9 ms·

More than one-third of schoolchildren are homeless in shadow of Silicon Valley

67 points by heisenbit 10y ago

davidf18 10y ago
> '“Now you have Caucasians moving back into the community, you have Facebookers and Googlers and Yahooers,” said Pastor Paul Bains, a local leader. “That’s what’s driven the cost back up. Before, houses were rarely over $500,000. And now, can you find one under $750,000? You probably could, but it’s a rare find.”'' It's a pity that they don't teach journalists how to think. The problems in housing shortage and increase in housing prices is because of zoning density restrictions, not that more people are moving into the neighborhood. These zoning density restrictions are a market inefficiency called "rent-seeking" which uses politics to give a special interest group, in this case landlords and existing home owners a portion of unearned wealth over tenants and home buyers. The proper fix is to pass laws that prohibit the zoning density restrictions or that reverse the "rent-seeking" laws. One gets tired of journalist writing these kinds of stories without citing the reasons and the fix. Where I live in NYC, many of those on the left claim that they want affordable housing and want people to have an affordable wage (or lower housing costs in order to make the wage they earn go farther), yet they are for laws that limit zoning density. This phenomenon zoning density restrictions related to affordable housing is written about by many, but here is a good article by Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser who is an expert on cities. Build Big, Bill http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1.1913739 http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1....
- throwaway5752 10y ago
  "It's a pity that they don't teach journalists how to think" It's a pity that you can't humbly disagree with someone over a differing opinion, rather than framing them as ignorant and unaware of some basic truth that you're privy to. It's not just off-putting, but it's also inaccurate. Your feeling on "rent-seeking" and zoning policy are hardly universal, and there are many scholars that have written alternative views on the subject.
  - davidf18 10y ago
    > "Your feeling on "rent-seeking" and zoning policy are hardly universal, and there are many scholars that have written alternative views on the subject." Please cite your sources. The rent-seeking is one of 3 forms of microeconomic market inefficiencies (the others are [negative] externalities and information asymmetry). Prices rise because of scarcity. Zoning density restrictions causes scarcity. "rent-seeking" is use of politics or other means to create a market inefficiency that helps a special interest gain increased wealth, not through wealth creation. Zoning density restriction are from politics. There is universal understanding that zoning density restrictions (which is using politics to create scarcity) create higher housing costs. I don't know anyone who states that zoning density restrictions do not cause higher housing costs. So, please cite your source.
  - surge 10y ago
    Journalists are glorified communications majors, the degree you go for when sports medicine/therapy doesn't interest you as much...they aren't exactly held to high intellectual standards, at least, not anymore. Think about the technical inaccuracies you see in articles concerning subject matter you're an expert in, or an event you were witness to. That's par for the course in most articles, few journalists bother to understand what it is they're writing about, or probably don't have time to. Then go into how journalism is ratings driven and going through huge cutbacks, and you have standards where it's more important an article be provocative and feed into their readership's confirmation bias than make people think or propose solutions or only work with hard facts. It's more provocative to blame white technocrats than government or landowners for not wanting an population density to go up because they like their views or impact the environment or it would devalue their property. Of course, my opinion is Silicon Valley should just not be there. Anywhere with a high barrier to entry of cost of living at that level will be discriminatory, also, what good is making that much money if most of it getting sunk into cost of basic living that doesn't improve your quality of life or meet the life style of someone making half as much somewhere else has and creates issues for those that lived there that don't work in tech. Tech needs to spread out, so there is space for others. You would think of all industries, physical proximity would be less of a factor.
  - digler999 10y ago
- lern_too_spel 10y ago
  That isn't the journalist speaking. That's a quote from a local pastor. The journalist is simply reporting what is happening, not proposing solutions. Another person quoted in the article correctly identified the housing supply issue. "For all that, Hernandez-Goff thinks the systemic problems – housing shortages, wage stagnation, inequality – are beyond her." Since she doesn't have the political clout to solve that issue, she offers some short term first aid. "She wants to open a school parking lot to cars and RVs at night, so families with children can sleep without being disturbed; she thinks lack of sleep and stress are contributing to her district’s low test scores. And she would like to install washing machines in schools for those without homes."
  - davidf18 10y ago
