High home prices, high rent, and high poverty in SF

[Fernando]

MSN

San Francisco now has the highest poverty rate in the entire Bay Area, new study shows​

While booming rent prices are often cited as a sign of San Francisco's ongoing comeback, there's a dark side to the story. Poverty rates are surging in the city and are now considered the highest in the entire Bay Area. According to new data compiled by Tipping Point Community, a local nonprofit that works with other groups to fight poverty, 17.5% of San Francisco residents live below the poverty line. The increase wipes away nearly a decade of progress and coincides with San Francisco reclaiming its title as the most expensive city in the Bay Area.

San Francisco is the starkest example at play and a growing symbol of the Bay Area's affordability crisis. In September, the city again became the most expensive place to rent in the Bay Area and the second-most expensive place to rent in the country. The median monthly rent for a one-bedroom in the city is currently $3,113 - a 12.9% year-over-year increase, according to Apartment List.

Even with high median incomes, rising costs are surpassing wage gains. Tipping Point Community data shows that Bay Area household incomes increased by 34% between 2016 and 2023, yet cost-of-living expenses grew by 46%. "The rise in cost of living is particularly reflected in the rising cost of basic needs, such as the 17% increase in grocery prices from 2021 to 2023," the report reads.

All groups were affected, but Black and Latino residents experienced the largest increases in poverty - from 15.8% to 22.1% and from 20.3% to 26%, respectively. The report also found that half of all people in poverty have at least one full-time employee in the household. Beyond costs outpacing wages, expiring pandemic-era benefits and cuts to safety-net programs like CalFresh are the biggest contributing factors to this regional decline, according to Tipping Point. "The result is a region where nearly 3 in 10 residents cannot make ends meet despite a growing economy," reads the report.

 

[Fernando]

MSN

New film examines San Francisco’s housing crisis​

California has 12% of the nation's population but 50% of the homeless. Attraction must be the best weather and good government support system.
Land for dreamers, entrepreneurs, and the unhoused.

 

[Fernando]

MSN

How San Francisco Became America’s Homeless Capital​

San Francisco is one of the wealthiest cities on Earth, yet homelessness dominates its streets.

 

[Fernando]

MSN

San Francisco named among ‘Best Places to Go in the US in 2026’​

Condé Nast Traveler named San Francisco one of the 14 “best places to go in the US in 2026.”

The list, which was released Tuesday, aims to give “hope that, in at least one of them, you will feel a stir of pride that reminds you what you love about the United States,” the outlet writes.

Condé Nast writes that visitors to San Francisco should “go for a citywide comeback,” adding “San Francisco is making a long overdue comeback.”

The full list of destinations in Condé Nast Traveler is the following (in no particular order):

• Arkansas
• Boston
• Buffalo
• Catalina Island, Calif.
• Charleston, South Carolina
• Chicago
• Deer Valley, Utah
• East Tennessee
• Indianapolis
• Oahu
• Portland, Oregon
• Route 66
• Sacramento, Calif.
• San Francisco

Despite some unfavorable headlines about San Francisco, a recent report found that The City was among the 15 safest cities in the world for travelers. San Francisco was one of two U.S. cities to make the list.

 

[Fernando]

San Francisco named one of safest cities in the world for travelers​

In the midst of what’s become a national conversation about crime and public safety in San Francisco, a report has surfaced naming the city as one of the safest in the world for travelers. In the report from Berkshire Hathaway Travel Protection, SF was one of just two U.S. cities ranked among the 15 safest cities for travelers, the other being Honolulu.

The report’s methodology involved pulling a list of the most popular international and domestic cities for U.S. travelers from Expedia, USA Today, Forbes and other sources, asking survey respondents if they’d visited those cities, and then combining results with safe-cities indices from Numbeo, The Economist and GeoSure Global.

The report does, however, add a caveat regarding SF’s ongoing struggles with homelessness.


“There’s no way to sugarcoat the fact that homelessness is a problem in San Francisco,” it states. “This unfortunate reality does make petty crime more of a problem for travelers.”

“Happy to see San Francisco on the list of safest cities,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie tweeted, “1 of only 2 U.S. cities to make this list.”


The complete list of the safest cities for travelers is as follows:

1. Reykjavik
2. Copenhagen
3. Zurich
4. Amsterdam
5. Honolulu
6. Sydney
7. Barcelona
8. Lisbon
9. Tokyo
10. Dublin
11. Venice
12. Seoul
13. London
14. Singapore
15. San Francisco

I HAVE BEEN TO NINE OF THOSE CITIES. SIX MORE TO GO.
I WANT TO GO TO PARIS BUT I DON'T SEE IT AS ONE OF THE SAFE CITIES.