REport: “Housing Our Workers: Getting to a Jobs-Housing Fit”
The Council of Community Housing Organizations together with The San Francisco Labor Council and Jobs with Justice released a new report, "Housing Our Workers", identifying the specific housing affordability needs for San Francisco workers to live in this city where they work.
The report found:
Only 7% of workers in this representative data-set can afford current market rate rents.
Over 40% of workers in this data-set don’t reside in San Francisco, reflecting the prohibitive costs of market housing.
San Francisco would have to triple affordable housing to meet the range of housing needs to fit workers' wages.
Median income unionized workers in this study would have a rent-burden of 59% if they lived in non-rent-controlled housing.
The report compares the specific wages of a wide range of jobs and the rents of housing available, providing a clear picture of the housing needs and the current housing constraints of these workers.
What is clear is the housing market is failing to provide housing for an increasing range of workers, including occupations traditionally thought to be middle-class.
In order to meet workers' needs, the authors encourage the exploration of a range of funding mechanisms that can build on and expand beyond the traditional low-income tax credit financing system for most affordable housing
“The labor community has been substantively involved in housing advocacy, more than a lot of people and politicians think we have. And through that process our folks have become very knowledgeable -- we know real policy from just talk,” said Kim Tavaglione, Executive Director of the San Francisco Labor Council. “Through Housing Our Workers we are reclaiming the idea of housing for the workforce, that elevates the need to house the broad range of workers essential to the City’s survival, without leaving behind or taking away housing from our lower-wage workers.”
This study utilizes a unique dataset directly from the internal records of 13 thirteen local unions, representing a sample of over 50,000 workers from participating unions, across a range of incomes. The data are not publicly available; each union consented to share their data specifically with The San Francisco Labor Council for the purposes of this analysis.
Download the full report here.