    > 'Another person quoted in the article correctly identified the housing supply issue. "For all that, Hernandez-Goff thinks the systemic problems – housing shortages, wage stagnation, inequality – are beyond her."' While the Hernandez-Goff agrees that they are systemic problems, she does not mention how to address housing shortages. Many think that one needs to spend money to create more (affordable) housing, but the real solution is simply to address the market inefficiency caused to benefit special interest groups. That she cites wage stagnation and inequality makes it sound like she doesn't understand the zoning density restriction because eliminating the rent-seeking zoning law restrictions eliminates the inequality and wage stagnation is not an issue because housing costs will drop meaning people can afford more on the same wages.
    - lern_too_spel 10y ago
      She isn't a trained economist but a community organizer providing hands-on assistance. Why are you expecting policy from her? This is an article about homeless people and the people working with them, not an opinion piece or a policy statement.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  The problem with the high cost of housing isn't X. It's Y." Actually, it can be both X and Y. In this case, both zoning restrictions and the influx of FaceBooglers.
  - davidf18 10y ago
    > "Actually, it can be both X and Y. In this case, both zoning restrictions and the influx of FaceBooglers." That statement might be true if there was not technology that enabled us to build tall buildings -- steel frames and elevators for example. Fix the zoning density restrictions and the markets will automatically fix the expensive housing regardless of the demand. Come to Manhattan and you'll see what I mean.
    - quesera 10y ago
      Wait, what? In what way has Manhattan fixed the problem of expensive housing?
      - davidf18 10y ago
        In the early 1920's NYC was building 100,000 apartments per year. Then government interfered and created the shortage: From Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser: "...Radically upping that supply would leave far more New Yorkers able to rent something for a reasonable price on the free market, instead of allowing rents to continue to rise for most while a select few win access, via waitlists and lotteries, to a separate class of apartments at below-market rates. Once upon a time, New York City understood this. In the early 1920s, we were building 100,000 new housing units, accessible to people across the economic spectrum, every year. As a result, the booming city remained affordable to working- and middle-class people like my grandparents. How was this possible? For one, the city’s regulations back then were relatively modest, focusing primarily on safety and light. Thanks in no small part to that limited red tape, the cost of producing new units was relatively low, and — surprise, surprise — they got built." (The article continues) http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1.1913739 http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1....
sirakov 10y ago
Why don't they move? They live in an RV...
- danharaj 10y ago
  That's basically asking "why don't they just throw away all their social connections and uproot their lives more than they already are"? Where you live isn't just the building you inhabit.
  - sirakov 10y ago
    It's that what all immigrants do? Uprooting for economic reasons is pretty common, (immigration, children moving away from parents, etc). If anything they (and we as a society) should be thankful that there is the opportunity to move unrestricted in a large and diverse nation.
    - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
      You sound like you think it's easy.
      - rayiner 10y ago
        It's not easy (immigrant here), but it's better than being homeless!
        johndubchak 10y ago
        Many are from the area and have lived in the area most of their lives. The current situation has evolved over the last 20 or so years to the point where it has become economically impossible to live because of the "outsiders", from large tech companies, coming in and displacing them. How willingly would you be to pick up and move in this situation?
        sirakov 10y ago
lets-tryagain 10y ago
It would not matter if homes were available for $100k, this family appears to be utterly destitute. This story should not be about housing but services for very poor families. I suspect this is why this family continues to stay in Silicon Valley in defiance of common sense; they would be homeless in El Centro or Tijuana also.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dominotw 10y ago
>Now you have Caucasians moving back into the community you have Facebookers and Googlers and Yahooers Keep race baiting Guardian. Nevermind 30-40% of people working here are Asians.
- openasocket 10y ago
  That's an exact quote from a local pastor, you can't blame the Guardian for accurately reporting what at least some individuals think of the issue. I think your problem is with the pastor, not with the reporters.
- lern_too_spel 10y ago
  EPA was redlined, leading to "white flight" in the mid 20th century. Poor Asians (not the highly educated recent immigrants) were among those causing whites to move out. http://www.paloaltohistory.org/discrimination-in-palo-alto.php http://www.paloaltohistory.org/discrimination-in-palo-alto.p....
  - kampkrusty 10y ago
