State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted the “Housing Summit: Solutions to Address the Affordability Crisis” on Aug. 14 in Sacramento.

The summit addressed California’s urgent need for affordable workforce housing, as well as accelerated access to homeownership for working and middle-class residents. It marked the start of Thurmond’s housing initiative, which was first announced on July 30. The initiative begins with a plan to develop 2.3 million housing units using 75,000 acres of surplus land owned by school districts.

Thurmond convened a panel to discuss opportunities and barriers to increasing California’s housing supply. Following the panel, civic leaders, developers, funders and educators engaged in breakout discussions on accelerating funding and partnerships, creating opportunities and removing barriers and exploring considerations for school districts in creating educator housing. The superintendent’s initiative seeks to accelerate housing development, including sustained technical assistance for local educational agencies that seek to develop surplus land.

“Our communities need relief from California’s housing crisis. That’s why I launched an initiative to add 2.3 million new housing units by developing the 75,000 acres of developable land now owned by schools,” Thurmond said. “I believe that California has enough resources and ingenuity to solve this and the data shows that our schools have the land to make this happen. Recent projects have proved the impact of workforce housing development on teacher retention and students’ classroom-level experience, and we know that effectively addressing the housing crisis has the power to rebuild the California Dream for all Californians.”

Thurmond has helped make state tax credits available for affordable housing, including $500 million that was approved for affordable housing as part of state budgets since 2020. He also has pledged to secure future funding to provide state incentives when local school districts pass bond measures to build housing.

For information, visit cde.ca.gov.