU, a 20-story retirement community, features intergenerational socializing and lifelong learning opportunities. Mirabella’s Executive Director Tom Dorough believes interactions across generations can help chip away at ageism.

A growth path for campuses?

Older adults seek three things, says Andrew Carle, a senior living and aging industry consultant: “They’re looking for active, they’re looking for intellectually stimulating, and they’re looking for intergenerational retirement environments. And basically, I just described a college campus.”

One  counts around 100 higher ed-affiliated retirement sites. But Mr. Carle, who coined the term “university-based retirement communities” (UBRCs), says only three or four dozen projects meet most of his criteria.

The ASU model is unusual for its on-campus location and close affiliation with the school, he adds. Boston-area Lasell Village is another example, where residents on Lasell University’s campus  to at least 450 hours of enrichment a year.

Given declining enrollments – and potentially more empty buildings if virtual learning expands – UBRCs can increase campus-based revenue, Mr. Carle argues.

“I said to one university president … ‘You can hopefully start giving birth to baby geniuses who start college at age 5, or you can recycle your old customers.’”

ASU leases the nearly 2-acre site to a joint venture managed by Pacific Retirement Services. The 99-year land lease cost around $7 million up front, plus the joint venture pays a semiannual fee.

As a life plan community, Mirabella offers multiple levels of care. Beyond the 238 independent living residences, a few dozen units are dedicated to assisted living, skilled nursing, and memory care, though the latter hasn’t opened yet due to industry-wide staffing shortages.

Other growing pains stem from its location. In October, Mirabella filed a lawsuit against Shady Park, a live music venue across the street, asking Maricopa County Superior Court for an injunction to keep it from emitting noise above local limits. 

Mirabella alleges the venue’s noise and vibrations have caused “substantial personal harm” to residents, though the city says the venue, which predates Mirabella, hasn’t been cited for noise violations. A judge denied Mirabella’s request for a temporary restraining order last month.

“Discovery is ongoing but we are confident that when the facts are developed they will confirm that the sound created by music at Shady Park is reasonable and appropriate,” emailed Shady Park spokesman David Leibowitz.

Despite some friction, having both retirees and college-age concertgoers wanting to call Tempe home is “a great problem to have,” says Deputy City Manager Rosa Inchausti.

Senior advocates agree that the benefits of proximity outweigh the hiccups.

Counteracting ageism

Mirabella’s Executive Director Tom Dorough believes interactions across generations can help chip away at ageism.

“For whatever reason, in Western culture, we kind of push older adults to the side like they’re no longer useful,” he says. “The more intergenerational opportunities that we have where we’re connecting younger adults to older adults, I think the better the understanding is.”

To encourage that interaction, Mirabella pays room and board for four student musicians-in-residence. In exchange, they dedicate at least two hours a week to performance or other programming, like lessons. 

At a late-summer Mirabella happy hour, musician-in-residence Michelle Kim was playing the piano when she says a man encouraged her to choose a favorite tune of her own. A couple months later, she still recalls the group’s applause as her fingers sank into the opening keys of “Autumn Leaves.”

“They’re so compassionate,” says Ms. Kim, who’s pursuing a doctorate of musical arts. After months limited by COVID-19, “it’s so nice to have a regular audience – and your fans.”

“I’m just so grateful to work with the residents,” she adds. “They’re literally like my grandparents.”

It’s a familiarity similar to what Ms. Meyers and Mrs. Culiver share. As they prepare to leave the Mirabella bistro, the two mention a plan to reunite for sandwiches soon.

Then they hug goodbye.

This originally appeared at  and is published here in partnership with the .

The sit-in began after returning students reported and maintenance issues this fall. Howard confirmed 34 instances of “suspected fungal growth.” University officials noted the affected under 1 percent of on-campus dorm rooms.

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Howard also instituted a $2,000 tuition hike this school year, to $28,000.�� 

Compounded with the removal of student trustee representatives and , frustration turned into mass action earlier this month when students occupied the Blackburn Student Center, hanging painted banners reading “enough is enough.”

Tensions further heightened between students and the university administration last weekend; as thousands attended the , campus police closed entry to the Blackburn student center, which had been occupied in protest for 11 days.��

in the rush to secure the building.��

In a , University President Wayne Frederick called for an end to the protests, citing his ongoing conversations with key activists regarding demands and referencing the University’s existing, multi-year .��

“There is a distinct difference between peaceful protest and freedom of expression and the occupation of a University building that impedes operations and access to essential services and creates health and safety risks,” Frederick’s statement read. “The .” 

students have no intention of ending the sit-in at this time.

