High housing costs push many teachers out of S.F. Longer commutes mean less time with students

Todd Morgan discusses the difficult decision of moving out of the city while sitting in his living room surrounded by moving boxes December 18, 2013 at his and his wife's apartment in San Francisco, Calif. After four years in their apartment, the landlord decided to raise the rent by $200 and only gave 30 days notice. The two are moving to Alameda, where the cost of living is more affordable. less Todd Morgan discusses the difficult decision of moving out of the city while sitting in his living room surrounded by moving boxes December 18, 2013 at his and his wife's apartment in San Francisco, Calif. ... more Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Photo: Leah Millis, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close High housing costs push many teachers out of S.F. 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Todd Morgan and Victoria Traverso's lives revolve around their roles as teachers, coaches and mentors at Phillip & Sala Burton Academic High School in San Francisco's Bayview district.

The married couple spend up to 12 hours at the school most days, attend games on weekends and answer texts and calls from their students around the clock. They have helped turn the school around. They love their jobs.

But they are not sure if they will be able to keep up that level of commitment in 2014. Just days before Christmas, Morgan and Traverso packed up their belongings and moved from their small Diamond Heights apartment to a roomier, more affordable place in Alameda. They are victims of San Francisco's tough housing market, where even middle-class people are having a hard time finding a way to make it work.

San Francisco teachers are not poor, by any means: The average teacher makes $62,000 a year. But rental prices have jumped dramatically over the past year. For Morgan, 39, and Traverso, 31, the choice to move came after a rent increase of more than 10 percent and the knowledge that they will need more room when they start a family.

'It's a consolation prize'

Alameda is fine, said Morgan, "but it's a consolation prize," especially given the time they will now spend commuting.

"It's not San Francisco, and worse, I'm not living where my students live," he said. "That's the part that hurts the worst. I try not to think of it too much."

Morgan and Traverso aren't alone. A recently released state population survey found that more than 15,000 people moved into Alameda County between July 2012 and July 2013, many fleeing San Francisco and its sky-high housing costs.

The union that represents teachers and other school employees says the couple's story is being told all too often lately. Every time a teacher leaves the city to live elsewhere, it's a loss for the students, argues United Educators of San Francisco President Dennis Kelly. Longer commutes, for one, mean less time teachers can spend at schools.

Part of the community

"I was at 'The Nutcracker' with my granddaughter ... and a young woman there said, 'Mr. Kelly, you were my teacher for Shakespeare at Lowell (High School),' and she thanked me for the class," he said. "To me, that was very gratifying, but it also means she sees me as a member of the community, she sees me at the ballet and knows me. When you see a teacher in the grocery store, at the same movie house as you, it's different. It integrates the teacher into the lives of the kids, it means access for parents, access for kids. In all ways, it's much better."

About 71 percent of the San Francisco Unified School District's teachers live in San Francisco, and district spokeswoman Gentle Blythe agreed that affordable housing is a huge challenge for its employees.

A 2013 exit survey of 96 teachers leaving the district found that 45 percent said they were leaving to move out of the Bay Area, and 11 percent cited the cost of living or housing prices as a primary reason for relocating, she said. Eighteen percent said living closer to San Francisco would make them want to return to the district.

A handful of government programs offer some down payment and other assistance to teachers buying a first home. But in San Francisco those programs don't go as far as middle-class people need, Kelly said.

"There's just not enough money to really help people," he said. "I think we are going to have to start taking on housing much the way we have taken on health care - we need to see it as a responsibility of employment. You either have to pay people well enough that they can afford housing or you've got to do something along the lines of helping to provide housing."

A 'brutal' commute

In the meantime, teachers such as Art Concordia will spend hours commuting each day - and grappling with whether they can stay at the school they love.

Concordia, a teacher with the district since 1998 and at Balboa High School since 2002, recently moved to his in-laws' house in Pleasant Hill. His wife is pregnant with twins, and they also have a 13-month-old and an 11-year-old son from a previous marriage who lives with them half-time.

He said it would break his heart to leave Balboa, but many nights, he and his son don't get home until after 8 p.m.

"When I have my son with me, that's just brutal. By the time I get home, the 1-year-old is usually asleep," he said. "I get paid well - there's no way I am saying I don't make good money. It's just the cost of living is so high."