    Yeah, this is what I was going to post in response. It's not "race-baiting" to accurately acknowledge that white flight happened. Demographic trends show white people moving back to the cities, leaving minorities without a sure place to live or a rooted community to belong to, usually because of the connection of class and mobility.
lintiness 10y ago
california has a lot of this. they endlessly lecture the rest of the country on environment and sustainability while driving their hybrids 4 hours a day.
- dang 10y ago
  Please don't post grandiose claims about large groups of people. They're unsubstantive, often uncivil, and usually provoke worse.
  - lintiness 10y ago
    what's the matter, truth hurt?
    - dang 10y ago
      Please stop posting unsubstantive comments.
      - mSparks 10y ago
        please take your life somewhere else.
aaron695 10y ago
> More than one-third of schoolchildren are homeless in shadow of Silicon Valley And how does that compare to other hand picked districts in the US? What's the point? You mention SV and you get clickbait? Why are schoolchildren in other parts of the US not worthy of a story?
- digler999 10y ago
  "More than two thirds of homeless children in un-interesting cities don't have articles written about them."
  - nickthemagicman 10y ago
    Haha more than 15/256 babies forced to live in duplexes and other multifamily housing.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  What's the point? You mention SV and you get clickbait? The vast widening of differences in income levels in the past 20 years might have might have something to do with it. That, and the fact that it's the cradle of an industry that prides itself on "changing people's lives for the better".
samlevine 10y ago
> Remarkably, slightly more than one-third of students – or 1,147 children – are defined as homeless here, mostly sharing homes with other families because their parents cannot afford one of their own, and also living in RVs and shelters So clearly I was homeless all the years I lived with roommates.
- rayiner 10y ago
  Redefining multi-family living arrangements (very common in many parts of the world) as homelessness is actually a little offensive.
  - dublinben 10y ago
    I think it's more offensive that working families can't afford their own place to live.
  - kafkaesq 10y ago
    In this case, you're redefining "multi-family arrangements" to include the case of children involuntarily separated from their own parents. Which would count as misery and hardship, in any part of the world.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  So clearly I was homeless all the years I lived with roommates. The point is that, as children, they're supposed to be able to live with their own families. In one of the richest urban areas on the planet, after all.
- Hydraulix989 10y ago
  I just don't understand. I moved out of the Valley because even as a techie, I felt priced out. There are PLENTY of great places to live in this country that aren't Silicon Valley and cost a fraction of how expensive it is to live in the most contested real estate in the world. Houston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Denver are fantastic places, and you can have your own land (with a yard!) for a fraction of the cost. I just don't get the mentality here that every other place but the Valley must be Siberia.
kentbrew 10y ago
East Palo Alto resident, here. Not at all surprised to hear this; our town used to be the last place on the Peninsula where non-engineers could afford to live, but those days are gone. See here for some history: https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/ Some reasons: - Predatory lending resulted in a 35% foreclosure rate on single-family homes since 2008, half of which are now owned by people who don't live in town. More at http://archive.peninsulapress.com/2013/07/16/squeezed-by-the-foreclosure-crisis-and-booming-silicon-valley-real-estate-east-palo-alto-confronts-gentrification/ http://archive.peninsulapress.com/2013/07/16/squeezed-by-the... - Until mid-2016, virtually all of the high-density rental homes in East Palo Alto were owned by a single absentee landlord in Chicago, who was hell-bent on chasing out as many residents as possible so they could reset rents to "market rates" or (better) knock down the apartments and build condos. More at http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/02/16/exclusive-east-palo-altos-woodland-park-apartments.html http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/02/16/exclusive... - The price of local housing has jumped since Facebook opened their new campus, offering a $10,000 to $15,000 payment to employees who live within 10 miles of One Hacker way. More at http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-benefits-idUSKBN0U02PC20151218 http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-benefits-idUSKBN0U02... I'm sad to read some of the comments. "If you can't afford to live in your neighborhood, get the hell out" is a sentiment that will definitely come back to haunt you.
- sirakov 10y ago
  Why is that a bad sentiment? People downsize homes all the time. Anecdotal, but my own parents moved away from Chicago to rural Michigan when the economics just didn't add up. Chicago housing is hundreds of thousands, where as rural Michigan you can buy a good single family home for under $100k. Cheap enough to support a family off of a minimum wage job (and I mean real minimum wage, $8.50 an hour for Michigan). http://www.zillow.com/homes/Decatur-MI_rb/ http://www.zillow.com/homes/Decatur-MI_rb/

