Many cheered San Francisco's gesture toward helping its poorly paid teachers with a $44 million pledge to develop a site for teacher housing. But what about all the other essential workers who can't afford to live in the city?
With $105,000 for a family of four now qualifying for "low income" housing in San Francisco, there are people in many key occupations that are currently forced to live, alongside the teachers, far from San Francisco city limits.
Take, for example, the Muni drivers who shuttle thousands of people to work and school every day: their starting salary is $44,525. Or how about our police officers? They start out at $83,000 per year. And firefighters? $74,880.
These salaries may not seem so low until you realize that, according to one source, the median salary needed to rent a 2-bedroom in the city is $216, 129. Of course people manage to live in SF on far less, but it shows how limited options have become even for those making a decent, steady wage.
A taxi compony in the San Francisco Bay area has sold for less than the price of a house in the are. On Friday, the Yellow Cab Co-Op sold to rival company, Big Dog City Corporation, for $810,000. the average home price in San Francisco is $1.14 million. ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft are not completely to blame for the demise of the Yellow Cab Co-op. the company's real blow came from a series of multimillion-dollar lawsuits resulting from traffic collisions.
Media: WochIt Media
Some day these jobs may pay big overtime bucks, but in the meantime many need roommates, or a well-paid partner, to even have the option of living in the city where they work. Will San Francisco have to create special housing pods for the cops, firefighters, ambulance drivers and other occupations so key for a society to function?
In the slideshow above, see the salaries of just some of the professions that, like teachers, can barely, if at all, afford to live in San Francisco any longer. Salaries are taken from multiple sources, many from the San Francisco Department of Human Resources.