The inability of teachers to afford housing in Los Angeles is a crisis stemming from the region’s exceptionally high cost of living, particularly in the housing sector, coupled with teacher salaries that have not kept pace. This has created a challenging environment for teachers to live in the communities they serve, which ultimately affects the stability and quality of the education system necessary for our communities to thrive.
Teachers who don’t live in the community may have less opportunity to understand the students’ lives, social dynamics, and the challenges they face outside of school. This matters because as teachers are priced out of living in the communities that they serve, it becomes harder to build strong, trusting relationships, which are crucial for effective teaching, student engagement and retention of talent. While important conversations ranging from the construction of teacher housing on district-owned land to teacher pay raises that address regional disparities in cost of living, Jewish Free Loan Association (JFLA) and Bet Tzedek are partnering to improve the material conditions of teachers in Los Angeles in tangible ways.
The Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund
The housing market in the city of Los Angeles presents a significant financial hurdle for all prospective homeowners. However, for teachers earning an average salary of $72,000, the median listing home price of $1.2 million is entirely unaffordable. The rental market also presents significant affordability issues. Specifically, the average monthly rent in Los Angeles ranges from approximately $2,167 to $3,600 which results in teachers spending far more than the recommended 36% housing to income ratio. This leaves a severely limited portion of a teacher’s income to cover other essential living expenses.
The result of the growing chasm between teacher salaries and the cost of housing in Los Angeles has led to teachers and educational staff living in neighborhoods further from the city center or in less affluent areas, potentially leading to longer commutes or a distance from the immediate school districts where they are employed. This directly leads to a forced disengagement from the students and families and the inability to engage in community activities that support the schools in meaningful ways. While meaningful housing reform is needed at the state and national levels, JFLA and Bet Tzedek have partnered to provide a comprehensive support system for individuals in greater Los Angeles who are facing financial and legal challenges.
Many people seeking legal aid also require financial assistance, and vice versa, as both issues are often deeply interconnected. According to Rachel Grose, executive director of JFLA and Diego Cartagena, president and CEO of Bet Tzedek, this partnership was designed to “ensure that those in need receive both legal advocacy and financial relief, helping them navigate critical life challenges with greater stability and dignity.”
With teachers often at the epicenter of overlapping crises that stem from unaffordable housing, student loan debt and the cycle of low wages that aren’t keeping up with rising inflation, the Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund, housed within the JFLA, gives teachers zero-interest, zero-fee loans of up to $20,000 and payable over three years so that they can begin to chip away at the debt that has resulted in them falling farther behind in reaching major milestones and the ability to build wealth and save for retirement. David Horvitz, certified financial planner and founder of the Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund, attributes his recognition of the acute financial hurdles that teachers face to his own early career as a teacher. Moreover, through his pro bono financial planning to assist his former teaching colleagues, he realized that the deficiency between teacher salaries and the money needed to comfortably retire would result in the destabilization of our educators. According to Mr. Horvitz, our society “doesn’t put a value on what teachers do. There is no quantifiable return on investment for teachers, so we have collectively decided to pay teachers very little.”
In terms of policy recommendation, Mr. Horvitz is a staunch advocate for tax advantages for teachers far beyond the paltry $250 deduction allowed for supplies that teachers purchase for their classrooms with their own funds and advocates for a much more robust and generous student debt cancellation system that goes far beyond the failed Public Service Loan Forgiveness program that has a less than 10% success rate.
Purchasing a home in the city is essentially out of reach for the average teacher. Strict zoning laws and high building costs make new construction difficult, while a concentration of wealthy residents has driven up demand, pushing prices even higher.
According to a 2024 analysis of Zillow home values, Los Angeles consistently ranks among the least affordable cities for homebuyers, with a home price-to-income ratio of 12.5. Similarly, rental costs consume a very substantial proportion of teacher salaries, leading to a condition of rent burden for many educators. Even those in the early stages of their teaching careers face considerable challenges in affording median rents in the Los Angeles area, further highlighting the severe imbalance between housing costs and teacher compensation. For the recipients of the Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund, the results have been transformative.
To illustrate, for Na’eem Wilkins, a 32-year-old teacher and regional coordinator of the Umoja Education Community Foundation, the stress of finding affordable housing on a teacher’s salary has been overwhelming. According to Mr. Wilkins, “challenges of affordability as a teacher include the inability to find secure affordable housing, the need to work multiple jobs and the unpaid hours of work” caring for at-risk boys of color to ensure that they have a stable environment. Receiving a loan from the Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund has allowed Mr. Wilkins to start a pressure washing company with seed funding that employs graduates of his community programs to ensure an avenue of skilled employment where they are learning a trade hands-on.
