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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Clara Faria read her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rent\">rent\u003c/a> statement, her heart stopped. Her monthly payment would more than triple, rising from $297 per month to $995. She had four days to make the payment or be charged a $50 late fee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sank into the brown leather chair next to her formica-coated kitchen table, where she’d opened her mail for decades. She had heard neighbors were getting rent increases, but said she hadn’t received a notice herself. She had hoped she would be spared, but the reality was worse than she had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought ‘I don’t have the money,’” Faria said of the statement, issued on Dec. 31, 2024, and due by Jan. 5, 2025. “I figured by the end of the year, I’m going to be homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria, 91, lives alone on a fixed income in a one-bedroom manufactured home at the Willow Mobile Home Park in the East Bay town of San Pablo. Old family photos, crucifixes and saints adorn her living room walls. An oversized photo of an American flag peaks out from the hallway, declaring, “The lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him, and I am helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria’s experience is part of a growing pattern across California, where mobile home residents — many of whom own their homes but rent the land beneath them — are increasingly vulnerable to steep and repeated rent hikes. Harmony Communities, which manages her park in San Pablo, has faced criticism from residents, advocates and local officials for aggressive rent increases and opaque ownership structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria, 91, gets help putting on her coat from a home health aid at her home in Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080847\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-2000x663.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-1536x509.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-2048x678.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Clara Faria’s kitchen at her home in Willow Mobile Home Park. Right: Photos of family fill the walls of Clara Faria’s home. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a state where just \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">18% \u003c/a>of people can afford to own their homes, mobile home parks offer a rare bastion of affordable ownership. But advocates say people living in these communities have become more exposed as investors seek higher returns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria said she moved into her home in 1997 using an insurance payout after a previous mobile home burned down, drawn by the park’s affordability and its designation for seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed when the rent increase notice from Stockton-based Harmony Communities arrived. It was the first signal that more aggressive tactics were replacing the quiet stability of Willow Mobile Home Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED analysis of property records reveals Harmony Communities has grown into a major player in the industry. The property-management company has managed operations of around 100 parks since 2004, and as of 2025, was actively managing roughly 80 parks statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://arcg.is/vTef9\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the company claims its practices ensure “long-term viability,” interviews with nearly two dozen residents and lawyers point to a recurring pattern: Harmony assumes control, substantially raises rents, and in some cases, employs tactics residents and advocates describe as aggressive, leaving low-income tenants susceptible to displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a representative from Harmony said the company sent a notice of the rent increase to Faria in September 2024, Faria maintains she did not receive it until just a few days before the rent was due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, about nine months later, in September 2025, Harmony sent a new notice informing residents their rent would again \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vN9w8VJB3FWsQJavcTXiCqeBxPELlL68jzc4ME3Rsa4/edit?usp=sharing\">increase\u003c/a> in January 2026 — this time by an average of 30%, according to rent statements reviewed by KQED. Harmony said credits, in some cases, reduced the amount residents ultimately paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Faria, the repeated increases were crippling. For residents interviewed by KQED, it was a pattern.[aside postID=news_12058015 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/09/250926-HARMONYSANRAFAEL00417_TV-KQED.jpg']The company disputes that these cases reflect a broader pattern and described Faria’s example as unique, adding that each case is fact-specific and shaped by complex local regulations. In an email response to KQED, company representative Nick Ubaldi said Harmony is “committed to providing safe, clean, and affordable housing that remains sustainable for the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Achieving this mission requires carefully balancing all relevant factors for success,” he said. “This includes respecting tenants’ strong preference for the lowest possible rents while also ensuring property owners receive a fair and reasonable return on their investment, allowing the business to succeed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rent increases do come, the mobile home ownership structure makes relocating extremely expensive for residents and, in some cases, impossible, said Teri Williams, a mobile home resident in southern California who leads the nonprofit Mobile Home Resident Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These residents are captive,” Williams said. “We’re at the mercy of park owners, and they know it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Ubaldi said park operating costs are rising rapidly, with significant increases in insurance premiums and labor, while rental income is lagging behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is one of the most expensive states in which to live and operate a business,” he said. “While no one wants to see residents displaced from their homes, the financial burden of addressing affordability challenges should not fall solely on individual property owners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080859\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080859\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents of Willow Mobile Home Park and the neighboring Creekside Village Mobile Home Park to discuss rent increases at the parks. Residents are calling on the city to adopt rent protections as they face rising and unpredictable rent hikes. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in Sacramento, however, are considering several proposals this year to strengthen protections for mobile home residents, including \u003ca href=\"http://billtrack50.com/billdetail/1921239\">limits on rent increases\u003c/a>. Some cities have adopted local rent caps, while residents themselves have organized tenant associations to fight rent hikes and, in some cases, are negotiating to buy the parks Harmony manages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willow residents said the second rent increase in two years was distressing, and that anxiety was compounded by confusing and conflicting messaging from Harmony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the company announced the second increase, Willow residents received \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DT336OGQUmqFT1TEAPWJDBd1by8ClUSn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a new document\u003c/a> that appeared to contradict the first: “At the same time the rent increase becomes effective, the park will be issuing you a rent credit that is equal to the rent increase amount.