An ongoing affordable workforce housing development in the works by the Pasadena Unified School District since 2021 now has added urgency for the district after 120 employees lost their homes in the Eaton fire.

PUSD officials presented the latest updates of the project during a joint meeting held at city hall between the Pasadena City Council and the PUSD board of education Monday, May 12.

While members of both staffs presented on the response to the Eaton fire and discussed the joint use of facilities, the workforce housing project created the most compelling conversation and debate.

The proposed project would include 110 units on five acres of land that was previously Roosevelt Elementary School, near Orange Grove Boulevard and Walnut Street. As proposed there would be 80 apartments and 30 townhomes on the site with sizes ranging from one to four bedrooms.

All of the units would be below market rate with half designated for lower income tenants. The development would include a community building, landscaped commons and playground and a dog park.

PUSD Chief Business Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi said the housing would improve recruitment and retention of teachers and staff.

Because the district is utilizing AB 2295 and SB 35 it does not have to go through a rezoning process and is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act requirements. The two laws were passed to streamline the building of affordable housing in the state.

Members of the Pasadena City Council Monday used the joint meeting as an opportunity to press district leadership about details of the project and offered concern about a government agency getting into the landlord business.

The two bodies hold a joint meeting annually. PUSD Board of Education President Jennifer Hall Lee opened the meeting by thanking the City Council for having the trustees for an opportunity to get to know their fellow electeds and reestablish the common ties in the community that both share.

The board of education voted in 2019 to close Roosevelt along with two other schools.

Last year, Pasadena voters approved a $900 million bond measure meant to fund a number of district projects including the affordable workforce housing. The measure easily cleared the required 55% of the vote for passage.

Councilmember Tyron Hampton asked what the greater community benefit of the project would be for the city aside from the benefits for district personnel and questioned why the proposed project calls for a Mediterranean style development, which does not match the surrounding housing.

“The city of Pasadena will absolutely benefit from having the new residents living in this community economically,” PUSD Trustee Michelle Richardson Bailey said. “They’ll shop at our stores, they’ll eat at our restaurants, that is very important.”

Councilmember Jason Lyon and other council members questioned why so much of the proposed project had been developed without holding a large community meeting. Lyon referenced his own experience and messages from constituents of the district “not behaving like a great neighbor with its properties.”

“There is sometimes this feeling that PUSD is insular and talking to itself and not talking to anyone else,” Lyon said.

Bravo-Karimi said the district has met in smaller settings with neighbors and other stakeholders and plans to host a larger community meeting.

Mayor Victor Gordo, who previously voiced concerns about the project, offered a word of caution at the close of the meeting about the general concept of the government being in the business of owning rental housing property.

“We’ve seen it happen not just in Pasadena but throughout the county and the state and the country where government agencies find themselves distracted from their main focus when they become property owners and landlords,” Gordo said.

The city is currently conducting a tribal consultation process, which is expected to be done in the next one to two months. Once completed, the district will be able to submit its entitlement application. Officials said once submitted, the city has 90 days to review the application.

“I know this is staff housing but staff people have children and when children don’t have houses or they’re housing insecure it is much harder for them to achieve high academic achievement and we are in academic achievement,” Hall Lee said. “That’s what we do.”