Soledad Union School District will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open its 20-unit staff housing development on Tuesday, Oct. 27.
The apartments are in a two-story building in Soledad’s downtown at the corner of Monterey and Soledad streets, within walking distance of several schools.
“This is in the perfect location to get you to anywhere you want to go in town,” says SUSD Superintendent Deborah Gorgulho.
The development includes 12 one-bedroom apartments and eight two-bedroom apartments with several amenities. Those include a residents’ lounge, a library room and private on-site parking.
The district received around 50 applications and tenants were selected through a lottery system.
The move-in date is expected for Nov. 1.
Gorgulho says brand-new teachers and staff rooming with coworkers ranked higher on the priority list.
“We are offering these units to our workforce for about 75 percent of market value… so that they can ideally save money and save enough eventually to buy their own place and stay in the community,” Gorgulho says. Rent will be $1,725 a month for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,025 for a two-bedroom.
Originally, the city and school district planned this as a partnership. In the end, both parted ways with this idea and decided to create their own projects (In 2024 the city approved an agreement for affordable housing with SUSD).
Measure N, a $13.75 million bond voters approved in November 2020, funded the project. The units will be for school district employees.
SUSD is the third school district in the past five years to open staff housing. Salinas Union and Monterey Peninsula Unified school districts opened their own in 2023 and 2025, respectively.