News & Insights
Photo courtesy of: Greg Land
Why addressing workforce housing requires a private-sector mindset
Across California and beyond, school districts are facing a mounting crisis: they cannot attract or retain the educators, bus drivers, aides, and administrators they desperately need because those individuals can’t afford to live in the communities they serve. This reality directly affects the quality of education districts are able to deliver to children and families.
The challenge is clear, but the path forward is not always obvious. After decades working in both the public and private sectors, I’ve learned this: when school districts approach workforce housing with the mindset of a public agency, they often run into bureaucratic walls. But when they apply principles from the private sector—speed, efficiency, and a focus on outcomes—they can unlock new opportunities.
This doesn’t mean districts should act like businesses. It means borrowing what works from the business world to solve one of the most pressing issues in education today. Below are five business concepts that, when thoughtfully applied to the public sector, can help school districts become more efficient, reduce costs, and accelerate progress toward workforce housing solutions.
Businesses succeed by weighing cost against impact. School districts can do the same. Instead of viewing land as a dormant asset or surplus, treat it as an investment opportunity. Leveraging underutilized school property to support needs typically not covered by the general fund—such as workforce housing—directly improves recruitment, reduces turnover costs, and enhances student outcomes by keeping great educators in place.
Ask yourself: What’s the ROI of stable housing for our employees?
The answer: retention, continuity, morale, reduced stress, and positive impacts on both the environment and student performance.
In the private sector, time is money. Every month of delay means rising construction costs, missed opportunities, and prolonged staff shortages.
Too often, public entities get caught in process over progress. A private-sector mindset reverses that: define the goal, assemble the team, and move forward. This doesn’t mean cutting corners—it means streamlining decision-making, empowering your team, and aligning stakeholders around clear deliverables and timelines.
Smart businesses don’t act on instinct; they act on insight. Yet many school districts make major facilities or housing decisions based on anecdotes or outdated assumptions. Too often, they engage a developer before even defining their true need.
Districts must first invest in data: Who’s leaving and why? Where do staff live, and how long are their commutes? How does rent compare to monthly pay? How many positions went unfilled last year due to cost-of-living challenges? These metrics are critical—and should be the foundation of any housing strategy.
At B&D, we help districts launch and implement workforce housing programs using real-time employee data collected through surveys, stakeholder engagements, and staff interviews. Once leaders see the hard numbers, urgency becomes clear—and so does the path forward.
In the private sector, no one builds alone. Partnerships bring expertise, capital, and speed to a project.
School districts should adopt the same approach. You don’t need to be a housing expert in land use, planning, or financing. You just need the right partners—experts who can guide the process and create not just a study, but an implementable plan tailored to district needs. That plan may eventually involve nonprofits, joint powers authorities, or innovative RFPs that attract mission-driven developers.
Strong partnerships accelerate projects; poor ones stall them. A business-savvy lens helps districts evaluate and negotiate from a position of strength.
Private-sector organizations thrive—or fail—based on accountability: clear goals, defined timelines, and responsible parties.
Public agencies often operate with looser structures, especially for long-term projects like workforce housing. The result? Drifting timelines, shifting priorities, and lost momentum.
To succeed, districts must assign internal champions—leaders with the authority and responsibility to see a housing initiative through from start to finish. Progress must be measured. Wins celebrated. Missed benchmarks addressed head-on.
The educator workforce crisis is systemic, but solutions are within reach. The most successful districts I’ve seen are those that lead like successful businesses: vision-driven, data-informed, outcome-focused, and agile.
If schools want to remain competitive in the labor market, they must embrace the positive attributes of private enterprise. That means viewing housing not as a side issue, but as a core strategy for workforce attraction and retention.
Yes, school leadership is in the “business of education.” That doesn’t mean abandoning the core mission of teaching and learning. But to truly support teachers and staff as they live and work in the community, leaders must also pay attention to the “business” side of that phrase. The mission of education is far too important to be hindered by outdated processes. By borrowing best practices from the private sector and applying them in service of our schools, we can create stronger systems for our staff—and, ultimately, better outcomes for our students.
Al Grazioli is a vice president in Brailsford & Dunlavey’s Southern California PK-14 practice, where he leads initiatives to repurpose underutilized educational assets, particularly in affordable housing, to support school priorities. With over 20 years of experience in real estate and educational facility development, including leadership roles at LAUSD, he is recognized as an expert in workforce housing and resource management. He can be reached at agrazioli@bdconnect.com.