Protests continued throughout the campus’s highly anticipated in-person — a celebrated multi-day welcome event featuring musicians, performers and alumni. with rapper Gucci Mane’s label refused to perform, standing in solidarity with protesters.��

“This whole week we’re supposed to be coming together and being energetic and it’s like, it doesn’t feel right to be a part of that when there are still students without housing, and still students suffering in the housing that they do have,” an anonymous , Howard’s student newspaper.

Mold remediation teams have been dispatched to student rooms, yet social media accounts suggested the issue may be more pervasive: Hallways, showers, carpets and air ducts appear lined with mold, according to student Twitter accounts where they also at night.

An associate professor tweeted that one of his students was diagnosed with “.”

At least four of Howard’s main residence facilities are , a company that partners with public institutions, including the University System of Georgia and U.S. military bases, to renovate and manage infrastructure.��

Student reports of black mold and unsafe living conditions parallel the experience of military families living in Corvias-run housing; several in Fort Bragg, North Carolina are in a class-action suit.��

In 2020, to Corvias CEO John Picerne requesting information on how they may have “put profits above public health” and influenced universities’ return plans during the pandemic.��

Student activists demand an in-person town hall with President Frederick before November; the reinstatement of student, faculty and alumni affiliate positions on the board of trustees; legal and academic immunity for protesters; and a meeting between student leaders, Frederick and chair of the board to hear their housing plans for incoming classes “because .”

Howard’s Board of Trustees removed affiliate representatives in June. Since protests began earlier this month, the faculty senate has voted to collaborate with students and alumni to reinstate these positions, which they describe as a “.” 

Frederick agreed to students’ final demand, meeting student leaders to discuss housing policy, . He rejected their request for a town hall, saying  multiple times he felt uncomfortable with the idea, suggesting instead biweekly meetings with student representatives.��

https://twitter.com/Chan_the_world/status/1451303276432044045

“I am a Black girl at a Black college. I came here to this HBCU to escape the oppression of the world, and here I am being physically hurt at a peaceful protest. The chaos has been created by the administration,” , reflecting on the altercation during a student-led press conference on Oct. 24. “Our demands are not demanding,” she added.��

Over a week has passed without further action since Board president and alumnus Larry Morse on the ongoing sit-in, where he pledged a commitment to hearing student voices but did not offer a timeline or specific action regarding future living accommodations.��

“We know we have a gap to bridge in order to meet your expectations and ours. While we may have closed the gap in several areas, challenges remain,” the statement reads.

The board did commit to including student representatives for one-year positions, but did not specify any long-term representation or whether faculty positions would be reinstated.

As temperatures dip to 48 degrees in Washington, D.C., students continue to sleep in tents surrounding Blackburn on “The Yard” in central campus. Many have dubbed the area “”, to remain until needs are met.��

The 74 has compiled student, alumni and community accounts of living conditions and the #BlackburnTakeover:

This is Howard

Reply to @babyace2002 they publicly said they support protesting but email their students saying they would be EXPELLED.

https://twitter.com/dereckapurnell/status/1450899700643553292?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1450899700643553292%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.npr.org%2F2021%2F10%2F22%2F1048517681%2Fstudents-at-howard-university-are-protesting-poor-housing-conditions-on-campus

https://twitter.com/revwendy3/status/1452365649435627528

Cities are wherepar . But urban environments can feel built to deter kids and caretaking. That spurs families to bail on cities – – contributing to climate change through increased dependence on driving and inefficient housing. Kid-hostile urban design also takes its toll on the many families who live in cities.

Although studies on how neighborhood design impacts child development are has established clear links between stress and the developing brain. Ask any caretaker and they’ll tell you—the size of their home, the transportation they can and can’t safely access, the safety of their streets, and how easy it is to use parks, child care and other amenities, can have a significant, ongoing impact on the strain experienced by parents and, by extension, their kids.

These elements make up what urban planners refer to as a neighborhood’s “built environment.” The built environment can support children and parenting, or be just another obstacle to overcome. Either sets the tone for how kids and caretakers experience a city, says Christine Serdjenian Yearwood, founder and CEO of the family transportation advocacy group . It can influence whether, say, a pregnant person gets offered a seat on a crowded subway or if that baby bump is viewed as a lifestyle choice, no more deserving of accommodation than a bag of golf clubs.

So what does a city that values kids and caretakers look like? Planners knowledgeable in child-friendly design say that walkable neighborhoods with a mix of commercial space and diverse housing lead to “ and a strong sense of community” that help families thrive. Parks and other green space is also key, the Australian planning consultant Kristin Agnello explains in her book, .

Montreal makes for an inspiring example in North America. Teeming with green space and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, it’s also a city where considering family needs feels baked into urban planning.

Family-friendliness “is a policy that Montreal has adopted,” explains Faiz Abhuani, director of Brique par Brique, an affordable housing initiative in Montreal. “In some boroughs, this is their guiding principle. It’s like a religion.”

