On the frontline of San Francisco’s housing crisis

As the presidential campaign rages on in the fight for America’s soul, a smaller battle is fought for the soul of San Francisco.

Well, at least, that’s how some San Franciscans are feeling as the tech industry fuels the city’s expansion.

Tech has been a boon to the Bay Area — it has brought industry, created jobs, and has lead to the development of of the city, but there have been some unforeseen consequences as well. For every shiny new residential façade that goes up, it seems like a low income residence goes down, and, driving past the increasingly attractive buildings of SF, it’s easy to forget that there’s another side to the development of previously rundown areas — with the median home price at $1.35 million, an increasing number of San Franciscans are finding themselves unable to afford rent in the city.

What’s even more unfortunate is that many of those that are being evicted are the very people who made San Francisco what it is today. Known as being a melting pot of cultures and ideas, the city has long been known for its quirkiness. But, evidently, quirkiness doesn’t pay the bills, and now the flower children and artists who once populated the city are being replaced by hipsters and techies. Ironically, some natives have unwittingly contributed to their own evictions. For example, The Mission District, a vibrant area of San Francisco well known for its murals and Latino culture, has become one of the favored locations for young tech workers. So, with the influx of high income residents, the very people and artists that made The Mission so interesting and appealing to begin with are being forced to leave.

However, not all the blame can be heaped on the tech industry. With San Francisco’s regulatory constraints, including extensive environmental impact analyses that can take several years to complete, building new housing for tech workers is extremely difficult. These regulations, essentially, put a cap on supply as demand increases, making properties more valuable and leading many developers to simply buy up existing residential buildings, evict the tenants, renovate them, then sell them off to techies eager to get settled. Nonetheless, tech has been blamed for the city’s woes, and San Francisco, far from its Summer of Love heyday, has become a battleground for the haves and the have-nots. Even something as small as Google’s bus system has resulted in protests and outrage from the community, which sees it as facilitating and symbolizing the gentrification and displacement taking place.

Watching protesters interrupt traffic and shout loudly, it can, at times, be easy to write off their opinions as those of an extreme minority or to label them as troublemakers with nothing better to do, but more and more San Franciscans are beginning to take their side. Take housing activist Mike Schiraldi for example.

He, as a homeowner, is not only insulated from the skyrocketing home prices, but actually benefits from them. In fact, he’s seen his home’s value double since he purchased it back in 2009, yet even he recognizes how outrageous the cost of living has become in San Francisco. Throughout this crisis, Schiraldi has had to watch as dozens of his friends were forced out of the city. Even his closest friend was forced to move to Atlanta because he couldn’t find an affordable apartment suitable for his family.

As Schiraldi put it: “The city is definitely changing to the kind of place that only the lucky can live [in].” He voices the concern that soon the only people who will be able to live in San Francisco will be those “lucky enough to be rich or people lucky enough to be part of a dynastic San Franciscan family”.

According to him, this is already beginning to manifest beyond his social circle. At his child’s daycare center, employees are difficult to retain due to their long commute from the more affordable housing outside the city, and construction workers and laborers are becoming more and more scarce, which is ironic in a city so desperately in need of expansion. But it doesn’t need to be this way. From his own research, Mr Schiraldi was able to extrapolate from this, this, this, and this, that if only six percent of the city’s family houses were allowed to be converted into six-story buildings, the housing costs of the city would be cut in half. But he says such proposals are blocked by homeowners more concerned with increased parking competition and new buildings blocking their views than someone being able to find a home.

So the root of the problem isn’t busses or hipsters or technology, it’s our attitude towards each other. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget that our neighbors have needs too, and, sometimes, we just don’t care, but we can’t let this kind of callousness prevail. Displacement as a result of gentrification isn’t just a San Francisco problem, it’s a problem being faced by cities across the globe from Rio to New York. And, while progress must be made, it is important that we ensure as many people as possible benefit a growing economy. So, it’s necessary, going forward, that governments and developers work together to make sure affordable housing is available so that we can all share in a brighter future.