where do low wage workers live? (San Francisco, Oakland: middle-class, real estate, apartments)

[orngkat]

This past week, my husband and I stayed in SF since we were attending a family wedding in Napa. It is our second visit and as native Texans, we marvel at the wonderful urban setting and beautiful topography. The crowdedness takes some getting used to since we are used to wide open spaces. We elected to get everywhere via public transit and quickly learned that one has to be very aggressive. One of the things we wonder about though as outsiders is where do all the lower wage workers, ie grocery clerks, waiters, live assuming that SF real estate is out of their reach? Just curious...Do they live in the city proper or commute from long distances?

[hsw]

Many live in City of SF...

Need to consider that many "low-wage" jobs in SF, like waiters at busy, higher-end restaurants and many city/state/non-profit (universities like UCSF) employees earn roughly $100K/yr...and city, etc employees have full health and pension benefits (and are difficult to fire in any economy; the modern-day union jobs)...and many lower-wage immigrants, etc manage to live in City somewhere, so anything's possible if one lowers living standards sufficiently...

Much of SF, like NYC or Chicago or any large older city, is full of slums, rent-controlled apts, and old houses that were bought 2-3 decades ago (housing in SF was expensive back then as well, though those prices are much lower than today's)....much of this old housing stock prob has dubious quake resistance in any major quake....

Much that one takes for granted in newer, $250K suburban tract houses anywhere in US, e.g, modern HVAC, wiring, insulation, W/D in unit, land/privacy, garage parking, decent city services (safe, decent public schools, road repair), etc aren't available in City of SF, except in newer >>$5MM condos and >>$10MM houses....

Thus, as in most major urban regions, most middle-class families prefer to live in newer houses in much cheaper, distant suburbs, which are closer to their jobs in suburban office parks in SiliconValley, where most of SF region's high-income (and moderate-income) jobs are based anyway...

[Joe Bama!]

Where are the working class gonna move when the "slums" are completlety gentrified by the yuppies from all over the country? What I did notice was the placement of public housing, it was done in a way in which it attempts to integrate the neighborhood's demographics as much as possible.
I recently watched a study on San Francisco's public access while on vacation there about the working class moving out of the city is mass amounts. Mostly due to the cost of housing and the poor schooling.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Don't forget over-occupancy. You don't need to earn *that* much if you're living with 5 other people in a 2 bedroom apartment.

[Joe Bama!]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Don't forget over-occupancy. You don't need to earn *that* much if you're living with 5 other people in a 2 bedroom apartment.

Rich psuedo-poor hipster kids in Brooklyn load up into crumby apartments in the Williamsburg/ Bushwick area. College kids in Manhattan from NYU and Columbia do the same crap, it is not only a "low- wage worker" thing.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by Joe Bama!

Rich psuedo-poor hipster kids in Brooklyn load up into crumby apartments in the Williamsburg/ Bushwick area. College kids in Manhattan from NYU and Columbia do the same crap, it is not only a "low- wage worker" thing.

Its been common among college students forever but given the choice, most people would not still be living with a ton of other people when they're 40 unless they had no other option economically.

[Joe Bama!]

Originally Posted by EscapeCalifornia

Its been common among college students forever but given the choice, most people would not still be living with a ton of other people when they're 40 unless they had no other option economically.

That is very true. On my visit to San Francisco 2 weeks ago I walked through the mission district and I thought that it was a working class neighborhood on the brink of extinction.
Where would one from the Bay Area suggest a young couple from New York move with about $1000 a mos. to afford on rent?

[artemis78]

$100K a year is not a low-wage job. That said, there are many low-wage workers here. For the most part, they're stuck with long commutes to poorly-paying jobs, and struggle a great deal. Some live in parts of Oakland and Richmond in the East Bay; others in parts of Redwood City, South San Francisco, and other Peninsula towns. Some of the outlying neighborhoods of San Francisco are also less expensive than the parts you probably visited. As someone noted, there are a lot of doubled-up homes with extended families living together to make the rent. It's extraordinarily expensive to live here regardless of where you live, and you can be well above the federal poverty line and still not have money for rent. (The California Budget Project is an initiative that tracks cost of living here, and for 2007 they found that a family of four needed an income of $77K, or more than $18.50/hour with two full-time working adults, to make it in the Bay Area. Federal poverty line is $21K for that same family.)

For $1000, it really depends on what kind of housing you're trying to get and where. Commuting is expensive here, so a cheap place far out may not really be that cheap once you factor that in. Similarly, if you want a nice place it has to be smaller. (You can get two-bedroom apartments in my middle-class Oakland neighborhood for $1000, but they are in old 70s buildings without many upgrades, whereas a nice 2BR house will cost you $1800-2400+/month.) I would figure out where your jobs will be first, and then identify where you might be able to commute from. Generally outside of SF is cheaper than inside, but there are exceptions (some nice neighborhoods outside the city command high rents, and some sketchier areas of the city have lower rents). At that price point, you have much better selection if you only need a 1BR place, but it's still nonexistent in some areas. Check out eligibility for rental assistance, too.

[Ultrarunner]

Room Mates is the solution I find most often...

I work with several people that live in SF and commute to San Leandro or Hayward.

They are in their 20's, single and love the SF lifestyle and willing to rent a room for for they can get a one bedroom apartment in the east bay. All have relocated from other states or even other countries to live in SF.

[tennis368fan]

Originally Posted by artemis78

...Check out eligibility for rental assistance, too.

Most of the public housing authorities in the San Francisco area haven't opened wait lists to housing choice vouchers in a very long time. Oakland is an exception in this context, but the last time they offered the mere chance for assistance was two years ago. Even when receiving the voucher, many landlords in desirable areas are unwilling to rent to such individuals.

Fixed location public housing is more available, but in the form of housing complexes.