Housing Costs Pushing Teachers Far From School

"What that means, up in Baltimore, is any of the crack districts, any of the undesirable neighborhoods," said Fenimore, sipping a latte at a bookstore near the apartment she can no longer afford. Instead, she will spend the summer with the family of a girl she taught at chorus camp last year, living rent-free in exchange for painting the house.

"That's going to help me pay for earnest money, home inspection and possibly carpets," she said, planning for her eventual home purchase.

Fenimore works two other jobs when she's not teaching at Crofton Woods. She travels around the county to teach voice and piano in students' homes. She also tutors children in math and reading at a Huntington Learning Center in Edgewater.

"If I didn't do that, there's no way I could make ends meet," she said.

Born and raised in Alberta, Canada, Fenimore worked in the music business in Nashville and waitressed at a pancake restaurant before retraining as a teacher in her mid-twenties.

Her parents, still in Nashville, are close to retirement, and Fenimore won't ask them for financial help: "I wasn't raised that way."

And yet, she can barely keep up her current pace.

"I'm not 25 years old anymore," she said, between sips of the coffee drink. "I do get tired. I'm becoming more dependent on the caffeine."

Fenimore will spend the summer looking for townhouses around Fort Meade, a community still within her price range, for now.

"In Howard County, I can't afford anything," she said. "In Calvert County, I can afford a double-wide trailer."