According to The Seattle Times, a startup company based in San Francisco and founded by a former Bellevue Washington student, is pushing a plan that would split the cost of a down payment for teachers and other school staff — provided they agree to share a quarter of any profits made on the sale of the property in the future. The teachers working in the community across the lake from Seattle recently netted a pay raise but median house prices in the area are close to $1 million. The school district has also approached local developers regarding the possibility of adding mixed-use buildings that would contain affordable units for educators.
But on Thursday, district officials announced another potential solution: A startup company, founded by a former Bellevue student, would split the cost of a down payment for teachers and other school staff — provided they agree to share a quarter of any profits made on the sale of the property in the future.
Education Lab is a Seattle Times project that spotlights promising approaches to persistent challenges in public education. It is produced in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network and is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and City University of Seattle.
“We get lots of solicitations. Either people want to make money off the school district or off our employees,” said Jeff Thomas, assistant superintendent of human resources. “What’s different is this really is an opportunity to help people that aren’t able to get into homeownership — not because they don’t have a good job or steady income but because they can’t put together that down payment.”
And to get it done, Bellevue this week announced plans to partner with Landed, a San Francisco-based startup that helps educators foot the bill of a down payment on a home, in exchange for a split in future profits and losses on the investment. It’s the first such partnership in the Seattle area.
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