67 points by heisenbit 10y ago

> '“Now you have Caucasians moving back into the community, you have Facebookers and Googlers and Yahooers,” said Pastor Paul Bains, a local leader. “That’s what’s driven the cost back up. Before, houses were rarely over $500,000. And now, can you find one under $750,000? You probably could, but it’s a rare find.”'' It's a pity that they don't teach journalists how to think. The problems in housing shortage and increase in housing prices is because of zoning density restrictions, not that more people are moving into the neighborhood. These zoning density restrictions are a market inefficiency called "rent-seeking" which uses politics to give a special interest group, in this case landlords and existing home owners a portion of unearned wealth over tenants and home buyers. The proper fix is to pass laws that prohibit the zoning density restrictions or that reverse the "rent-seeking" laws. One gets tired of journalist writing these kinds of stories without citing the reasons and the fix. Where I live in NYC, many of those on the left claim that they want affordable housing and want people to have an affordable wage (or lower housing costs in order to make the wage they earn go farther), yet they are for laws that limit zoning density. This phenomenon zoning density restrictions related to affordable housing is written about by many, but here is a good article by Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser who is an expert on cities. Build Big, Bill http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1.1913739 http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1....

throwaway5752 10y ago
"It's a pity that they don't teach journalists how to think" It's a pity that you can't humbly disagree with someone over a differing opinion, rather than framing them as ignorant and unaware of some basic truth that you're privy to. It's not just off-putting, but it's also inaccurate. Your feeling on "rent-seeking" and zoning policy are hardly universal, and there are many scholars that have written alternative views on the subject.
- davidf18 10y ago
  > "Your feeling on "rent-seeking" and zoning policy are hardly universal, and there are many scholars that have written alternative views on the subject." Please cite your sources. The rent-seeking is one of 3 forms of microeconomic market inefficiencies (the others are [negative] externalities and information asymmetry). Prices rise because of scarcity. Zoning density restrictions causes scarcity. "rent-seeking" is use of politics or other means to create a market inefficiency that helps a special interest gain increased wealth, not through wealth creation. Zoning density restriction are from politics. There is universal understanding that zoning density restrictions (which is using politics to create scarcity) create higher housing costs. I don't know anyone who states that zoning density restrictions do not cause higher housing costs. So, please cite your source.
- surge 10y ago
  Journalists are glorified communications majors, the degree you go for when sports medicine/therapy doesn't interest you as much...they aren't exactly held to high intellectual standards, at least, not anymore. Think about the technical inaccuracies you see in articles concerning subject matter you're an expert in, or an event you were witness to. That's par for the course in most articles, few journalists bother to understand what it is they're writing about, or probably don't have time to. Then go into how journalism is ratings driven and going through huge cutbacks, and you have standards where it's more important an article be provocative and feed into their readership's confirmation bias than make people think or propose solutions or only work with hard facts. It's more provocative to blame white technocrats than government or landowners for not wanting an population density to go up because they like their views or impact the environment or it would devalue their property. Of course, my opinion is Silicon Valley should just not be there. Anywhere with a high barrier to entry of cost of living at that level will be discriminatory, also, what good is making that much money if most of it getting sunk into cost of basic living that doesn't improve your quality of life or meet the life style of someone making half as much somewhere else has and creates issues for those that lived there that don't work in tech. Tech needs to spread out, so there is space for others. You would think of all industries, physical proximity would be less of a factor.
- digler999 10y ago
lern_too_spel 10y ago
That isn't the journalist speaking. That's a quote from a local pastor. The journalist is simply reporting what is happening, not proposing solutions. Another person quoted in the article correctly identified the housing supply issue. "For all that, Hernandez-Goff thinks the systemic problems – housing shortages, wage stagnation, inequality – are beyond her." Since she doesn't have the political clout to solve that issue, she offers some short term first aid. "She wants to open a school parking lot to cars and RVs at night, so families with children can sleep without being disturbed; she thinks lack of sleep and stress are contributing to her district’s low test scores. And she would like to install washing machines in schools for those without homes."
- davidf18 10y ago
  > 'Another person quoted in the article correctly identified the housing supply issue. "For all that, Hernandez-Goff thinks the systemic problems – housing shortages, wage stagnation, inequality – are beyond her."' While the Hernandez-Goff agrees that they are systemic problems, she does not mention how to address housing shortages. Many think that one needs to spend money to create more (affordable) housing, but the real solution is simply to address the market inefficiency caused to benefit special interest groups. That she cites wage stagnation and inequality makes it sound like she doesn't understand the zoning density restriction because eliminating the rent-seeking zoning law restrictions eliminates the inequality and wage stagnation is not an issue because housing costs will drop meaning people can afford more on the same wages.
  - lern_too_spel 10y ago
    She isn't a trained economist but a community organizer providing hands-on assistance. Why are you expecting policy from her? This is an article about homeless people and the people working with them, not an opinion piece or a policy statement.
kafkaesq 10y ago
The problem with the high cost of housing isn't X. It's Y." Actually, it can be both X and Y. In this case, both zoning restrictions and the influx of FaceBooglers.
- davidf18 10y ago
  > "Actually, it can be both X and Y. In this case, both zoning restrictions and the influx of FaceBooglers." That statement might be true if there was not technology that enabled us to build tall buildings -- steel frames and elevators for example. Fix the zoning density restrictions and the markets will automatically fix the expensive housing regardless of the demand. Come to Manhattan and you'll see what I mean.
  - quesera 10y ago
    Wait, what? In what way has Manhattan fixed the problem of expensive housing?
    - davidf18 10y ago
      In the early 1920's NYC was building 100,000 apartments per year. Then government interfered and created the shortage: From Harvard Economist Edward Glaeser: "...Radically upping that supply would leave far more New Yorkers able to rent something for a reasonable price on the free market, instead of allowing rents to continue to rise for most while a select few win access, via waitlists and lotteries, to a separate class of apartments at below-market rates. Once upon a time, New York City understood this. In the early 1920s, we were building 100,000 new housing units, accessible to people across the economic spectrum, every year. As a result, the booming city remained affordable to working- and middle-class people like my grandparents. How was this possible? For one, the city’s regulations back then were relatively modest, focusing primarily on safety and light. Thanks in no small part to that limited red tape, the cost of producing new units was relatively low, and — surprise, surprise — they got built." (The article continues) http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1.1913739 http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/build-big-bill-article-1....

