On-Campus Teacher Housing: A New Model for Recruitment, Retention, and Community Well-Being

Abstract

Many teachers in Hawai‘i are leaving the state or the profession. High costs of living coupled with low salaries continues to discourage people from pursuing and maintaining a career in education, which has led to the current teacher shortage crisis. From 2017 to 2021, the public school teacher retention rate after five years averaged between 51-55%, a significant turnover rate, which impacts the education and wellbeing of students, their families, and their communities.This dissertation investigates how developing teacher housing on underutilized areas of existing public-school campuses can support teacher recruitment and retention and offer needed community resources for the surrounding. In addition to providing public school teachers with affordable housing options during the early years of their career, on-campus teacher housing also provides opportunities to build relationships with peers that provide mental and emotional support outside of the classroom. Living near their place of work also allows teachers to fully engrain themselves in the community they serve and understand the students and their families at a deeper level. The inclusion of teacher housing can also offer the surrounding community resources to strengthen community resilience. Integrating communal spaces and facilities based on community needs within an on-campus teacher housing complex transforms the school campus from a place solely for learning into a hub for all community members to share resources, knowledge, and culture. It further activates the campus outside of school hours and utilizes the school grounds that would otherwise remain vacant. Developing on-campus teacher housing using this holistic approach, results in a project that not only provides housing for a critical group in the education sector, but also dissolves the boundaries between school grounds and the contiguous community.