In San Francisco, even people with jobs are homeless

[marmar]

(MarketWatch) Having a full-time job and being homeless is not just a New York thing.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, home to some of the biggest and wealthiest companies in the world, there is a growing number of people who are gainfully employed but can’t afford rent as a decade-long tech boom inevitably gives rise to sprawling gentrification.

The San Francisco Chronicle profiled one such Bay Area resident who ferries Apple employees during the day but sleeps on an air mattress in his 1997 Dodge Caravan at night.

Scott Peebles works for Compass Transportation, a company that provides shuttle services for Apple, Zynga, eBay and Yahoo, He earns roughly $30 a hour but has not been able to find a place to live near the bus yard that is within his budget, according to the newspaper.

Even when he finds apartments in his range — between $850 and $1,200 month — they are snapped up too quickly. And that has forced people like Peebles to either commute up to four hours a day or sleep in their cars. .................(more)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/as-san-francisco-rent-skyrockets-even-employed-people-are-homeless-2015-09-23

[LongTomH]

1. This isn't exactly news. Sad to say I've been hearing stories like this for years.

The cost of an apartment in many, if not most of our big cities, is more than low-income people can afford.

[Johonny]

3. I'm not sure 30$ and hour is considered low income

But rents are insane even for mid-level income people these days in big cities. That's the alarming part of the story. Forget "poor" people, the mid-income salaries have so lagged housing and rent that it takes two mid-level salaries to afford to live. If you're single or have one income then you're out of luck. Even when you can afford housing you become essentially house poor where all your available income goes to housing. That's the number one campaign issue the media will ignore. Forget the idea of poor people, the truth is we're all becoming poor people very quickly and no policies are being looked into to address it. You work and work but you never get even on the bottom rung of the ladder and the GOP just doesn't care at all... they balk at a 15$ and hour wage when twice that still nets you nothing but a mattress in a truck to sleep on.

[angryvet]

2. All over the country

this is true. Not exactly news.

[SheilaT]

4. Many years ago, in the early '90s,

my husband was out in the Los Angeles area for a week or so, doing a temp job thing for his company. An employee of the company out there asked if he could bunk with my husband in the motel during that week, to save the two hour each way commute, because he could only afford to buy a home that far out. Husband was agreeable, and when he came home and told me about it, we were both horrified that someone needed to drive that far and that long for work.

I keep on being surprised that people continue to put up with that sort of thing, but understand that a job is a job, and relocating just isn't possible for most folks.

There are other places, like Aspen, where the ordinary workers also can't afford to live, and either commute or live under bridges. Some time back, as I recall, the mayor of that city couldn't afford to live there.