In addition, Mr. Wilkins was able to use a portion of the loan fund to pay down some of his $60,000 undergraduate student loan debt while he continues with his master’s degree. Similarly, “Michelle,” a 55-year-old teacher at a private school in Los Angeles, describes how receiving a loan from the fund has allowed her to pay down substantial credit card debt that she had accumulated caring for her son as a single mother on a teacher’s salary. “I just want to be able to teach and enjoy life without debt” is how Michelle describes her goals as she grapples with the challenges of housing unaffordability in Los Angeles despite owning a modestly priced condo that she was able to purchase from her divorce settlement. “There is a lot of judgment that comes with debt and while I was working so hard, I wasn’t getting paid enough to live.” This resulted in the accumulation of debt that has prevented her from saving for retirement — a fear she has as she anticipates working for much longer than she had originally expected to.
According to JFLA’s Grose, at its core, “interest-free lending is about creating opportunity and preserving dignity. The Horvitz Teachers’ Loan Fund aligns perfectly with that mission. It supports the very people who shape our future, but who too often face financial barriers simply for choosing a life of service.”
Similarly for Bet Tzedek, which means means “House of Justice,” its work to support teachers in the community is evident in their offering of free legal advice and representation to individuals and families on employment issues and employment rights such as wage violations and workplace discrimination. In addition, Bet Tzedek is partnering with JFLA to provide free legal services to school staff and employees who have been impacted by the Palisades and Eaton fires. Such services that impact teachers include Know Your Rights presentations and direct client intakes to address issues such as landlord/tenant matters and homeowner questions related to homeowner insurance issues and FEMA applications.
Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention for Public and Jewish Day Schools
The prohibitively high cost of housing in Los Angeles poses a significant barrier to attracting new teachers to the region. Potential candidates may be deterred by the prospect of spending a large portion of their income on rent or facing the near impossibility of purchasing a home. School districts in surrounding areas that offer either higher salaries or a lower cost of living may appear more attractive to prospective teachers. Furthermore, Chris D. Mount-Benites, CFO of LAUSD, has noted a connection between the lack of affordable housing and a decline in student enrollment, suggesting that families are also struggling with the prohibitive cost of living in the area, which can further impact the appeal of teaching in the district.
To illustrate, a 2024 survey of LAUSD district employees revealed that 46% are housing insecure and 5% are homeless prompting 46% to consider leaving their jobs due to high housing costs. This has reignited discussions about utilizing LAUSD’s excess land for affordable housing for employees. LAUSD’s vast real estate portfolio includes 21,000 buildings, adding up to more than 78 million square feet, across 10 square miles of land, according to an employee housing resolution submitted by School Board member Nick Melvoin in January.
Similarly, United Teachers Los Angeles President Cecily Myart-Cruz is advocating for a renegotiation of the union contract this June that “is not only about protecting Los Angeles students, educators and families over the next three years, but it means continuing to build a future that is monumental.” At the center of the UTLA platform is a push for automatic annual salary increases designed to reward experience and additional education at a proposed 3.25% a year for the first 10 years of an educator’s career. Another significant cost element in the UTLA proposal would boost the minimum teacher pay from $69,000 to $80,000 — a 16% increase, as both a recruitment incentive and to offset the high cost of living in Southern California. The result of this increase would be a pay increase for a 30-year veteran teacher from the current cap of $119,000 to $134,000.
The burden of high housing costs not only hinders recruitment but also makes it hard to retain current teachers in the Los Angeles area. Jewish day schools face similar challenges to teacher retention and recruitment especially in the more niche fields of Jewish Studies. According to Rabbi Jim Rogozen, director of the Center for Excellence in Jewish Education at Builders of Jewish Education in Los Angeles, “time of life plays a role” where he describes that older teachers who entered the profession during more favorable economic times were able to enter the housing market on a teacher’s salary whereas younger teachers, often burdened with high levels of student loan debt and faced with a housing market that is on average 12X salary have less opportunity to transition from rentership to homeownership absent familial support or having a dual-income partner.
