More San Jose School Sites Poised for Housing

More workforce housing for school staff is slated for construction in San Jose.

In east San Jose’s Mayfair neighborhood, Alum Rock Union Elementary School District is planning a 78-unit workforce housing project on district-owned land at 2050 Kammerer Avenue, Mercury News reported, citing documents filed with city planners.

The development would reserve all units for Alum Rock Union Elementary School District teachers and staff, with half set aside for lower-income households and the remainder offered at below-market-rate rents. The proposal calls for three three-story buildings clustered around a 1-acre landscaped courtyard, along with a 720-square-foot amenities structure. The site, near Interstate 680, is currently underutilized and sits next to a former youth center that burned down last year.

The district is working with Core Builders on the project and intends to streamline approvals using Senate Bill 330, the state’s fast-track housing law that prevents city and county government agencies from limiting housing development. The Kammerer Avenue project site is next to Renaissance Academy at Mathson middle school, which isn’t part of development plans and will remain in place after construction is complete.

Across town, the San Jose Unified School District is pursuing a much larger play with a planned 288-unit apartment complex at 760 Hillsdale Avenue. The project would rise on vacant land near Highway 87, adjacent to the district’s Silicon Valley Education Campus, and is aimed at housing employees squeezed by the region’s high cost of living.

“Workplace housing is a pressing issue for us,” Seth Reddy, the San Jose Unified School District’s chief business officer, told Mercury News. “We cannot pay our staff sufficient wages to live in comfort and dignity in this area.”

Voters in the school district approved a general obligation bond measure in November 2024 with potential proceeds of nearly $1.2 billion. Of that total amount, the construction of the 288-unit apartment complex on Hillsdale Avenue would cost $282.5 million, according to Mercury News.

San Jose is in a time and construction crunch as the city lags in meeting its state-mandated housing production goals. Under the city’s housing element, San Jose should ideally be planning to produce an average of 7,775 units per year for a total of 62,200 units by 2031.

“The city is coming nowhere close to the target amount,” Erik Schoennauer, a land use consultant advising the district on the Hillsdale Avenue project, told the Mercury News. “The city needs to start looking at underutilized properties throughout San Jose that make sense for housing.”

— Chris Malone Méndez