Hina Shah, a former resident of the Mission-Bernal Heights district writes about the city’s housing crisis in the S. F. Chronicle, from the point of view of a middle class tenant.
The discussion about the housing crisis has focused exclusively on how the burgeoning tech industry is affecting low-income residents. However, middle-class, moderate-income families like mine are also being squeezed out of the city.
My family lives in a non-rent-controlled unit in the Mission-Bernal Heights district. My husband and I moved into our apartment 10 years ago, when we were still dating. Since then, we got married and had two children. When it was time for our daughter to go to elementary school, we chose our neighborhood public school. We occasionally considered buying a place but, with our incomes as nonprofit and public-sector workers, owning seemed like a financial stretch. READ MORE.
I wish the city put more resources into helping middle income folks who actually contribute to society rather than giving away mountains of cash and free services to those who just cause problems.
The co-operative idea isn’t a bad one. But there is nothing to stop people doing that now. A group of people can do that now; there is no need to change any laws.
Why don’t more people do that? I’m sure that many property owners would sell to a co-operative or trust, as long as it was at a market price of course.
Heck, people could even offer to buy a building that is being Ellised, and then continue to run it as a rental.
The solution is more people doing things for themselves and less people demanding that other people do this and that.
Middle class means owning your home. Homeownership creates real equity in one’s community and is the strongest form of housing security. For those raising families, it becomes even more important.
The city should actively foster more middle-income homeownership opportunities.