Are you a PreK–12 public school employee looking for quality housing you can afford?

Rooted Housing Marketplace

The Rooted Housing Marketplace is where educators can find quality rental housing with exclusive discounts and benefits just for them, averaging over $2,000 in savings per year.

If you’re an educator, you can sign up for the marketplace and start browsing our available housing, or contact us to learn more about securing discounted housing through Rooted.

If you’re a housing provider, get in touch with us here.

By opting units into the marketplace, housing providers not only gain access to reliable tenants, they support their communities by helping educators live in the neighborhoods where they teach. Providers benefit from reduced vacancy, fewer unit tours, and lower marketing costs.

Stronger schools help drive higher property values. That’s why many of our participating providers see their involvement as not just the right thing to do for their communities, but also a smart investment in their properties and portfolios.

If you’re a property owner or manager, contact us to get your units listed on our marketplace.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Rooted Affordable Housing Marketplace (“Marketplace”) is where public school district employees can find rental housing with discounts and benefits just for them. Discounted units are contributed by participating housing providers interested in renting to teachers and other district employees (collectively, “educators”). This helps housing providers fill vacancies with successful tenancies while helping educators serve our kids.
Units from participating housing providers are listed on the Rooted Affordable Housing Marketplace. Each listing includes details on educator-specific discounts and benefits. When educators are interested in a unit, Rooted facilitates the connection with the provider of that unit, and the educator can tour and apply directly. We also ensure the educator has access to our associated services, from security deposit support to free financial coaching.
No. Rooted only lists housing from independent, third-party housing providers who have agreed to a discount and benefits package just for educators.
No. Rooted negotiates discounted rent on behalf of educators. Educators are responsible for paying their rent on time and adhering to all provisions of their lease, just like any other tenant.
As a small and partial exception, Rooted currently maintains some limited housing stipend programs offered in partnership with the OUSD Oakland Teacher Residency and Classified-to-Teacher (“C2T”) programs.
At this time, only Oakland Unified School District and Life Learning Academy employees (“educators”) qualify for this program. To find out more about qualifying for Rooted, please contact us directly at support@rooted-housing.org.
Rooted provides additional services to educators who find housing through its Marketplace. This includes personalized housing search assistance, as well as financial wellness services: a Security Deposit Payment Program, free one-on-one financial coaching, and more depending on the participating landlord.
Financial coaching is available to all educators, whether or not they find housing through our Marketplace.
A minimal role. Once a lease has been signed, the primary relationship is between the housing provider and educator who rents from them. We do offer free one-on-one coaching to all educators at any time during their lease.
At this time, only housing in the city of Oakland is available on the Marketplace consistently. We have begun to add apartments in surrounding cities and are actively evaluating expansion possibilities. Contact us to find out about making the Marketplace available for educators where you live.
As a rule, all units on the Marketplace carry some special discount and/or benefit package just for educators, and only available through Rooted. Rent discounts vary, but we aim to partner with housing providers who grant an 8-10% discount or its equivalent.
Generally, this results in one free month of rent. Educators can see each unit’s pricing on the Marketplace.
Units are added to the Marketplace and maintained by the Rooted staff - there is no administrative burden on the landlord or property manager. If you are a housing provider looking to partner, please contact jack@rooted-housing.org.
Rooted strongly encourages landlords and property managers to follow their standard processes in ensuring tenants qualify on a credit and income basis.
To support educators in understanding affordability, Rooted listings have an “Affordability Meter” that shows each unit’s rent relative to household income. The final decision of whether to accept a housing application from a Rooted educator is 100% at the discretion of the housing provider.