Workforce Housing

The proposed PUSD Employee Workforce Housing community will provide approximately 110 rental units of employee housing for PUSD teachers and staff, including those with families. The proposed project offers a mix of apartment and townhome residences, with all units to be offered at below-market rental rates. Approximately 30% will be one-bedroom units, 40% two-bedroom units, and 30% three-bedroom and four-bedroom units. The proposed project will be constructed at the site of the former Roosevelt Elementary School at 315 N Pasadena Ave.

Workforce housing generally refers to housing intended to provide working households with rental options that are more affordable than market rents. Area Median Income (AMI) is the midpoint of a region’s household income levels.  The proposed project will reserve thirty percent (30%) of the units for income-qualifying PUSD employees earning up to 80% of AMI, and the remaining units will be affordable to PUSD employees earning up to 120% of AMI.

PUSD has identified workforce housing as a key priority to maintain and strengthen the district’s long-term viability. The reasons include:
•    Increased housing costs have made it difficult to recruit and retain teachers and staff
•    Unsustainable commutes lead to staff burnout and less community involvement
•    Staff turnover creates additional costs to PUSD in the form of ongoing training and recruitment
•    More than 120 PUSD employees lost their homes in the Eaton Fire, creating an even more urgent need for new housing
•    Employees’ children can attend school in the district where their parents work
 

In 2020, PUSD began to analyze underutilized district-owned sites, including the potential to create teacher and staff housing. In a multi-year process, PUSD worked with the Facilities Task Force and Superintendent’s Advisory Group on Workforce Housing and conducted employee surveys on the need for employee housing. PUSD has been proactively providing the City of Pasadena with regular updates and engaging with homeowners’ associations (HOAs) near the Roosevelt site. In July 2025 and September 2026, the District held community open house events for employees, neighbors, community members, and other partners to learn more about the project and gather comments and feedback on the project. The District will continue its community outreach throughout the process.

The community will be built on the approximately five-acre site of the former Roosevelt Elementary School, which closed in 2020. One of the primary reasons for its selection is that it is already next to existing multi-family residential communities to the north and west.

Before seeking the City’s approval, the project was presented at joint District and Council meetings on April 29, 2024 and May 12, 2025.  The District team has been meeting regularly with City staff to discuss approval requirements for the project, and the District will continue to work collaboratively with the City and the community throughout the project entitlement process.  

Like other school districts throughout the State, the District is able to utilize housing streamlining measures purposely created by the State to facilitate affordable housing construction for public school teachers and staff, as well as various measures passed to expedite the creation of new housing by any public or private developer. The approval process for the project still involves City review, including a traffic analysis, as well as extensive communication and collaboration between the District and the City.  

Currently, the project is going through the City of Pasadena’s Consolidated Design Review process. The District submitted its application for Preliminary Consultation (the first step in the process) in June 2026, and met with the City’s Design Review Commission (“Commission”) on August 11, 2026 to review the project and receive comments from the Commission. The District is in the process of preparing its Consolidated Design Review application for the project, and once submitted and deemed complete by the City, the project will go before the Design Commission for approval, which is anticipated to occur before the end of the year.

Project entitlements are the official approvals a housing development must receive from the City before building and grading permits can be issued and construction can begin. This includes permission for things like the number of units, the design of the buildings, building height, site layout, and how the land will be used. As discussed above, this project is being entitled through the City’s Design Review process, in which the Commission considers and approves of the project.

After careful consideration of State legislation and the available entitlement pathways, the District elected to pursue project entitlements using available streamlining legislation, or “bills” for the proposed employee workforce housing project. The District selected this approach because it offers a significantly expedited time frame. Using the housing streamlining bills, project approvals are expected within approximately 6 months of submitting the Preliminary Consultation application (submitted in June 2026), whereas the traditional approval process is anticipated to take two years or more. The selected approach results in lower project costs, both in terms of costs to the entire project and lower anticipated construction costs due to an earlier construction start, allowing the District to lower the amount of bond funds that are committed to this housing. This approach also provides the greatest benefit to District teachers and staff by virtue of the housing units being ready for occupancy 1.5 – 2 years earlier.