sirakov 10y ago

Why don't they move? They live in an RV...

danharaj 10y ago
That's basically asking "why don't they just throw away all their social connections and uproot their lives more than they already are"? Where you live isn't just the building you inhabit.
- sirakov 10y ago
  It's that what all immigrants do? Uprooting for economic reasons is pretty common, (immigration, children moving away from parents, etc). If anything they (and we as a society) should be thankful that there is the opportunity to move unrestricted in a large and diverse nation.
  - PhasmaFelis 10y ago
    You sound like you think it's easy.
    - rayiner 10y ago
      It's not easy (immigrant here), but it's better than being homeless!
      - johndubchak 10y ago
        Many are from the area and have lived in the area most of their lives. The current situation has evolved over the last 20 or so years to the point where it has become economically impossible to live because of the "outsiders", from large tech companies, coming in and displacing them. How willingly would you be to pick up and move in this situation?
        sirakov 10y ago

lets-tryagain 10y ago

It would not matter if homes were available for $100k, this family appears to be utterly destitute. This story should not be about housing but services for very poor families. I suspect this is why this family continues to stay in Silicon Valley in defiance of common sense; they would be homeless in El Centro or Tijuana also.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dominotw 10y ago

>Now you have Caucasians moving back into the community you have Facebookers and Googlers and Yahooers Keep race baiting Guardian. Nevermind 30-40% of people working here are Asians.

openasocket 10y ago
That's an exact quote from a local pastor, you can't blame the Guardian for accurately reporting what at least some individuals think of the issue. I think your problem is with the pastor, not with the reporters.
lern_too_spel 10y ago
EPA was redlined, leading to "white flight" in the mid 20th century. Poor Asians (not the highly educated recent immigrants) were among those causing whites to move out. http://www.paloaltohistory.org/discrimination-in-palo-alto.php http://www.paloaltohistory.org/discrimination-in-palo-alto.p....
- kampkrusty 10y ago
  Yeah, this is what I was going to post in response. It's not "race-baiting" to accurately acknowledge that white flight happened. Demographic trends show white people moving back to the cities, leaving minorities without a sure place to live or a rooted community to belong to, usually because of the connection of class and mobility.

