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Where's a new teacher to live?

School districts are looking for an answer as housing prices soar.

TALLAHASSEE - Megan Hamilton got a job teaching third-graders in the Naples area after she graduated from college.

But she had to quit before teaching a single lesson because she couldn't find an affordable place to live in one of Florida's most expensive home markets.

"The prices were outrageous for one person on a teacher's salary," the 23-year-old said. "If I wasn't coming in with student loans and debt, I might have been able to scrape by and do it."

Skyrocketing home prices have made it difficult for teachers to come to Florida, a state where teacher salaries are $6,000 below the national average. School district leaders say they are struggling to attract teachers, even as they try to meet restrictions on class sizes that voters approved four years ago.

"It's not just in the coastal areas," where housing costs have jumped the highest, said Jack Lamb, president of the Florida School Board Association. "It's in any area that's experiencing growth."

Median home prices in Florida were $248,700 at the end of the 2004-2005 school year, and a homeowner would need to earn about $53,000 annually to be able to afford that, according to advice from banks that homeowners should spend no more than a third of their gross income on housing.

But the average teacher salary in Florida was about $41,600 for that school year, according to the state Education Department.

School administrators across the state talk about teachers who make long commutes - or quit altogether - because they can't afford to live where they work.

"We have a pending crisis," said Ray Baker, school superintendent for Collier County, where Hamilton would have worked. The average teacher pay there is about $46,000 and the median home costs about $500,000. Someone would have to earn more than $100,000 a year to pay for that.

Baker lost 16 teachers in August, all new hires who quit before the first day of school because they couldn't find a place to live.

"Sixteen is manageable. If we have 160 next August, it's not manageable," Baker said. "What it did for me is ring the bell."

It's not just a problem for Florida's teachers. Nurses, police officers and store managers all struggle to find affordable housing on a midlevel income.

The problem is one of the top issues the Legislature is considering in its annual session. Lawmakers have introduced at least 30 bills addressing affordable housing for a range of groups, including workers, the elderly and poor.

Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, introduced a bill (HB 1363) that he said would provide $50-million in grants for local communities to build affordable housing on properties they already own.

Sen. Frederica Wilson, who was a Miami school principal for 12 years, proposed legislation (SB 1192) to give teachers a cost-of-living bonus every year.

All those ideas may be too late for Hamilton, who is teaching second grade in Las Vegas.

[Last modified March 19, 2006, 01:06:13]