Yes. PUSD convened a working group composed of representatives of the public with expertise in housing, school administrators and the Board to provide initial programming input. The results of these meetings have been agendized and presented at PUSD Board and City Council meetings. The District also hosted community open houses in July 2025 and September 2026 for interested community members to learn more about the project, ask questions, and provide feedback.

The housing will be prioritized for Teachers, Paraeducators, and other Classified and Certificated PUSD employees with household incomes up to 120% AMI as defined by the State for Los Angeles County. 

Employee surveys conducted by PUSD have indicated strong interest from PUSD staff for quality housing close to their jobs offered at significantly below market rates. While unlikely, in the event that there is insufficient demand for the housing units, the District can offer them first to income-qualifying employees of other districts, then to employees of other public agencies, or lastly to the public at large. However, the District’s objective is for 100% of the units to be leased to PUSD employees.

The housing will be governed by a nonprofit entity to be established by the District. The nonprofit will also hire a professional third-party property management company for the day-to-day management of the property. District staff will in no way be responsible for day-to-day management of the housing community.

Multiple architectural styles were evaluated by the design team, including Spanish Revival and Craftsman styles. The Spanish Revival style was ultimately selected by a committee made up of PUSD staff members and community members who have expertise in housing throughout Pasadena. Spanish Revival architecture is common in Pasadena, including in the immediate neighborhood (such as on Rosemont Ave and Prospect Blvd). There are many examples of Spanish Revival and Craftsman styles coexisting throughout the neighborhood. In addition, buildings in the Spanish Revival style are generally more cost effective to maintain than craftsman-style buildings.

The new residential community will include a variety of amenities, such as a clubhouse, a dog run, a children’s play area, a BBQ area and landscaped commons.

The proposed project includes approximately 2 parking spaces per unit including guest parking. We expect this will be adequate parking for the housing community.

The site will be gated with the primary entrance/exit for residents and guests on N. Pasadena Ave. The project will maintain a secondary access on Rosemont for residents and fire/life safety. Visitors access will only be through the N. Pasadena Ave gate. There will be no vehicular connection to Walnut Ave, as the project site does not connect to Walnut St. The project does propose a pedestrian connection for residents to Walnut St.

The City is overseeing a traffic analysis to evaluate the impacts to neighboring streets as part of the project review process. The District would be in favor of a traffic signal being added at N. Pasadena Ave and Orange Grove Blvd, but that is subject to City review.

The project is funded by General Obligation bond proceeds from Measure R, approved by voters in 2024 to fund employee workforce housing and other District facilities projects. No PUSD operational funds will be allocated to the project.  The housing community is projected to produce a positive cash flow that will pay for maintenance and produce on-going revenues for other district operations.

The District has begun the design development phase of the project. Design and building permit approvals are expected to continue through early 2028, with construction currently planned from early 2028 through summer 2030. The schedule will continue to be refined as the project moves through design and review.

The project will be subject to all City requirements for construction as well as industry best management practices. The project team will maintain regular communication with neighbors to provide construction updates and respond promptly to concerns. A dedicated point of contact will be available throughout construction for neighbors who have any questions or concerns.

This is the PUSD’s first housing endeavor, and the Board believes that this is a necessity to recruit and retain quality employees and thereby improve the quality of education for PUSD students.  Consequently, PUSD has hired and is working closely with an experienced team of professionals that has successfully worked with other school districts and agencies throughout the state to create workforce housing.

Due to the high cost of housing, this will allow teachers and staff an opportunity to live in the community in which they work.  Benefits include fewer commuting miles, better rested faculty and staff, presumably more children in PUSD schools, and the ability for PUSD employees to potentially save money for the future path to homeownership.