Dewling Strategies · For California school districts
Can your district build staff housing? Find out before you hire a consultant.
Since January 1, 2026, housing for district staff is an allowable use on district-owned land that meets the tests in state law. The free California Education Workforce Housing Planner answers your board’s first questions in an afternoon: which sites qualify, which staff are priced out, what mix meets the law, and how big the funding gap is.
What the planner answers
The four questions every board asks
Most districts that look at staff housing stall at the same point: nobody can say yet whether it would work on their land, for their staff, at their costs. The planner gives a first, defensible answer to each question.
Which of our sites qualify?
Screens each site against Government Code § 65914.7 as amended by AB 1021 and labels it Eligible, Confirm, or Not eligible, with the allowed density, height, and unit capacity.
Who is priced out?
Applies your county’s 2026 income limits to each staff group and shows who would pay more than 30% of income for a market rental near work.
What mix meets the law?
Tests your unit mix against both affordability options, estimates rents for each tier, and flags any restricted rent that would sit above market.
What would it cost, and what is missing?
Builds the development budget and a 30-year pro forma, sizes the loan the rents can carry, stacks bonds, certificates of participation, tax credits, and grants, and shows the gap.
What changed
The 2026 law in brief
AB 1021 rewrote Government Code § 65914.7, effective January 1, 2026. The planner checks each of these tests for you.
What a project gets
- Housing is an allowable use: no rezoning, use permit, or variance
- Density of at least twice the jurisdiction’s housing element default
- Height of at least 35 feet, and more near a major transit stop
- Staff of the district get first priority for units
What a project must meet
- At least 10 units, on land the district owned on January 1, 2026
- Option A (30% lower and 20% moderate income) or Option B (12% very low, 15% lower, and 20% moderate income)
- A 55-year affordability restriction
- Inside any urban limit line, meeting local infrastructure requirements and fees
How it works
From “we own land” to a board report
- RegisterOpen the planner with your name and work email.
- Load your sitesStart from the worked example or enter your own sites and county.
- Add staff groupsType them in or upload them from Excel, by job group, not by name.
- Test the programSet the unit mix, costs, and funding sources and watch the checks update.
- Take it to the boardDownload the PDF report or switch to presentation mode.
Built for districts
Practical, private, and ready for a board packet
- Uses the 2026 HCD State Income Limits for all 58 counties
- No staff names or individual salaries are entered
- District numbers stay in your own browser and are not sent to us
- Works for school districts and county offices of education
- Plain-language results with a green, amber, and red readiness check
- A companion guide explains every result and what to do when it is red
- Saves your work and exports it to share with colleagues
- Grew out of real owner-side advisory work with a California district
Who built it
An owner-side advisor who has developed institutional land
Greg Dewling is the founder and principal of Dewling Strategies Inc. and owner-side advisor to a California school district on its workforce housing program.
He was the inaugural President and CEO of the University of Alberta Properties Trust, where he led land development on university land through long-term ground leases, and held executive leadership at Civida, one of Alberta’s largest affordable housing providers.
B.Th, MBA, CIHCM, ICD.D
Want a second set of eyes on your results?
Run your district’s numbers, then book a 30-minute call to walk through them with Greg before they go to your board.
The planner is for early planning and board discussion. Its results are a starting point for your legal counsel, your planning department, and your cost estimator, not a substitute for them.