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria was baffled. She was initially told her rent would increase by $300. Now, it seemed her rent would stay the same. While Harmony said they had no plans to rescind the credit, it also described it as “discretionary” and said it could be “revoked or modified” with no apparent safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080856\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080856\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria holds a note she wrote about rent increases for the lot where her mobile home sits. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response to questions from KQED, Harmony Communities said some rent increases cited in notices were offset by credits or arbitration processes, resulting in lower effective rents paid by residents. The company provided tenant ledgers, which it said reflect the reduced amounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi acknowledged the conflicting messages and said the first notice was sent in error.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we identified the issue, we promptly sent a corrected letter that clearly outlined each resident’s credit amount and net increase,” he wrote in an email to KQED. “Any confusion was not intended, and the second letter was sent to resolve it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Davies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-davies-stockton/\">co-founder\u003c/a> of Harmony Communities, said the company purchased Willow nearly a decade ago and agreed to provide “rent subsidies” to residents for five years and has since invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars” into improvements at the park.[aside postID=news_11977464 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/02/IMG_2976-1020x765.jpg']Faria said that when she called Harmony about the first rent increase, she was told she’d have to pay or face eviction, an account the company did not directly address in its response to KQED’s questions. By the time the second notice arrived, followed by the mixed messaging, she felt helpless and afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those people are completely bleeding us,” she said. “And they don’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, she got a new letter in the mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This one told her that despite the credit, her rent would still increase by $100, bringing her total rent up from $995 to $1,095.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letterhead listed Creekside Village MHC LLC, while contact information directed residents to Harmony Communities, reflecting a centralized management structure. Madeline Bankson, a housing researcher with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, said this type of ownership is part of a broader industry pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The LLC does three things,” Bankson said. “It reduces liability, adds tax benefits under the tax code; the sort of secret added bonus is obscuring ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davies started investing in mobile home parks in 2004 with his father, Bruce Davies, according to Ubaldi and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCYLvB6HxhQ\">2024 interview\u003c/a> Matthew Davies conducted with a YouTube vlogger. Davies said Harmony had amassed a nearly $700 million portfolio in its first 20 years of operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2021 interview with Multi-Housing News, Davies \u003ca href=\"https://www.multihousingnews.com/improving-manufactured-housing-communities-with-purpose/\">described \u003c/a>Harmony’s approach as improving communities while keeping housing attainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080872\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria puts on makeup in her bathroom. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We look for communities we think will have long-term stability in areas where there’s a strong need for affordable housing and where we believe the local jurisdictions will be supportive of our efforts,” Davies told the trade publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harmony operates dozens of mobile home parks across California, but individual LLCs and family trusts own the parks themselves. Documents filed with the California Secretary of State show the managers and members controlling the LLCs are often family members, relatives and Harmony employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of November 2025, Harmony listed 29 mobile home parks it manages on its website. That list has since been removed. A broader search of property records identified about 100 parks associated with the company. Those include properties that had previously been listed on its website and where the owners’ principal address matched Harmony’s Stockton headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of business filings with the California Secretary of State found employees and family members tied to Harmony have an ownership stake in at least 84 of those parks. That includes parks owned or co-owned by members of the Ubaldi family and the Ubaldi Living Trust, whose successor trustee is Harmony spokesperson Nick Ubaldi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria rearranges photos of family and friends on her refrigerator. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As an employee of Harmony Communities, and as a park owner myself, I manage the day-to-day operations of these parks,” Ubaldi said. “Our involvement in the industry dates back to the early 1980s, long before Harmony existed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ubaldi, Harmony is responsible for day-to-day operations, including setting rents, managing leases, maintaining properties and handling tenant issues. For many residents, the company serves as the primary point of contact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show at least 10 LLCs managed by Molly Thompson, Davies’ ex-wife. Bruce Davies shows up as the manager for 41 LLCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankson said that the lack of transparency can make it harder for residents like Faria to challenge decisions or for regulators to step in, especially when ownership and management are intertwined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harmony said its ownership structure is standard and publicly disclosed. Willow reflects the same pattern. Creekside Village Mobile Home Park LLC owns the park. Business filings name Bruce Davies as the LLC’s manager and list the owner’s mailing address as Harmony’s headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Harmony grew its portfolio, it continued to raise rents on mobile home park residents — or facilitate the sale of their parks. Meanwhile, residents and local officials from Santa Barbara to \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/06/windsor-extends-rent-freeze-for-mobile-home-residents-facing-125-hike-as-park-owner-files-federal-lawsuit/\">Sonoma County\u003c/a> have pushed back against proposed rent increases and park closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi said these measures often have the opposite of their intended effect: By limiting rent increases, he said, the underlying land becomes more valuable as vacant property than it is as a park. He pointed to a property in Thousand Oaks, which he said has an estimated land value of $20 million if it were cleared for redevelopment, but only $4 million as an occupied mobile home park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This dramatic disparity illustrates how such policies can incentivize park closures, sales to developers, or conversions, ultimately reducing the stock of affordable housing rather than expanding it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 17, 2026. The park is a privately owned 55-and-older community owned by Harmony Communities. