Author: Matthew Hughes / Source: The Next Web
Homelessness in San Francisco is everywhere. In 2014, it was estimated that the city’s homeless population reached an astonishing 7,000 people. They live on the streets, nestled between the Golden City’s luxurious shopping malls and countless “unicorn” tech companies.
While there’s no sole cause for this humanitarian crisis, the finger of blame is inevitably pointed at San Francisco’s well-paid tech workers, who have driven the cost-of-living into the stratosphere. According to the Council for Community and Economic Research, the city has a cost-of-living that’s 62.6 percent higher than the average American city. This is particularly noticeable in housing costs, with the average rent for a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco being $4,650.
But if tech workers are part of the problem, can they also be part of the solution?
The charity Rebuilding Together San Francisco says “yes.” While other homelessness charities focus on getting people off the streets, Rebuilding Together’s priority is ensuring they don’t fall into that position in the first place.
“What Rebuilding Together addresses is people who’ve lived in their homes for a long time — families, seniors, you know — and [tries to] keep those people in their homes. People who’ve lived in their homes for 40, 50 years, raised their kids in their homes, they’ve paid their mortgage, the house is affordable to them, but sometimes the maintenance becomes overwhelming,” explained Karen Nemsick, Executive Director of Rebuilding Together San Francisco.
Nemsick told me that the most trivial of home maintenance problems can send people into a spiral that ultimately results in homelessness.
“Just basic things, like a leaky faucet that you can’t spend $2,000 on fixing, that then leaks into the structure of house, then causes dry rot, then causes structural issues,” said Nemsick.
Simple issues, if not fixed promptly, can result in properties being condemned by the city for code violations. And with San Francisco’s challenging housing market, finding somewhere new to stay is easier said than done.
Rebuilding Together’s focus is to ensure that properties remain…
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