The severity of the Bay Area’s homelessness crisis is visible everywhere—from the tents that crowd under freeways to the increasing number of people sleeping on sidewalks and in doorways. Largely hidden from view, however, are the 457,000 extremely low-income (ELI) households in the region who are making ends meet on an average of $18,000 a year. Over half of ELI households are precariously housed, meaning that they don’t receive any housing assistance and pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing. These households—which include seniors living on fixed incomes, single parents juggling work and child care responsibilities, and essential workers making poverty wages—are at significant risk of housing insecurity and homelessness.
In a new research paper, On the Edge of Homelessness: The Vulnerability of Extremely Low-Income Households in the Bay Area, [UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation] presents data on the demographic, housing, and labor market characteristics of ELI households in the 9-county Bay Area region, highlighting the structural inequities that contribute to their vulnerability to becoming unhoused. The research was done in partnership with All Home, with the goal of providing data about the ELI population that can help to inform their regional strategy to end homelessness.
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