High Bay Area rent prices drive mom to raise child in a garage

[KamaAina]

http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2015/03/04/high-bay-area-rent-prices-drive-mom-to-raise-child-in-a-garage/

Meet Nicole Jones. She’s a California Bay Area mother living in a 250-square-foot garage with her 18-month-old baby girl.

When Jones became pregnant she lost her job and could no longer afford to pay her apartment rent. She initially moved into a shelter and felt lucky when she found the single-car garage space converted into a studio in a San Mateo suburban home for $1,000 a month.

Her small home consists of a central living space that serves as a living room, bedroom and kitchen as well as a tiny bathroom with a shower and toilet. She cooks in a microwave perched on top of a clothing cabinet; she sleeps on a pull-out couch.

“This is pretty much all I could get,” she told CNN.

I mean, okay, Apple started in a garage, but a family?!

[whathehell]

1. Yes, sigh, that's how it is out there...

and has been for some time. It's very discouraging.

They can't seem to get a serious affordable housing program to take root,

and, to my knowledge they've been trying for decades.

.

[kimbutgar]

2. I live in San Francisco and could rent out my spare downstairs room for $1800 a month

But I would do this as a last result.

[KamaAina]

3. I may end up taking you up on that

I'm up for a job up there, oddly enough, as an affordable housing advocate.

[kimbutgar]

5. You don't know how many times I have been approached about renting out this room

But I don't need a renter yet. Sorry.

[KamaAina]

7. Actually, I could probably find a real apartment for less

in or around the Tenderloin. But that's what I would do.

[Auggie]

4. I should have bought that Tenancy-In-Common unit when I had the chance

$365,000 for a beautiful one bedroom w/ 1.5 baths and formal dining plus eat-in kitchen, and optional tandem parking for an extra $15,000 in one of San Francisco's best neighborhoods.

The down payment on $380,000 would have wiped out my retirement account. And the monthly payment, with management fees, would have been hard to make on my own. But I'd have a unit worth more than four times what my retirement account is worth right now.

*sigh*

[cui bono]

6. Is that legal? With a garage door like that?

I would think it should have to be fully enclosed with a real wall.