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials in several cities haven’t seen it that way. In San Luis Obispo County, supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.newtimesslo.com/slo-county-supervisors-reject-rent-increase-for-harmony-managed-mobile-home-parks/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">unanimously rejected\u003c/a> a hardship petition filed on behalf of two Harmony-managed parks, concluding the company did not meet the standard needed to justify higher rents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José housing officials similarly \u003ca href=\"https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-says-mobile-home-park-owner-cant-raise-rent/\">denied a proposed rent increase\u003c/a> at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park — another park owned by the Ubaldi family and managed by Harmony Communities — saying the owner failed to justify raising rents by about 10% for some of the park’s lowest-income tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a very well-known park owner, and these tactics, or this behavior, is pretty typical for them across the state,” Emily Hislop, rent stabilization and eviction prevention manager for the city, said at a \u003ca href=\"https://sanjose.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1281814&GUID=AA407BB7-8FAE-4DD2-9A07-07D3A2CAEDC5\">Housing and Community Development Commission\u003c/a> meeting in February 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Willow, Ubaldi said the two increases were intended to “bring rents to market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080896 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spokesperson for Harmony Communities gives public comment at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, during a city council meeting about potential rent control measures. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We do our best to review all available data and metrics, including comparable properties, occupancy rates, local economic conditions, and recent leasing and sales activity, to arrive at a fair and competitive market rent for Willow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria and her neighbors were fed up with the higher charges and confusing messaging. They began to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linda Jackson, another senior at the park, was the spearhead. She learned that Creekside Mobile Home Park, another Harmony-managed property in San Pablo, was also facing increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson spread the word: “I said, ‘I need five people to stand with me so that we can get [Harmony] off our backs and make it so that we can live more comfortably.’ I swear to God, the next day, I had 35 people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Jackson (right) helps Clara Faria, 91, get back to her seat after giving public comment at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, during a city council meeting about potential rent control measures. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-2000x661.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-2048x677.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Linda Jackson (right) sits with Clara Faria and fellow residents of Willow Mobile Home Park and Creekside Village Mobile Home Park at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, for a city council meeting where they plan to give public comment about potential rent control measures. Right: Councilmember Arturo Cruz and San Pablo mayor Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado listen to public comment from Clara Faria. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Faria was one of them. She quickly became a leading voice at San Pablo City Council meetings, where residents urged local leaders to adopt a measure that would limit rent increases for mobile home park tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never imagined at my age I would be choosing between paying rent, buying food and getting my medication,” Faria told council members on Dec. 1. “I cut back everything I can, but these rent hikes are more than I can bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the following meeting on Dec. 15, the council approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanpabloca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18565/Mobile-Home-Assistance-Guidelines\">Mobile Home Assistance Program,\u003c/a> offering a one-time, $1,000 grant to help offset rent hikes. But residents said the relief, while welcome, fell short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>This Band-Aid is giving us more stress,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With only short-term help on the horizon, Faria said it’s difficult to plan for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080867\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria stands in her home at Willow Mobile Home Park. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I live on Social Security alone,” she said. “I just can’t pay that extra money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As disputes like the one at Willow unfold across California, it is drawing attention to the vulnerability of mobile home park residents and the patchwork of local protections. Some state lawmakers are working to bolster protections, even as industry groups challenge some efforts in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has shined an unfortunate light on the fact that the whole layer of rental opportunity has sort of gone without heightened scrutiny or a lot of targeted political action,” said Tyler Pullen with UC Berkeley’s Terner Labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most apartment renters who have a statewide rent cap and standard protections, mobile home park residents are only protected by \u003ca href=\"https://mhphoa.com/ca/rso/\">local ordinances\u003c/a> that vary widely from city to city. Some communities cap rent increases or require park owners to justify higher rents. Others have few protections, leaving residents subject to large increases.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']In January, state Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1543\">AB 1543\u003c/a>, a bill that would impose a statewide rent cap on all mobile home parks, limiting annual increases to the lower of 3% plus inflation or 5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>It’s designed to help the owners of these mobile homes who make that initial investment and then their rents are increased substantially more than other renters across California,” Quirk-Silva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the second time she’s tried to pass such legislation. The first was \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB978\">AB 978\u003c/a> in 2021, which got whittled down during committee hearings to narrowly apply to mobile home parks that straddle two jurisdictions. Only a handful exist across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi said rent caps are not the solution, maintaining that they discourage investment and reduce housing supply over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recognized that tenants might see things differently and argued it should be up to local governments to fill the gap between the rising costs that park owners face and the plight of low-income tenants who can’t afford rent increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many mobile home residents — including Faria and her neighbors — aren’t waiting for state legislation. Where local ordinances and state legislation fall short, they’re building tenant associations, challenging Harmony Communities in court, and, in at least one case, buying their park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Petaluma, residents at a mobile home park managed by Harmony faced proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/petaluma-mobile-home-park-residents-facing-300-rent-increase\">rent hikes\u003c/a> of up to 300% in a single year, prompting city-mandated arbitration and ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O4xRTe48fFLb2-EmM7_fV6DvTpTgBhgd/view?usp=sharing\">legal disputes\u003c/a> involving the city, park owners and residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1570px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080892\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1570\" height=\"1047\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL.jpg 1570w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1570px) 100vw, 1570px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria, 91, looks through paperwork and notices documenting rent increases for the lot where her mobile home sits at Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the San Rafael RV park, owned by Harmony, residents organized a tenants union and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058015/in-san-rafael-residents-of-a-mobile-home-park-are-fighting-to-keep-their-homes\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> in late 2025 alleging unlawful rent increases, harassment and retaliatory behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a park in Fresno County, residents took a different approach. After five years of organizing and fighting rising rents, a group of mostly Oaxacan farmworkers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11977464/to-fight-rising-rents-these-fresno-county-residents-bought-their-mobile-home-park\">purchased\u003c/a> the park from Harmony and converted it into a limited-equity housing cooperative. Harmony said the Fresno property had longstanding safety and infrastructure issues before its involvement, citing fires, code violations and government intervention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Pablo, residents at Willow and Creekside mobile home parks are weighing their own options, including forming a formal tenants’ association. Jackson said the group is also working with the local nonprofit Rising Juntos to place a measure limiting rent increases at mobile home parks on San Pablo’s November ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $1,095 Faria now pays for rent, along with other fees, including sewer, trash and drainage, amounts to about 55% of her Social Security income. She considered cutting her cable TV to save money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At her age, she thought she’d be settled. Instead, she said, she feels like she’s bracing for the worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, she wrote a letter to Harmony: “I ask God to please let me die before you evict me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of mid-April, Faria is still waiting for a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "A KQED investigation finds California mobile home park residents — including seniors in San Pablo — face steep rent hikes from Stockton-based Harmony Communities, which has consolidated dozens of parks, forcing residents to navigate a patchwork of legal protections amid statewide affordability challenges.",
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"title": "‘They’re Bleeding Us Dry’: Rent Hikes, Evictions in California Mobile Home Parks | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Clara Faria read her \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/rent\">rent\u003c/a> statement, her heart stopped. Her monthly payment would more than triple, rising from $297 per month to $995. She had four days to make the payment or be charged a $50 late fee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She sank into the brown leather chair next to her formica-coated kitchen table, where she’d opened her mail for decades. She had heard neighbors were getting rent increases, but said she hadn’t received a notice herself. She had hoped she would be spared, but the reality was worse than she had imagined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I thought ‘I don’t have the money,’” Faria said of the statement, issued on Dec. 31, 2024, and due by Jan. 5, 2025. “I figured by the end of the year, I’m going to be homeless.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria, 91, lives alone on a fixed income in a one-bedroom manufactured home at the Willow Mobile Home Park in the East Bay town of San Pablo. Old family photos, crucifixes and saints adorn her living room walls. An oversized photo of an American flag peaks out from the hallway, declaring, “The lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts him, and I am helped.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria’s experience is part of a growing pattern across California, where mobile home residents — many of whom own their homes but rent the land beneath them — are increasingly vulnerable to steep and repeated rent hikes. Harmony Communities, which manages her park in San Pablo, has faced criticism from residents, advocates and local officials for aggressive rent increases and opaque ownership structures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080893\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080893\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-11-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria, 91, gets help putting on her coat from a home health aid at her home in Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080847\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080847\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"848\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-2000x663.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-1536x509.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-01-BL-2048x678.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Clara Faria’s kitchen at her home in Willow Mobile Home Park. Right: Photos of family fill the walls of Clara Faria’s home. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a state where just \u003ca href=\"https://www.car.org/marketdata/data/haitraditional\">18% \u003c/a>of people can afford to own their homes, mobile home parks offer a rare bastion of affordable ownership. But advocates say people living in these communities have become more exposed as investors seek higher returns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria said she moved into her home in 1997 using an insurance payout after a previous mobile home burned down, drawn by the park’s affordability and its designation for seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That changed when the rent increase notice from Stockton-based Harmony Communities arrived. It was the first signal that more aggressive tactics were replacing the quiet stability of Willow Mobile Home Park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A KQED analysis of property records reveals Harmony Communities has grown into a major player in the industry. The property-management company has managed operations of around 100 parks since 2004, and as of 2025, was actively managing roughly 80 parks statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"https://arcg.is/vTef9\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the company claims its practices ensure “long-term viability,” interviews with nearly two dozen residents and lawyers point to a recurring pattern: Harmony assumes control, substantially raises rents, and in some cases, employs tactics residents and advocates describe as aggressive, leaving low-income tenants susceptible to displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a representative from Harmony said the company sent a notice of the rent increase to Faria in September 2024, Faria maintains she did not receive it until just a few days before the rent was due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, about nine months later, in September 2025, Harmony sent a new notice informing residents their rent would again \u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vN9w8VJB3FWsQJavcTXiCqeBxPELlL68jzc4ME3Rsa4/edit?usp=sharing\">increase\u003c/a> in January 2026 — this time by an average of 30%, according to rent statements reviewed by KQED. Harmony said credits, in some cases, reduced the amount residents ultimately paid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Faria, the repeated increases were crippling. For residents interviewed by KQED, it was a pattern.