need help on where to live !!!!! Moving From Georgia to teach in Los Angeles for Teach For America ! (Long Beach: apartment complexes, rentals)

[hayesburrow]

Hey everyone,

I recently accepted an offer from Teach For America (Moderator cut: link removed) to teach 7-12 grade math in Los Angeles. I am graduating from the University of Georgia and moving to L.A. for two years to teach and improve the education of high schoolers in low-income areas. I will be making a decent salary for a college graduate who only needs to take care of himself.

I was wondering on some nice, affordable (I may have 1-3 other roommates, but alone is always an option), and preferably furnished apartments or something closer to the ocean (i like to surf), in a relatively safe area. Here we have a lot of off-campus / Athens area apartment complexes that offer good amenities and are furnished. So "student themed" housing is fine.


Thanks for the Help !

[ferretkona]

What you may consider a decent salary in Georgia is not going to go very far in CA.
Any rentals near the beach will be costly.

[JohnG72]

Well here is the thing...you do not mention who you will be working for.

For the moment I'll assume its LAUSD, and the advice may be different if its someone else.

The reason for this is that once you factor in traffic, living in certain parts of LA and working in others become prohibitive. Basically you shouldn't be doing over an hour commute and considering your type of work, theres really no reason to ever be doing over a 30 minute commute. Some of the work locations may not allow for living near the ocean as its simply too far of a daily commute. Keep in mind that there is basically no where in LA County that is more than an hour drive from the beach on weekends except maybe places out past the SFV.

So my advice is that you live with roommates in either Long Beach or in Westminster/Playa Del Rey. Both are relatively inexpensive as far as coastal living in So Cal is concerned, both are within a 15 minute drive of good surfing areas(in South Bay for Westminster/PDR and Huntington Beach for Long Beach), and both are a 30 minute commute from ghetto Los Angeles.

Obv though if you are assigned to work else where, it will benefit you to simply live as close to your work as is feasible(since the neighborhoods might be very rough).

[hayesburrow]

I'll prob have roughly a 40ish thousand dollar salary and I'll be communting on a motorcycle and I know lane sharing is legal in Cali so that should cut my commute some

[JohnG72]

If thats the case and you are willing to make the commute, the bike will help. You can find one bedroom apartments in Huntington Beach in the $1000-1300 range and will be less than a mile from the water...perhaps even walking distance. The apartments will be older, and dated, but its one of the best places in So Cal to live IMO.

I'm not sure you can find the same thing in LA county in the surfing areas...South Bay and Malibu.

[A1Lexo]

at 40k a year, with just a bike and being single you can afford any area, just depends on how big a place you want and how far of a commute you are down with.

[edmcrocker]

Originally Posted by JohnG72

Well here is the thing...you do not mention who you will be working for.

For the moment I'll assume its LAUSD, and the advice may be different if its someone else.

The reason for this is that once you factor in traffic, living in certain parts of LA and working in others become prohibitive. Basically you shouldn't be doing over an hour commute and considering your type of work, theres really no reason to ever be doing over a 30 minute commute. Some of the work locations may not allow for living near the ocean as its simply too far of a daily commute. Keep in mind that there is basically no where in LA County that is more than an hour drive from the beach on weekends except maybe places out past the SFV.

So my advice is that you live with roommates in either Long Beach or in Westminster/Playa Del Rey. Both are relatively inexpensive as far as coastal living in So Cal is concerned, both are within a 15 minute drive of good surfing areas(in South Bay for Westminster/PDR and Huntington Beach for Long Beach), and both are a 30 minute commute from ghetto Los Angeles.

Obv though if you are assigned to work else where, it will benefit you to simply live as close to your work as is feasible(since the neighborhoods might be very rough).

think you mean Westchester, not Westminster.

[jaypee]

Will you be teaching at one school or will you be bouncing around?

[yoyoma02]

I have a lot of friends who did Teach for America in LA.

I’m not sure where you would be teaching, but the main office is downtown so I’m sure you’ll have to be there quite a bit. If that’s the case, most of the Teach for America crew I know lives in Santa Monica or North Venice, near Main St. Or, if you’re the hipster type, check out Silver Lake or Los Feliz; I know a few TFA friends live over there too.

For what it’s worth, teachers start out making around $40k, but most get bumped up to $60k after two years of teaching, so financially you should be fine.

[hayesburrow]

I'll get placed at one school and teach there for 2 years and thanks for the advice guys! And are there any furnished apartments in the long beach or Santa Monica area?