The Unfortunate Case of Homeownership in the Silicon Valley, by Ian Batra.

The Unfortunate Case of Homeownership in the Silicon Valley

By Ian batra

Even Tech Workers Cannot Afford Homes In Silicon Valley

LIVING IN SAN FRANCISCO IS EXORBITANTLY EXPENSIVE.

Living in San Francisco is becoming expensive by the day. Average paid workers such as teachers, firefighters, and service industry workers find it difficult to live in San Francisco. On the contrary Tech, workers are the most paid workers but also it is difficult for them to live in Silicon Valley. Reasons behind this problem are workers’ salaries and wages have remained constant for the longest time and on the other hand the prices of houses are increasing by the day.

The California Association of Realtors shows that an average house in San Francisco is about 1.2 million dollars. Only about 12 percent of San Francisco residents were able to buy median-priced homes by the end of 2017. In San Mateo County the number increased to 14 percent and 15 percent in Santa Clare County. The affordability rating was at 26 percent for single-family homes and 56 percent around the state in the same year. Tech workers still complain that the housing cost is too high and for that reason plan to leave the State.

There are 13 major tech companies in San Francisco. Workers of the company claim that they are underpaid and want more money to enable them to afford houses in San Francisco. Among those complaining are eBay and cisco workers however Facebook and Google workers are struggling to live in San Francisco. The problem in housing has raised alerts in major tech companies like Facebook and

Google. Facebook Company at one time gave bonuses to their employees living near the company to relieve the housing struggles and save time when commuting. Other than that most companies provide a means of transport from Silicon Valley to San Francisco and other outskirt cities.

In 2019 the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg together with his wife did a charitable act of donating 500 billion dollars to reserve housing in San Francisco for its workers. It means for every 4.5 jobs created one house will be put up if the act is put in place. The building industry of the Bay area takes the act positively but however says that the market dynamics of houses will still face major problems as the money is not enough and suggest that the issue is solvable if more houses are put up. Large firms opt to work with cities to reserve premises so that their employees have a place to live.

Housing shortage and homelessness in the city have been termed as a human rights violation because of the high subsequently high prices of housing. Research shows that there are those workers who sleep in their cars as they have no place to sleep. They take their shower at the office gym and eat in the office kitchen and that is their norm. This mostly happens with tech workers employed on a contract basis. Their salary is normally slashed to less than half of the permanent employee’s salary working in the same capacity.

Developers are encouraged to seek approvals so as to add more houses in San Francisco. Putting up houses is a positive thing and will help relieve the housing crisis but the move is critiqued by people already owning houses by them claiming that putting up more houses will bring the noise to Silicon Valley Suburbs and also increase the rate of social crime. Such people are against the development of houses. Advocates in the area on the other hand term that restricting the development of houses is a selfish act and at the same time benefitting themselves at the expense of the minority and also taking advantage of the lowincome employees.

There is also another strain that is against zoning laws in San Francisco and other neighboring cities. The laws allowed the development of multimillion luxury homes that only benefitted the wealthy and left out others in the short term displacing houses that are rent-controlled or other cheaper housing.

Previously Silicon Valley has been accused of activists who are pro-development and do not consider the locals during housing plans and development. It is important that measure to control housing is put in place and also affordable housing quotas are put up. The possibility of this move will only be if the zoning measures are readjusted and consider the locals allow more houses to be put up, particularly in areas close to places of work. The ideology of putting up more houses gains support from Tech companies such as Facebook and Google but The county Democratic Party representative opposes the initiative.

The condition of housing in Silicon Valley and the outskirts is a problem that is going to remain for quite a long time and transition will include even the political will among other factors.