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The company disputes that these cases reflect a broader pattern and described Faria’s example as unique, adding that each case is fact-specific and shaped by complex local regulations. In an email response to KQED, company representative Nick Ubaldi said Harmony is “committed to providing safe, clean, and affordable housing that remains sustainable for the long term.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Achieving this mission requires carefully balancing all relevant factors for success,” he said. “This includes respecting tenants’ strong preference for the lowest possible rents while also ensuring property owners receive a fair and reasonable return on their investment, allowing the business to succeed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When rent increases do come, the mobile home ownership structure makes relocating extremely expensive for residents and, in some cases, impossible, said Teri Williams, a mobile home resident in southern California who leads the nonprofit Mobile Home Resident Coalition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These residents are captive,” Williams said. “We’re at the mercy of park owners, and they know it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, Ubaldi said park operating costs are rising rapidly, with significant increases in insurance premiums and labor, while rental income is lagging behind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California is one of the most expensive states in which to live and operate a business,” he said. “While no one wants to see residents displaced from their homes, the financial burden of addressing affordability challenges should not fall solely on individual property owners.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080859\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080859\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Residents of Willow Mobile Home Park and the neighboring Creekside Village Mobile Home Park to discuss rent increases at the parks. Residents are calling on the city to adopt rent protections as they face rising and unpredictable rent hikes. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Lawmakers in Sacramento, however, are considering several proposals this year to strengthen protections for mobile home residents, including \u003ca href=\"http://billtrack50.com/billdetail/1921239\">limits on rent increases\u003c/a>. Some cities have adopted local rent caps, while residents themselves have organized tenant associations to fight rent hikes and, in some cases, are negotiating to buy the parks Harmony manages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Willow residents said the second rent increase in two years was distressing, and that anxiety was compounded by confusing and conflicting messaging from Harmony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after the company announced the second increase, Willow residents received \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1DT336OGQUmqFT1TEAPWJDBd1by8ClUSn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a new document\u003c/a> that appeared to contradict the first: “At the same time the rent increase becomes effective, the park will be issuing you a rent credit that is equal to the rent increase amount.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria was baffled. She was initially told her rent would increase by $300. Now, it seemed her rent would stay the same. While Harmony said they had no plans to rescind the credit, it also described it as “discretionary” and said it could be “revoked or modified” with no apparent safeguards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080856\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080856\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-02-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria holds a note she wrote about rent increases for the lot where her mobile home sits. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In an emailed response to questions from KQED, Harmony Communities said some rent increases cited in notices were offset by credits or arbitration processes, resulting in lower effective rents paid by residents. The company provided tenant ledgers, which it said reflect the reduced amounts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi acknowledged the conflicting messages and said the first notice was sent in error.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we identified the issue, we promptly sent a corrected letter that clearly outlined each resident’s credit amount and net increase,” he wrote in an email to KQED. “Any confusion was not intended, and the second letter was sent to resolve it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Matthew Davies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-davies-stockton/\">co-founder\u003c/a> of Harmony Communities, said the company purchased Willow nearly a decade ago and agreed to provide “rent subsidies” to residents for five years and has since invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars” into improvements at the park.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Faria said that when she called Harmony about the first rent increase, she was told she’d have to pay or face eviction, an account the company did not directly address in its response to KQED’s questions. By the time the second notice arrived, followed by the mixed messaging, she felt helpless and afraid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those people are completely bleeding us,” she said. “And they don’t care.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A week later, she got a new letter in the mail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This one told her that despite the credit, her rent would still increase by $100, bringing her total rent up from $995 to $1,095.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The letterhead listed Creekside Village MHC LLC, while contact information directed residents to Harmony Communities, reflecting a centralized management structure. Madeline Bankson, a housing researcher with the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, said this type of ownership is part of a broader industry pattern.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The LLC does three things,” Bankson said. “It reduces liability, adds tax benefits under the tax code; the sort of secret added bonus is obscuring ownership.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Davies started investing in mobile home parks in 2004 with his father, Bruce Davies, according to Ubaldi and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCYLvB6HxhQ\">2024 interview\u003c/a> Matthew Davies conducted with a YouTube vlogger. Davies said Harmony had amassed a nearly $700 million portfolio in its first 20 years of operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a 2021 interview with Multi-Housing News, Davies \u003ca href=\"https://www.multihousingnews.com/improving-manufactured-housing-communities-with-purpose/\">described \u003c/a>Harmony’s approach as improving communities while keeping housing attainable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080872\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080872\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-09-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria puts on makeup in her bathroom. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We look for communities we think will have long-term stability in areas where there’s a strong need for affordable housing and where we believe the local jurisdictions will be supportive of our efforts,” Davies told the trade publication.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harmony operates dozens of mobile home parks across California, but individual LLCs and family trusts own the parks themselves. Documents filed with the California Secretary of State show the managers and members controlling the LLCs are often family members, relatives and Harmony employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of November 2025, Harmony listed 29 mobile home parks it manages on its website. That list has since been removed. A broader search of property records identified about 100 parks associated with the company. Those include properties that had previously been listed on its website and where the owners’ principal address matched Harmony’s Stockton headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An analysis of business filings with the California Secretary of State found employees and family members tied to Harmony have an ownership stake in at least 84 of those parks. That includes parks owned or co-owned by members of the Ubaldi family and the Ubaldi Living Trust, whose successor trustee is Harmony spokesperson Nick Ubaldi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080873\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080873\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-12-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria rearranges photos of family and friends on her refrigerator. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“As an employee of Harmony Communities, and as a park owner myself, I manage the day-to-day operations of these parks,” Ubaldi said. “Our involvement in the industry dates back to the early 1980s, long before Harmony existed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Ubaldi, Harmony is responsible for day-to-day operations, including setting rents, managing leases, maintaining properties and handling tenant issues. For many residents, the company serves as the primary point of contact.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Records show at least 10 LLCs managed by Molly Thompson, Davies’ ex-wife. Bruce Davies shows up as the manager for 41 LLCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bankson said that the lack of transparency can make it harder for residents like Faria to challenge decisions or for regulators to step in, especially when ownership and management are intertwined.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080877\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080877\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-15-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Harmony said its ownership structure is standard and publicly disclosed. Willow reflects the same pattern. Creekside Village Mobile Home Park LLC owns the park. Business filings name Bruce Davies as the LLC’s manager and list the owner’s mailing address as Harmony’s headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Harmony grew its portfolio, it continued to raise rents on mobile home park residents — or facilitate the sale of their parks. Meanwhile, residents and local officials from Santa Barbara to \u003ca href=\"https://www.pressdemocrat.com/2025/11/06/windsor-extends-rent-freeze-for-mobile-home-residents-facing-125-hike-as-park-owner-files-federal-lawsuit/\">Sonoma County\u003c/a> have pushed back against proposed rent increases and park closures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi said these measures often have the opposite of their intended effect: By limiting rent increases, he said, the underlying land becomes more valuable as vacant property than it is as a park. He pointed to a property in Thousand Oaks, which he said has an estimated land value of $20 million if it were cleared for redevelopment, but only $4 million as an occupied mobile home park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This dramatic disparity illustrates how such policies can incentivize park closures, sales to developers, or conversions, ultimately reducing the stock of affordable housing rather than expanding it,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080879\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080879\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260117-HarmonySanPablo-07-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 17, 2026. The park is a privately owned 55-and-older community owned by Harmony Communities. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Officials in several cities haven’t seen it that way. In San Luis Obispo County, supervisors \u003ca href=\"https://www.newtimesslo.com/slo-county-supervisors-reject-rent-increase-for-harmony-managed-mobile-home-parks/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">unanimously rejected\u003c/a> a hardship petition filed on behalf of two Harmony-managed parks, concluding the company did not meet the standard needed to justify higher rents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José housing officials similarly \u003ca href=\"https://sanjosespotlight.com/san-jose-says-mobile-home-park-owner-cant-raise-rent/\">denied a proposed rent increase\u003c/a> at the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park — another park owned by the Ubaldi family and managed by Harmony Communities — saying the owner failed to justify raising rents by about 10% for some of the park’s lowest-income tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They are a very well-known park owner, and these tactics, or this behavior, is pretty typical for them across the state,” Emily Hislop, rent stabilization and eviction prevention manager for the city, said at a \u003ca href=\"https://sanjose.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=A&ID=1281814&GUID=AA407BB7-8FAE-4DD2-9A07-07D3A2CAEDC5\">Housing and Community Development Commission\u003c/a> meeting in February 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At Willow, Ubaldi said the two increases were intended to “bring rents to market.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080896\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12080896 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-22-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A spokesperson for Harmony Communities gives public comment at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, during a city council meeting about potential rent control measures. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We do our best to review all available data and metrics, including comparable properties, occupancy rates, local economic conditions, and recent leasing and sales activity, to arrive at a fair and competitive market rent for Willow,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Faria and her neighbors were fed up with the higher charges and confusing messaging. They began to organize.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Linda Jackson, another senior at the park, was the spearhead. She learned that Creekside Mobile Home Park, another Harmony-managed property in San Pablo, was also facing increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jackson spread the word: “I said, ‘I need five people to stand with me so that we can get [Harmony] off our backs and make it so that we can live more comfortably.’ I swear to God, the next day, I had 35 people.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080857\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080857\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-30-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Linda Jackson (right) helps Clara Faria, 91, get back to her seat after giving public comment at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, during a city council meeting about potential rent control measures. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080863\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080863\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-2000x661.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-28-BL-2048x677.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Linda Jackson (right) sits with Clara Faria and fellow residents of Willow Mobile Home Park and Creekside Village Mobile Home Park at San Pablo City Hall on Jan. 20, 2026, for a city council meeting where they plan to give public comment about potential rent control measures. Right: Councilmember Arturo Cruz and San Pablo mayor Elizabeth Pabon-Alvarado listen to public comment from Clara Faria. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Faria was one of them. She quickly became a leading voice at San Pablo City Council meetings, where residents urged local leaders to adopt a measure that would limit rent increases for mobile home park tenants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I never imagined at my age I would be choosing between paying rent, buying food and getting my medication,” Faria told council members on Dec. 1. “I cut back everything I can, but these rent hikes are more than I can bear.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the following meeting on Dec. 15, the council approved a \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanpabloca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18565/Mobile-Home-Assistance-Guidelines\">Mobile Home Assistance Program,\u003c/a> offering a one-time, $1,000 grant to help offset rent hikes. But residents said the relief, while welcome, fell short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>This Band-Aid is giving us more stress,” Jackson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With only short-term help on the horizon, Faria said it’s difficult to plan for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080867\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080867\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-41-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria stands in her home at Willow Mobile Home Park. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>I live on Social Security alone,” she said. “I just can’t pay that extra money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As disputes like the one at Willow unfold across California, it is drawing attention to the vulnerability of mobile home park residents and the patchwork of local protections. Some state lawmakers are working to bolster protections, even as industry groups challenge some efforts in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has shined an unfortunate light on the fact that the whole layer of rental opportunity has sort of gone without heightened scrutiny or a lot of targeted political action,” said Tyler Pullen with UC Berkeley’s Terner Labs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Unlike most apartment renters who have a statewide rent cap and standard protections, mobile home park residents are only protected by \u003ca href=\"https://mhphoa.com/ca/rso/\">local ordinances\u003c/a> that vary widely from city to city. Some communities cap rent increases or require park owners to justify higher rents. Others have few protections, leaving residents subject to large increases.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In January, state Assemblymember Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, introduced \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billHistoryClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1543\">AB 1543\u003c/a>, a bill that would impose a statewide rent cap on all mobile home parks, limiting annual increases to the lower of 3% plus inflation or 5%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>“\u003c/strong>It’s designed to help the owners of these mobile homes who make that initial investment and then their rents are increased substantially more than other renters across California,” Quirk-Silva said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s the second time she’s tried to pass such legislation. The first was \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB978\">AB 978\u003c/a> in 2021, which got whittled down during committee hearings to narrowly apply to mobile home parks that straddle two jurisdictions. Only a handful exist across the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ubaldi said rent caps are not the solution, maintaining that they discourage investment and reduce housing supply over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He recognized that tenants might see things differently and argued it should be up to local governments to fill the gap between the rising costs that park owners face and the plight of low-income tenants who can’t afford rent increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many mobile home residents — including Faria and her neighbors — aren’t waiting for state legislation. Where local ordinances and state legislation fall short, they’re building tenant associations, challenging Harmony Communities in court, and, in at least one case, buying their park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Petaluma, residents at a mobile home park managed by Harmony faced proposed \u003ca href=\"https://www.ktvu.com/news/petaluma-mobile-home-park-residents-facing-300-rent-increase\">rent hikes\u003c/a> of up to 300% in a single year, prompting city-mandated arbitration and ongoing \u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1O4xRTe48fFLb2-EmM7_fV6DvTpTgBhgd/view?usp=sharing\">legal disputes\u003c/a> involving the city, park owners and residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080892\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1570px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080892\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1570\" height=\"1047\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL.jpg 1570w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260120-HarmonySanPablo-08-BL-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1570px) 100vw, 1570px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Clara Faria, 91, looks through paperwork and notices documenting rent increases for the lot where her mobile home sits at Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo on Jan. 20, 2026. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>At the San Rafael RV park, owned by Harmony, residents organized a tenants union and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12058015/in-san-rafael-residents-of-a-mobile-home-park-are-fighting-to-keep-their-homes\">filed a lawsuit\u003c/a> in late 2025 alleging unlawful rent increases, harassment and retaliatory behavior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At a park in Fresno County, residents took a different approach. After five years of organizing and fighting rising rents, a group of mostly Oaxacan farmworkers \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11977464/to-fight-rising-rents-these-fresno-county-residents-bought-their-mobile-home-park\">purchased\u003c/a> the park from Harmony and converted it into a limited-equity housing cooperative. Harmony said the Fresno property had longstanding safety and infrastructure issues before its involvement, citing fires, code violations and government intervention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Pablo, residents at Willow and Creekside mobile home parks are weighing their own options, including forming a formal tenants’ association. Jackson said the group is also working with the local nonprofit Rising Juntos to place a measure limiting rent increases at mobile home parks on San Pablo’s November ballot.