Nearing the end of his 12-hour nursing shift at Stanford Health Care one recent evening, TJ Carella ticked through the possible options for where he might sleep that night, none of which would be the bed in his East Bay home.
For 13 years, he has worked at the hospital as a registered nurse helping patients suffering from life-or-death emergencies, a job that requires him to be on call several nights a week. Should a complication arise with a patient, Carella and nurses like him have to be able to be at the hospital in 30 minutes or less.
But he can’t afford to live near his place of work in the heart of Silicon Valley, where the average home costs more than $3 million . Instead, he lives an hour’s drive away in Pleasanton with his wife and three children…