Helping Educators Buy Homes in Their Communities with Landed

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is starting a new fund with Landed to help at least 60 educators who work in Redwood City, Ravenswood City, and Sequoia Union High School — districts with some of the highest housing costs in the US — buy homes near where they work.

While this fund will serve a modest number of educators relative to the need in the Bay Area, we plan to reinvest any revenue from home sales back into this fund, serving more over time. More broadly, our hope is that our partnership with Landed will help create a sustainable model to help make homeownership a reality for more educators and others at risk of getting priced out of the communities they serve.

“It’s a real gift to feel rooted in this community, to know that I have the security and stability of long-term housing.”

Sonya, an Oakland kindergarten teacher, shares an all too familiar struggle she and many educators across the US face when looking to buy a home near their school: “I know lots of educators who feel conflicted — either I leave teaching or I leave the Bay Area. You feel forced to choose between which of those passions you care about more. Particularly if you have kids, or want to buy a home, want to be here long-term and don’t want to resign yourself to financial insecurity.”

Fortunately for Sonya, she learned about Landed, an organization that helps provide down payment assistance to educators buying homes in or near the communities where they serve. With the help of Landed and other local investors, Sonya was able to buy a home in her neighborhood just 10 minutes from her school.

Interested educators can learn more at blog.landed.com/czi/