We need to be Concerned About How the Bay Area Housing Market Crisis is Impacting Seniors
Housing issues for fixed and low income seniors in the Bay Area are compounding. Board-and-Care Homes for the Elderly are closing around San Francisco and Marin County, and elderly Bay Area tenants also face eviction as developers convert units to affordable housing.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that residential care facilities in San Francisco are closing due to high costs and lack of caregivers. "At least two residential care facilities in San Francisco that provide long-term care for 26 vulnerable people — some elderly, others formerly homeless — plan to shut their doors in the next few months, the latest in a spate of board-and-care closures around the city", according to the SF Chronicle.
"Officials with both facilities say they’ve been socked by the rising costs of doing business in San Francisco and a stagnant state reimbursement rate to run the homes. They also cited increasing difficulty in hiring and retaining staff."
"The two closures are part of an alarming trend that’s contributing to the city’s homeless and mental health crisis," said the article. "The rapid disappearance of residential care beds for the elderly, mentally ill and those with substance abuse problems. San Francisco has lost more than a quarter of its board-and-care beds since 2012, according to the city’s working group on the problem. The operators say that many facilities are closing because the landlords are selling the properties in San Francisco’s hot real estate market, or because the costs to run the homes are outstripping revenue.”
Supervisors Rafael Mandelman and Norman Yee introduced a resolution at the SF Board of Supervisors meeting following the closures, saying "that they hope will discourage more board-and-cares from shuttering. The resolution would require a special permit if a landlord wants to change the board-and-care home to a different use, such as a single-family home. The new rule would last 18 months." To read more please click here: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Two-SF-homes-for-elderly-and-formerly-homeless-14411412.php
Another report highlights a San Francisco developer who is turning apartments in the East Bay and North Bay into affordable housing for the elderly, but “as the company acquires the properties and renovates and readies the units, existing tenants whose income levels disqualify them for the new apartments are being pushed out.” The developer said the long-term benefits outweigh the short-term difficulties for tenants. “It’s completely surprising that this is actually allowed to happen,” said Sulaiman Hyatt, an organizer with the Housing Rights Committee in San Francisco. “Everything that they are doing is actually legal, and this is what is so frustrating about this.”
With limited money to live off of, the concern is where seniors in the San Francisco and Marin rental markets can afford to live if they are evicted. According to the report, there are no senior housing units available for low income seniors, and this problem may increase homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area. READ MORE HERE: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/East-Bay-tenants-face-eviction-as-developer-14404867.php?psid=obzAZ
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