Wake County leaders are pitching a plan to build affordable housing for teachers and school employees on unused land next to five public schools, as officials warn that more than half of surveyed school staff say they cannot afford to live where they work. The proposal, set to be presented to the Wake County school board and county commissioners on Wednesday, would target vacant parcels near Heritage High in Wake Forest, Salem Middle in Apex, Carpenter Elementary in Cary, Hilburn Drive Academy in Raleigh, and Morrisville Elementary.
The push comes amid stark numbers on educator housing strain. A joint employee survey conducted by Wake County and the Wake County Public School System found that 52% of responding staff agreed they could not afford to live in Wake County, and 38% said they had considered leaving the district specifically because of housing costs, according to Wake County Government. A concurrent countywide community survey showed 56% of residents ranked affordable housing as a top local priority. As WRAL reports, Wake County currently has no program offering affordable teacher housing, and county spokesperson Kate Maroney said the proposal is focused on affordable housing generally rather than a specific population.
Wake County is weighing several housing types for the sites, including multifamily buildings, townhomes, attached and detached single-family homes, patio homes, and cottage courts, per the same WRAL report. County leaders plan to give priority to WCPSS teachers and employees, though the housing would also be open to the general public. Maroney cautioned that many steps still need to be taken before anything is built, and the county does not expect all five school sites to end up in a final plan.
A Land Swap Years in the Making
The housing push is tied to a larger land swap. Wake County wants to trade control of jointly owned eastern Raleigh land to the school district, while receiving school district land in west Raleigh near the state fairgrounds in return, the station's report notes. The county controls planning and use of the eastern land and believes the school district could eventually build a middle school and an elementary school south of that property; the county separately plans a new animal center on the same eastern parcel. In exchange, Wake County intends to use the west Raleigh land near the fairgrounds for additional county offices. The city of Raleigh also co-owns the eastern land, adding another layer to the negotiations.
Before any housing can rise on the Carpenter Elementary site, the Wake County school board would need to formally declare that unused land surplus, the article notes. That step reflects a broader statutory hurdle facing districts statewide: under North Carolina General Statute 115C-518, local school boards are generally barred from putting public school property to non-educational use unless the General Assembly passes local-act legislation or the land is declared surplus and transferred, according to the North Carolina General Assembly.
Nearly Four Years Before Move-In
Even if every approval falls into place, families and educators should not expect quick relief. Joint planning guidelines from Wake County and WCPSS estimate that developing a mid-size multifamily project on exchanged surplus school property takes about 45 months, or roughly 3.75 years, according to Wake County Government. That timeline spans site analysis, land exchange negotiations, developer requests for proposals, financing assembly, and construction.
The affordability squeeze behind the proposal is compounding rather than easing. North Carolina's state base teacher pay is set to rise an average of 8% in 2026, but housing costs in the state are climbing even faster, per WRAL. Rents in Wake County have jumped nearly 50% since 2014, according to Zillow figures cited by the outlet, while home prices in the county have doubled since 2010, per Carolina Demography. Wake County has also lost 59% of its rental units priced below $750 per month since 2010, prompting the county and Raleigh to establish a $61.6 million Affordable Housing Preservation Fund aimed at preserving more than 3,100 low- and moderate-income units over 15 years, according to Wake County Government.
Budget Pressures Complicate the Picture
The housing pitch also arrives as WCPSS grapples with fresh fiscal strain. State-mandated teacher raises enacted in July 2026 created a recurring $17.6 million funding gap for the district to cover required local matching pay and benefits, according to Citizen Portal. Those state raises reached up to 17.1% for beginning teachers, exceeding the 3% local raise estimate the district had budgeted for. Just last year, in June 2025, Wake County Commissioners voted to reduce seed funding for the county's Housing Opportunity Fund by $1 million annually over five years in order to fully fund a $40.3 million operating budget increase requested by WCPSS, alongside a 0.36-cent property tax increase.
Wake County's efforts also follow other recent local investments. In bond-funded affordable homes near Western Boulevard, Raleigh and Wake County opened the 144-unit Parkside Apartments in July 2026, built with $11.7 million in combined public funding for households earning 30% to 80% of area median income, with Raleigh contributing $6 million from its 2020 Affordable Housing Bond package.
How Other North Carolina Counties Are Handling It
Wake County is not alone in exploring school-land housing. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners agreed in May 2026 to acquire the former Smith School property to develop 100 to 300 multifamily housing units, reserving 20% specifically for public school teachers, according to WCNC, with remaining units set aside for county employees. In Brunswick County, commissioners unanimously set aside 12 acres of a 98-acre parcel in Supply this past April for Brunswick County Schools to construct an affordable teacher housing complex, land that had originally been designated for future school facility expansion, per Port City Daily.
Dare County Schools built North Carolina's first district-affiliated teacher housing developments in Kill Devil Hills and Hatteras using 0% financing from the SECU Foundation, and in July 2026 received $1.15 million in county funding to construct a 12-unit expansion, according to The Outer Banks Life. Dare County obtained explicit state authorization under Session Law 2004-16 to lease district land for below-market teacher rentals — the kind of legislative workaround that districts such as Durham have also needed. Bertie, Buncombe, and Hoke county school districts likewise have or will soon have more-affordable teacher housing programs, per WRAL, while Durham has a partnership with Duke University that houses Duke teaching graduates in two houses on the university's campus.
WRAL notes that teacher housing was common a century ago but has resurfaced in a modern form, with today's developments typically resembling multifamily housing aimed at early-career teachers and functioning as a recruitment tool for districts competing for staff. Whether Wake County's version moves forward now depends on the school board, county commissioners, and the multi-year approval process still ahead.
