If you’re not a wealthy computer industry big shot, Silicon Valley is not an easy place to live - especially if you’re a cash-strapped teacher. Santa Clara Unified School District in the heart of the hi-tech corridor, just south of San Francisco, is home to some of America’s most exorbitant house prices. A modest home will set you back around $575,000, according to local estate agents, while renting a one-bedroom apartment will leave no change from $1,500 a month.

The California education authority pays competitive salaries by US teaching standards, starting at $45,000 a year. New teachers in other regions earn as little as $17,000 to $20,000. But in Brownsville, Alabama, you are unlikely to be rubbing shoulders with millionaire software moguls.

Accordingly, Santa Clara’s 24 schools have found themselves stung as teachers voted with their feet and deserted in droves for cheaper regions where they could afford homes. Roger Barnes, the district’s business administrator and community relations officer, says recruiters have needed to lure 150 new teachers a year to replace those driven out by spiralling costs.

But a new housing scheme may have staunched the exodus and could offer an answer for other authorities battling to retain teachers. In the first initiative of its kind on this side of the Atlantic, education officials in Silicon Valley have built a complex just for teachers and made it available at a fraction of the market rate.

“During exit interviews,” Mr Barnes says, “teachers were saying: ‘We can’t afford to live here.’ So we thought: ‘What can we do to help with housing? Maybe we can build our own apartments.’” This April, just 18 months later, the first teacher moved into the purpose-built Casa Del Maestro (Spanish for “house of the teacher”). Today, nearly 60 call it home.

As you would expect at ground zero for new technology, each unit is wired for high-speed Internet access. Using its own plot of land, the authority splashed out $6 million on construction, which it hopes to recoup in rent. The 40 units range from $650 a month for a one-bedroom apartment to just over $1,000 for two bedrooms - that’s half the rate of many of the dilapidated apartments in the area. Many teachers double up with colleagues to save even more.

Santa Clara aims to slash turnover and persuade teachers to make a long-term commitment to local schools. And the plan seems to be working. This year, the authority had to fill just 22 vacancies. Katherine Watson says that at Pomeroy elementary school, where she teaches, no teachers have left in the past year. Four years ago, half its staff of 23 resigned to relocate.

Ms Watson, 26, is one of the Casa’s new tenants. As with her neighbours, her name came out of the hat during the lottery used to assign the limited number of vacancies. The event was staged at a local country club last September. Teachers, nurses and counsellors with the district for less than three years were eligible. All Casa tenants can stay for five years.

Moving into the complex allowed Ms Watson to escape a $900-a-month room in a cramped apartment with two flatmates. “I was flat broke at the end of the month,” she says. Now she shares a spacious two-bedroom unit with a colleague for just $545 per month. It’s a convenient 15-minute walk from the school where she teaches seven to nine-year-olds. Her favourite feature is the walk-in wardrobe, although the real boon is the financial cushion that will allow her to save up for a house.

“Every month I put money aside. At the end of five years, I should have enough,” she says.

Aimee Brinks also relishes the financial lifeline offered to her by her new abode. The first-year infant teacher at nearby Ponderosa elementary school was forking out half of her salary on rent and utility bills before she was picked from more than 100 applicants for a berth at the Casa. “It’s really great to have a place I know I can stay for five years and save money towards buying a house,” says Ms Brinks, also 26.

Before taking up residence, she was forced to move five times in four years as landlords raised rents, and she ended up paying $1,000 a month for a room in a house. Now Ms Brinks pays $730 for the run of a spacious one-bedroom apartment. “I feel safe living by myself,” she says. “I enjoy having colleagues around me, and it’s well lit.”

Roger Barnes hopes that both will graduate to the mortgage loan scheme offered by Santa Clara. This is the second line of attack in the authority’s strategy to keep staff loyal. Teachers are offered $500 a month - interest-free and for five years - towards their mortgage payments.

The authority uses $10m lent by local computer chip giant Intel at a special low rate of interest to bankroll the scheme. “Intel wants to recruit employees by telling them there are good schools in California so it’s in their interest to create a stable teacher workforce,” says Mr Barnes. So far, 33 teachers have signed up. And judging by the interest this is stirring up in America, other education authorities may well follow Santa Clara’s lead. Mr Barnes says he’s received enquiries from officials as far afield as San Diego, near the Mexican border, and Nantucket Island, off the Massachusetts coast.

To her teaching buddies across the US, Aimee Brinks, for one, has become an evangelist for the Silicon Valley scheme. “When I tell them, they are completely floored,” she says. “You hear all the time that teachers are underpaid, but there’s no follow-through - Santa Clara is stepping up to the plate.”

lIn the UK, the Government funds the Starter Home Initiative, which allows keyworkers such as teachers to apply for a pound;10,000 interest-free loan to help bridge the gap between home prices and the amounts that teachers would normally be allowed to borrow to buy property. There are also a number of housing associations and shared ownership schemes offering support to teachers. For more information on subsidised housing schemes, see the website www.housingcorp.gov.uk