Rent: San Franciscans’ burden to bear

Over the last 28 years, San Francisco’s population has become drastically more susceptible to rent burden.

A study by the San Francisco Planning Commission revealed that people making 80% to 120% of the area median income ($82,900 as of April) have become susceptible to rent burden. Nearly three decades ago, this would have been nearly unheard of.

According to the study, in 1990 just over 10% of renters in the 80% to 120% AMI category were rent burdened. From 2011 to 2015, the number of rent burdened renters in that category jumped to over 30% with a small portion (under 10%) of them exhibiting severe rent burden (paying more than 50% of their income for rent).

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The picture gets much, much bleaker for those in who live in San Francisco and make less than 80% of AMI.

The study shows that just under 60% of San Francisco renters in the 50% to 80% AMI category are rent burdened, and roughly 15% of those renters are severely burdened.

(Courtesy of the San Francisco Planning Commission)

Going down the list, about 75% of renters making between 30% and 50% AMI are rent burdened, with over 40% under severe rent burden.

And finally, roughly 80% of renters making 0% to 30% of the AMI are rent burdened with over 60% of them under severe rent burden.

This is actually a slight improvement over 1990, when just under 85% of renters in this category were rent burdened and about 65% were severely rent burdened.

The total number of rent burdened households in San Francisco increased from about 38,000 to 49,000 from 1990 to 2015.