THE NEW REALITY OF THE HOUSING MARKET IN THE BAY AREA
Lewis Sanders III
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n March, the governor for California gave the stay at home order. And while the order is meant for good, to save American lives at a time when the US is leading the death toll, the order brought to light a series pandemic that lawmakers have been struggling with for a long time. The terms “housing crisis” provoke serious questions that previously were ignored. How do you shelter in place without a home? How do you isolate yourself in an overcrowded apartment?
With the coronavirus pandemic pushing the global economy to the brink of collapse, California is yet again struggling with finding a solution for the more than 150,000 Californians without a home. State legislators were introducing controversial bills to help ease the situation by making it easier for the builders to develop more buildings, with the hope to counter the crippling shortage, which was responsible for the skyrocketing prices and rents in the country. The Newsom and the local administration were about to square off over how to spend the $1 billion in proposed help for the homeless. While that may seem like decades ago, the coronavirus pandemic has brought to light a serious issue, and the housing crisis means something different for the state. First of all, the state’s housing crisis makes it very difficult to deal with the pressing COVID-19 crisis. How will California be able to protect more than 150,000 homeless Californians from the virus that’s spreading like wildfire? The governor gave orders to stay at home, where do these people go. The state is reporting that 108,000 people are sleeping outside; 43,000 people are in shelters, which both are major underestimates. These figures are more than one year old, and not only that, counting the homeless people in such a state is inherently unscientific and imprecise given the time it took. Simply, this means more emergency housing units, money, and supplies WWW.THEPINMAGAZINE.COM
will be needed than what the official statistics might indicate. Remember that California is the leading state when it comes to the homeless population, which means, as other states advance their fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, California will be stepping back trying to deal with the homelessness crisis. Most of the homeless people are seniors with underlying health conditions and are very susceptible to COVID-19. While that is one dimension of housing that is making the fight against the coronavirus so hard, there are other dimensions at play. California is ranked at the top of the worst states in the country, mostly because of overcrowding. The issue of overcrowding stems from the high costs of living in California. That issue presents a whole new set of problems for the millions of Californians who have been ordered to stay at home, especially if the household member is showing signs of COVID-19 infections. One of the guidelines given by the CDC is that if a person is showing signs and symptoms, they should isolate themselves in a “sick-room” with a separate bathroom. That, for millions of Americans, maybe a problem. The coronavirus presents the most pressing issue and needs to be dealt with ASAP, but researchers are worried about the long-term physical and health effects brought about by overcrowding if the schools and jobs remained closed for a long while.
“On a daily basis, people are experiencing the crowdedness of their homes for longer periods of time throughout the day,’ said Claudia Solari, who researches housing overcrowding at the Urban l
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