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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Tag: San Francisco

San Francisco Minimum Wage

Women, minorities to benefit as S.F. minimum wage rises, By Emily Green, April 30, 2015, San Francisco Chronicle: “Friday is the day thousands of San Francisco workers have been waiting for: Up to 86,000 of them will see their wages bumped up as the city’s minimum wage increases to $12.25 from $11.05 an hour.  Women and minorities will benefit the most: 31 percent of Latino workers, 22 percent of Asian workers, 20 percent of African American workers and 21 percent of women will see an uptick, according to an analysis done last year by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.  The higher minimum wage takes effect as San Francisco’s economy is booming — the city has just 3 percent unemployment — but the gulf between the city’s richest and poorest is widening…”

Affordable Housing – San Francisco

San Francisco’s love-hate relationship with affordable housing, By Karen Weise, June 4, 2014, Businessweek: “Two days ago, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee trumpeted the $50 million for affordable housing he added to his budget proposal, calling the current housing shortage “a genuine crisis.” Yesterday voters went to the ballot box and handily approved a measure to make it much harder to build along 7.5 miles of the city’s waterfront, a move that Vox’s Matthew Yglesias bluntly summarized as: ‘San Francisco just voted to make housing less affordable.’ San Francisco is the country’s least-affordable housing market for both purchases and rentals . . .”

Low-Income Seniors – San Francisco, CA

Low-income seniors struggle in S.F., By Kevin Fagan, August 26, 2012, San Francisco Chronicle: “Beverly Brumfield worked hard all her life, but she didn’t really know hard until the golden years hit. She had no savings. She was alone. Her Social Security check didn’t cover rent. It’s a very American story, with federal statistics showing that a quarter of the country’s senior citizens are poor, a third say it’s hard to meet monthly expenses, and nearly half say they have housing problems. In some places, this translates into cramming in with family, or at worst, homelessness…”