[Chat] Fw: Apartments for teachers to open in city

[crg]

Brad, thank you for posting this because I don't get The Sun.

Christine  

-----Original Message-----
From: Chat-bounces at charlesvillage.info
[mailto:Chat-bounces at charlesvillage.info] On Behalf Of Brad Schlegel
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 11:52 PM
To: CVDiscussion; CVChat
Subject: [Chat] Fw: Apartments for teachers to open in city

 This story was sent to you by: W. Brad Schlegel

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Apartments for teachers to open in city
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Charles Village building to offer 36 units for rent in 'education community'

By Jen DeGregorio
The Associated Press

February 22, 2005, 12:35 PM EST
A renovated apartment building set to open this June in Baltimore's Charles
Village neighborhood will be the first in the city to offer subsidized rent
to teachers.

The Astor Court, located on the southwest corner of St. Paul and 25th
streets, will offer 36 apartments in an "education community," where
teachers can share common experiences in the building's meeting and research
rooms. The Abell Foundation, a Baltimore-based philanthropy, funded the
project to help attract new teachers to confront the problem of Baltimore's
shrinking teacher population.

The building is also meant to help accommodate more than 375 new teachers
coming to the city through the federal Teach for America program and the
Baltimore City Teaching Residency, a subsidy program for professionals who
want to become teachers.

"We wanted to provide an incentive for teachers to come to Baltimore," said
Robert C. Embry, president of the Abell Foundation. "To provide affordable
housing that is conveniently located in the city."

Teacher salaries -- which begin at about $34,000 in Maryland -- have risen
at a much slower rate over the years than those of many other entry-level
professionals, said Cheryl Bost, president of the Teacher's Association of
Baltimore County. Low pay coupled with the challenges of teaching in
inner-city schools have historically discouraged teachers from moving to
Baltimore.

"Our salaries are not competitive and we have horrible pensions," Bost said.

She pointed out that Maryland teachers get only about 40 percent of their
final year's salary in the form of a pension, which Bost said is the worst
compensation in the nation.

Teachers in Pennsylvania get about 70 percent of their final salary for
pensions, she said.

"Anything that would make it more affordable for them to live would help
recruit teachers to our area and retain the ones that we currently employ," 
Bost said.

Rent at The Astor Court will range between $425 and $450 a month for
one-bedroom units, Embry said. Rents in Charles Village are generally about
$600 a month, according to baltimorecollegetown.org, a Web site dedicated to
helping college students find affordable housing.

While the state does offer other incentives, such as tax credits and
stipends for some teachers, the idea of subsidized housing seems favored
among teachers, Embry said.

"We've had focus groups of young teachers from out of town that helped
design the project ... they're very enthusiastic in general," he said.

The Abell Foundation, which has made donations to Teach for America in the
past, said it would like to sponsor similar housing initiatives to entice
teachers to the city. But financing such projects can be difficult, Embry
said. Many lenders do not want to put up the cash for housing that is
expensive to renovate, fearing they will not see a return on their
investment.

The four-story, 1920s-era Astor Court took Baltimore-based MLR Development
Corp. more than five years to complete due to the lengthy process needed to
obtain historic and environmental tax credits. Depending on The Astor
Court's success, lenders might be inspired to fund similar projects in
neighborhoods that need teachers.

Five years from now, downtown Baltimore might be a prime location for such
projects, according to Robert Aydukovic, director of the Downtown Housing
Council.

"The way the city's pricing has been going, at least in the downtown area,
the apartments are out of [teachers'] price range," Aydukovic said.

"Right now everyone moving into downtown are largely childless people ... 
but sooner or later we're going to come to a point where people are going to
begin to age, and the 20-somethings living downtown are going to have
children," he said. When that happens, subsidized housing might be the only
way young teachers can afford to live near schools, he said.

While low-income housing is often a tough sell in neighborhoods, subsidized
housing for teachers would likely be more popular because of the positive
image associated with the profession.

The Astor Court project is a welcome addition to Charles Village, where
three nearby elementary schools are always in need of new talent, said Beth
Bullamore, president of the Charles Village Civic Association.

"It's hard enough to attract quality teachers to the city, but when they
have trouble finding rent they can afford, it's even worse," Bullamore said,
adding that rent subsidies "might even make more people consider teaching."

"The nice thing about [The Astor Court] is that it takes a building that was
having problems, renovates it, and brings a stable population ... employed
people, the kind of neighbors you'd like to have," Bullamore said.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Associated Press

Link to the article:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/realestate/bal-apartments0222,1,4641908
.story

 



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