San Francisco's housing crisis tragically continues to loom over the city. In a recent report by Business Insider's Andrew Stern, he called it a "full-blown class of culture war, in a battle over real estate."
This can be attributed to the city's unique features. To put it simply, the booming tech industry has increased San Francisco's economy, but has also paved the way for overcrowding. On the other hand, San Francisco is also home to artists with laidback outlooks, many of which are overshadowed by their high-paid neighbors.
"The worlds of tenants, landlords, and homebuyers have been up-ended, heading private interest against civic responsibility; tech workers against artists, rich against poor, and neighbor against neighbor," Stern narrates in his special report entitled "Real Estate Wars: The Battle for the Soul of San Francisco."
The numbers are staggering. Over the last five years, home prices in the city skyrocketed to 67 percent. The median home price is now at $1.1 million. Only 36 percent of its population are actual owners, 46 percent of the housing market are rent-controlled, and only 9 percent are available for market rate rentals.
This allows landlords to exploit the tenants with overwhelmingly high rental fees. In fact, San Francisco tops the country's average rental rate at $3,600 for a standard one-bedroom unit.
"I'm paying $956 and it's going up to $3,575," Phyllis Bowie, a Midtown Park resident, complains.
Sadly, this has resulted to an alarming growth in the city's eviction rate.
"Since 2011, evictions have risen dramatically as have rental prices and property values. Speculators are buying buildings under the pretense of being landlords, immediately selling the building and making a lot of money." Erin McElroy, leader of San Francisco's Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, confirms. She added that 69 percent of the cases between 2011-2013 occurred in the area where tech industries are booming.
David Brenkus, an artist who has lived in the Triangle neighborhood for 34 years, is now facing near-certain eviction when the building of his apartment has been bought by Ish Harshawat, a tech start-up owner. Although Harshawat has offered to buy Brenkus out, the senior citizen artist refuses to budge.
"I will fight as long as I can because somebody has to," Brenkus says. "Somebody has to say this is wrong, this is wrong for the city."
In response, Harshawat filed for a "no-fault eviction" to force Brenkus out of the property which they "rightfully purchased."
"What's extraordinary about that is over 70 percent of no-fault evictions targets seniors, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities, the most vulnerable residents," District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim states.
To solve this tumultuous situation, citizens call for the government to make drastic changes in San Francisco's housing and property laws. Otherwise, the disparity between its residents may spell its real estate doom in the near future.
"That actually is really scary to me, to think that it might not be a bubble," Gabriel Metcalf, CEO of SF Planning and Urban Renewal, says. "To think that it might be something that is going to be around for a long time."