Paid Parental Leave and Universal Child Care

As part of the French-speaking province of Quebec, Montreal families benefit from Quebec’s renowned paid parental leave and – – two initiatives that in part sprang from efforts to promote the French language’s endurance in the province by strengthening families. This attitude towards children as an investment to be nurtured permeates everything from the government’s having procedures, to with family-friendly work environments, to a pandemic prioritizing parents for the vaccine. It’s an attitude that also informs ongoing adjustments to the city’s housing policies, transportation system and green space.

Housing to Fit Families

According to Canadian urbanist Brent Toderian, a key reason many young families flee cities is housing. Families need bigger homes, Toderian explained to . But because real estate developers maximize profits by building smaller units, without regulation of new development, housing designed for couples and single people dominates a city’s landscape. This is true for affordable and subsidized housing as well, with finding that in New York City, the affordable three-bedroom apartment is nearing extinction.

, Montreal now has several neighborhoods barreling toward unaffordability, and the city has long suffered a shortage of family-oriented housing stock. As a corrective, the city recently passed requiring major housing developments to set aside a percentage of units for affordable and subsidized housing as well as family housing, defined as three bedrooms or bigger.

Abhuani of Brique par Brique has concerns that the bylaw ties new housing to gentrification, and that real estate developers with no commitment to the community will be the gatekeepers for homes. But he and other advocates generally agree it demonstrates an important willingness to center families’ needs in planning.

Stroller-Friendly Public Transportation

Walking and using public transportation isn’t just good for the environment; it’s good for the family budget and health. In y, architect Nidhi Gulati makes a persuasive case for taking public transportation being good for children’s cognitive development as well, by providing brain-boosting interactions with the built environment.

But public transportation is designed with the single commuter in mind. that women using public transportation with children in Los Angeles incur “higher travel costs, elevated stress, and faced greater safety risks on transit than men.” Yearwood of UP-STAND says it’s no wonder “there’s this huge population of people that just opt out of public transportation because it’s not built with them.”

Welcoming a new child is when some families purchase vehicles for the first time, or trade in cars for gas-guzzling SUVs. Others stop venturing out with children. “We hear all the time that once people have young children they just don’t leave the area. And it most certainly has an impact on their mental health and isolation,” says Yearwood.

A leader in the global movement to make cities more bike- and pedestrian-friendly, Montreal’s public transportation is free. The city’s public buses are low to the ground, making for easy stroller- and small-child-boarding, and there’s a space up front with folding seats marked for both wheelchairs and strollers.

Its metro system has clear signage identifying strollers and pregnant passengers as a priority group for seating, and the entire system is undergoing a to become more accessible. Improvements, which include more elevators and clear barriers separating train tracks and platforms, will be a boon for small kids and their caretakers.

Montreal also boasts an impressive biking infrastructure that parents feel safe enough to use with kids. At the YMCA camp my kids attended this summer in a bustling neighborhood, children as young as 6 or 7 biked alongside parents for transportation.

Green Space to Grow On

Also significant: camp counselors and kids made use of not one, but four nearby parks. Research shows this kind of easy access to green space offers city dwellers a host of benefits: from mitigating the effects of extreme heat, to promoting well-being, to providing an arena where young children play while building gross- and fine-motor skills.

The greenery doesn’t stop with parks. The city makes judicious use of cement planters to slow traffic, and the city’s car-free streets, sidewalks and alleys are filled with whimsical, often nature-inspired and reminiscent of the “” of researchers Kathy Hirsh-Pasek of Temple University and Roberta Michnick Golinkoff of the University of Delaware. Montreal is also a trendsetter in “flipping asphalt into gardens, public seating or people-friendly infrastructure,” notes urbanist researcher and writer John Surico in his newsletter, Streetbeat.

That’s not to say life is perfect for Montreal families; locals have critiques. Many want to see the government-funded child care centers expanded so more children receive their quality care. A group of advocates and researchers noting fathers, too, often get overlooked in policy planning. And Abhuani of Brique par Brique says the city’s planning for families too frequently means “nuclear, white, professional families,” whereas the city has many multigenerational families under one roof, as well as families without legal status who face debilitating discrimination in the job and rental markets. These families’ have needs that will not be addressed “by green space and bike lanes,” notes Abhuani.

But there’s also a general consensus that family well-being is considered a key part of the city’s overall health. For parents enduring a global pandemic in the many North American cities where kids have felt like a policy afterthought, putting families front and center in city planning can feel radical, even revolutionary. But it shouldn’t be. As so many urban planners have noted, a city that works for small children works for just about everyone.

Photos by Kendra Hurley and Sandeep Prasada