Low Income — High Rent
Can people live in San Francisco earning low income wage?
San francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country
The cost of housing in San Francisco is a really serious problem for residents. A lot of people are getting affected by this situation. There are families that earn low income wages but have five or more family members, Those families cannot afford for a suitable house. Most Families struggle to make the money for rent, they can barely afford for it, although there are more expenses they have to pay.
My family’s reality is really hard there are five people including myself. I got no help but my mom’s. I see her always struggling to afford for rent. We live really crow. My siblings are in the age of puberty this age is when they need more privacy. My mom is planning to move because in the city it’s too expensive to be living and most for we as low-income family. My mom works as a janitor at night. she can barely afford for the gas, garbage, etc. there have been few times where we have not gone to vacations because of the same reason. The expensive rent don’t let people save money.
In my opinion the cost of Housing is too high. Why should people pay up to $1,600 for a single room? In other cities people don’t pay that much. I think that the city should agree to have more affordable housing for low-income families. It is not fair to pay all their wages, when you don’t even make that much. And also knowing that they still have to pay much more (like, school supply, clothes, shoes, mensual phone payment etc). It is also not fair that because wealthier people can afford for a big nice apartment, people who work at Mcdonalds, Burger King, Janitor, Cleaning schools, house cleaners etc. pay the same even though they earn minimum wage because it is much more less. In the USA Most wealthy people are white. They have more opportunities, compared to people from differents countries specially people who come from latin america. Who is most affected? “illegal families” are the ones who are most affected with this situation. Immigrants can not earn more than the minimum wage because it is difficult to find a good job where the employer do not ask for legal papers.
Rent in San Francisco has increased a lot in the past two years. The average on the increment is 36% according to website smartasset.com the author also said that san francisco is more expensive from NY. This affect people from low income because they can not afford for a house. Nick Wallace also said that if people earn 83,788 annually they can afford to pay. But unfortunately a lot of population in San Francisco do not earn that much they earn at least the half of the amount. People working at McDonalds earn $25,000 per year compare to the people working at google earn $129,772 According to glassdoor.com. This is a big income difference. This is a big problem that impact a lot of residents in san francisco. Even people who have lived in the city is getting affected by this situation. When the minimum wage goes up all goods and rent increase as well.
One possible solution of this situation is to reduce the cost of housing for low income families. This will give an opportunity for families to share time with their kids. Also families will feel less stress and less pressure for rent. Even Though there are programs like Mercy Housing that help Low Income people. This is not enough because people have to be in the waiting list for long time. My mom applied five years ago to Marcy Housing and she is still waiting for an affordable apartment. Last time she called to check what place she was on, they said she is still in the 20th place. How long it will take to get a affordable apartment? What if rent was proportional (like a percentage of what you make instead of and absolute number)?
There is a law in San Francisco that there can not be more than a certain amount of buildings(they want the view). By changing this law to make more affordable housing for people that need the price of housing to be a bit low. When I say affordable housing does not means “living for free”. I mean have more reasonable housing according the rate income of the family. Now, Do you think low income families should have affordable housing? In my opinion YES! Low income families should definitely have affordable housing. But, WHY? Well because they do the jobs that make San Francisco a great city and place to live. Understanding affordable housing we are able to also understand the economic inequality that we in the city have. The community can help by creating new programs being focus on low income families, or even building new apartment only for low income families. In conclusion rent in San Francisco is not reasonable for families with minimum wage. Instead of everything is really expensive. It’s almost impossible to survive and live in the city.
