Housing Support
TRiO+ advances educational equity by improving housing affordability for Oakland teachers.
Our collaborating landlords offer exclusive, discounted apartments to pre-screened Oakland teachers, and privately funded guaranteed housing stipends bridge the affordability gap. Data suggest that students perform better when their teachers look like them and share life experiences, so by improving recruitment and retention of teachers of color, TRiO+ can improve student outcomes for Oakland’s diverse student population.
What is TRiO?
TRiO+ is the growth strategy for Teachers Rooted in Oakland, or TRiO.
Developed in 2020 by the Oakland Mayor’s Office in collaboration with private philanthropy and property owners, TRiO aims to improve recruitment and retention of teachers of color in Oakland by making housing more affordable for these pillars of our community.
TRiO matches teachers with collaborating landlords to secure discounted apartments, further supported by philanthropically funded housing stipends. The ongoing TRiO pilot is expected to support over 100 Oakland teachers in hard-to-staff subjects like STEM and Special Education over nine years.
TRiO participants enter the program as Teacher Residents, who complete a one-year master’s program and receive a $18,000 per year state-funded stipend. TRiO’s subsidy program further supports Teacher Residents by offering a monthly housing subsidy of $1,500 and through partnerships with landlords, preferential access to discounted Oakland apartments.
As fully credentialed teachers, participants then receive an additional four years of support via a $500 per month housing stipend, provided they remain within the Oakland Unified School District. Through our nonprofit partner Community Development Finance, we also offer teachers financial coaching, education and low-cost financial services.
Our Funding partners include: Bank of America, The California Endowment, the Lisa Stone Pritzker Family Foundation, the Teachers Housing Cooperative, the Hellman Foundation and the Akonadi Foundation. We have raised $2.5 million on our way to the $5.5 million needed to fully fund the pilot.