lintiness 10y ago

california has a lot of this. they endlessly lecture the rest of the country on environment and sustainability while driving their hybrids 4 hours a day.

dang 10y ago
Please don't post grandiose claims about large groups of people. They're unsubstantive, often uncivil, and usually provoke worse.
- lintiness 10y ago
  what's the matter, truth hurt?
  - dang 10y ago
    Please stop posting unsubstantive comments.
    - mSparks 10y ago
      please take your life somewhere else.

aaron695 10y ago

> More than one-third of schoolchildren are homeless in shadow of Silicon Valley And how does that compare to other hand picked districts in the US? What's the point? You mention SV and you get clickbait? Why are schoolchildren in other parts of the US not worthy of a story?

digler999 10y ago
"More than two thirds of homeless children in un-interesting cities don't have articles written about them."
- nickthemagicman 10y ago
  Haha more than 15/256 babies forced to live in duplexes and other multifamily housing.
kafkaesq 10y ago
What's the point? You mention SV and you get clickbait? The vast widening of differences in income levels in the past 20 years might have might have something to do with it. That, and the fact that it's the cradle of an industry that prides itself on "changing people's lives for the better".

samlevine 10y ago

> Remarkably, slightly more than one-third of students – or 1,147 children – are defined as homeless here, mostly sharing homes with other families because their parents cannot afford one of their own, and also living in RVs and shelters So clearly I was homeless all the years I lived with roommates.

rayiner 10y ago
Redefining multi-family living arrangements (very common in many parts of the world) as homelessness is actually a little offensive.
- dublinben 10y ago
  I think it's more offensive that working families can't afford their own place to live.
- kafkaesq 10y ago
  In this case, you're redefining "multi-family arrangements" to include the case of children involuntarily separated from their own parents. Which would count as misery and hardship, in any part of the world.
kafkaesq 10y ago
So clearly I was homeless all the years I lived with roommates. The point is that, as children, they're supposed to be able to live with their own families. In one of the richest urban areas on the planet, after all.
Hydraulix989 10y ago
I just don't understand. I moved out of the Valley because even as a techie, I felt priced out. There are PLENTY of great places to live in this country that aren't Silicon Valley and cost a fraction of how expensive it is to live in the most contested real estate in the world. Houston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Denver are fantastic places, and you can have your own land (with a yard!) for a fraction of the cost. I just don't get the mentality here that every other place but the Valley must be Siberia.

kentbrew 10y ago

East Palo Alto resident, here. Not at all surprised to hear this; our town used to be the last place on the Peninsula where non-engineers could afford to live, but those days are gone. See here for some history: https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/ https://techcrunch.com/2015/01/10/east-of-palo-altos-eden/ Some reasons: - Predatory lending resulted in a 35% foreclosure rate on single-family homes since 2008, half of which are now owned by people who don't live in town. More at http://archive.peninsulapress.com/2013/07/16/squeezed-by-the-foreclosure-crisis-and-booming-silicon-valley-real-estate-east-palo-alto-confronts-gentrification/ http://archive.peninsulapress.com/2013/07/16/squeezed-by-the... - Until mid-2016, virtually all of the high-density rental homes in East Palo Alto were owned by a single absentee landlord in Chicago, who was hell-bent on chasing out as many residents as possible so they could reset rents to "market rates" or (better) knock down the apartments and build condos. More at http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/02/16/exclusive-east-palo-altos-woodland-park-apartments.html http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2016/02/16/exclusive... - The price of local housing has jumped since Facebook opened their new campus, offering a $10,000 to $15,000 payment to employees who live within 10 miles of One Hacker way. More at http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-benefits-idUSKBN0U02PC20151218 http://www.reuters.com/article/facebook-benefits-idUSKBN0U02... I'm sad to read some of the comments. "If you can't afford to live in your neighborhood, get the hell out" is a sentiment that will definitely come back to haunt you.

sirakov 10y ago
Why is that a bad sentiment? People downsize homes all the time. Anecdotal, but my own parents moved away from Chicago to rural Michigan when the economics just didn't add up. Chicago housing is hundreds of thousands, where as rural Michigan you can buy a good single family home for under $100k. Cheap enough to support a family off of a minimum wage job (and I mean real minimum wage, $8.50 an hour for Michigan). http://www.zillow.com/homes/Decatur-MI_rb/ http://www.zillow.com/homes/Decatur-MI_rb/