Jewish day schools face similar challenges to teacher retention and recruitment especially in the more niche fields of Jewish Studies.
Moreover, “finances, long commutes, cost of groceries and wages stand out in two ways. First, if a younger teacher does not have money for a down payment, the threshold makes it impossible to work towards homeownership. Second, if the teacher does by chance have the funds for a downpayment, how much will the actual monthly cost of housing be given the mortgage, rising property taxes and rising insurance.”
Rabbi Rogozen explains that while schools “are doing more and more to help their staff members enroll their children in the schools where they teach in the forms of financial assistance and teacher tuition discounts,” he acknowledges that in the Jewish education space, many teachers are considering leaving the profession or relocating to more affordable regions. Those who choose to stay but cannot afford to live near their schools often face long and stressful commutes from more affordable areas, leading to increased burnout and decreased job satisfaction, which can ultimately contribute to higher turnover rates.
Whether in a public school or a private school setting, high teacher turnover has a demonstrably negative impact on students by disrupting established relationships with trusted educators and potentially resulting in larger class sizes and increased behavioral issues.
Rabbi Rogozen notes that teachers who live in the same community are often “more likely to be involved in school events such as community Shabbat dinners and other activities.” Conversely, when teachers live much farther away due to affordability constraints, they naturally have less time and energy to participate in these activities, potentially limiting the resources and support available to students.
The financial stress that teachers experience due to housing costs can negatively impact their morale and, consequently, their performance in the classroom. The instability within school communities caused by high teacher turnover can also undermine the continuity and effectiveness of educational programs.
Local and Statewide Housing Support for Teachers
Within the Los Angeles area, LAUSD has taken some direct action to address the housing needs of its employees through its Workforce Housing Initiative. This initiative has involved partnerships with affordable housing developers to construct housing complexes on underutilized district land, with district employees receiving priority in leasing the units. Examples of completed projects include Sage Park Apartments, built on the Gardena High School campus, and Selma Community Housing and Norwood Learning Village, located near elementary schools. LAUSD is also currently exploring the potential of repurposing additional underutilized real estate assets to provide more affordable housing options for its employees. According to LAUSD board member Nick Melvoin, “We’re one of the largest landowners in the county, and I find it a shame that we’re not better utilizing it for the benefit of our community.
While these efforts represent a positive step towards addressing the issue, the current number of available units (185) is significantly lower than the estimated demand from employees (over 25,000 units), indicating a need for substantial expansion of such initiatives. Leaders in education across Los Angeles support the Workforce Housing Initiative including Pedro Noguera, dean of the USC Rossier School of Education. According to Dr. Noguera, “LAUSD an opportunity to develop some of its surplus property for employee housing. This is happening in several other school districts and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t happen here, given the desperate need. Not only would it reduce commute times for staff, it could also reduce the cost of housing. If done well it could be a huge benefit for LA.”
The Teacher Next Door Program is another resource available to teachers in Los Angeles and across California. This program offers grants of up to $8,000 and down payment assistance of up to $15,000 to teachers who are purchasing homes. However, the amount of assistance has not kept up with the rate of exponential increase in housing prices which has reduced the program’s appeal and efficacy. A variety of housing assistance programs are available to teachers in Los Angeles at the federal, state and local levels, as well as through nonprofit organizations. These programs offer a diverse range of support mechanisms, including grants that do not need to be repaid, assistance with down payments and closing costs, discounted interest rates on home loans, and the development of affordable housing units specifically for teachers. The current scale of these efforts by LAUSD needs to be significantly expanded to meet the identified demand.
Addressing the housing crisis for teachers is a critical necessity for ensuring a stable, qualified, and effective teaching workforce within the Los Angeles Unified School District and surrounding areas. Our community needs comprehensive and sustainable solutions that address both the supply and affordability of housing for teachers in Los Angeles to ensure that educators can afford to live in the communities they serve and continue to provide high-quality education to their students.
Los Angeles Times editorial board writer Carla Hall said it best in her last piece to end her tenure at The Times: “I challenge you to care about providing homes to people who need them. I challenge you to welcome new affordable housing when it’s proposed in your community, because as an Angeleno witnessing this crisis, you know how many lives that housing could change — how many lives it could save.”
Our heroes in the classroom are our most valued resource and they deserve no less.
Lisa Ansell is the Associate Director of the USC Casden Institute and Lecturer of Hebrew Language at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion Los Angeles.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.