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $1,095 Faria now pays for rent, along with other fees, including sewer, trash and drainage, amounts to about 55% of her Social Security income. She considered cutting her cable TV to save money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At her age, she thought she’d be settled. Instead, she said, she feels like she’s bracing for the worst.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, she wrote a letter to Harmony: “I ask God to please let me die before you evict me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of mid-April, Faria is still waiting for a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>’s Civil Rights Department is warning that the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal housing assistance for families with mixed immigration status could leave up to 30,000 people in the state at risk of eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter this week, the state agency called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to walk back the proposal, which it said would force thousands to confront “inhumane choices” between facing eviction or separating from their loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘We want them to withdraw this rule in its entirety,” CRD Director Kevin Kish said. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s going to harm people. It’s not going to help anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, HUD proposed a change to federal housing policy requiring that every person in housing that receives the assistance submit proof of U.S. citizenship or of their eligibility as a noncitizen (as a refugee, asylum seeker or lawful resident). Those unable to do so could be evicted from HUD-supported programs, like public housing or Section 8 vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said at the time, adding that currently, only about a quarter of eligible Americans have access to HUD resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a coalition of nearly 20 U.S. cities and counties, including San Francisco, Oakland and Marin County, also submitted a comment opposing the change, warning it would destabilize affordable housing operations. The National Housing Conference, which also submitted a letter, said the proposal “doesn’t fix a problem — it creates one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11738375\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11738375 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the San Francisco office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 19, 2018 in San Francisco over the Trump administration family separation policy.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-1200x798.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young girl holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the San Francisco office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 19, 2018, in San Francisco over the Trump administration’s family separation policy. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a step backward that undermines decades of policy precedent that already balanced statutory compliance, family stability, administrative feasibility, and prudent stewardship of scarce federal housing resources,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD policy already prorates housing subsidies for mixed-status households to ensure that the benefit only applies to family members who have confirmed their immigration status. Eliminating those prorated subsidies, Kish wrote in the CDR letter on Tuesday, would cause the number and quality of public housing units to decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HUD says that the goal is to make more housing available to eligible people, but its own analysis shows that won’t happen,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, household members who aren’t eligible for HUD assistance still contribute to the cost of housing. Kish said that HUD has estimated the proposed rule would require spending an additional $2,100 per household, which it anticipates would be paid for by reducing the number of households served by federal housing programs or by reducing the average spending on housing assistance.[aside postID=news_12079829 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/ImmigrantTaxes-GilsTaxServices.jpg']California has the highest percentage of mixed-status households in the U.S., accounting for about 36% of those that could be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About three-fourths of those families consist of children who are of eligible status, and parents who are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Separation is not a viable option for these families, and they will therefore be forced out of their homes,” the letter continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, of an estimated 645 tenants who could be affected, about 210 are children and 40 are seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal government should be helping to prevent homelessness, not making it worse,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said. “This rule would destabilize affordable housing nationwide, increase homelessness, and punish eligible people simply because of who lives in their household.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 70% of residents in mixed-status households have an eligible immigration status, the letter from the cities argues that the policy would be most harmful to people who are eligible for housing assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRD also alleges that the proposed rule could lead to eligible seniors and people with disabilities losing their access to housing assistance, since all family members will have to submit to new verification procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Significant numbers of senior citizens, citizens of color, citizens with disabilities, transgender citizens, and citizens with low incomes may be disproportionately affected,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11888806\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11888806 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1031228044-scaled-e1776901494677.jpg\" alt=\"A man and young boy hold hands as they walk in silhouette on an urban sidewalk in early morning sun.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Honduran father and his 6-year-old son walk to Sunday Mass on Sept. 9, 2018, in Oakland, California. They were one of almost 2,600 families separated due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kish said that the department’s intent in filing the letter is to establish a record of opposition — and require HUD to respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what they have to say in response to our arguments,” he said. “And then if the rule goes forward, our letter helps us set up a challenge because we also believe that the rule is unlawful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kish wrote in his letter that the rule is unlawful under intentional discrimination and disparate impact analyses. He said what a legal challenge could look like is not yet known, and would be a conversation with the attorney general’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It represents a glaring example of HUD’s failure to abide by its duty under the [Fair Housing Act of 1968]to administer housing programs in ways that ‘mov[e] the nation toward a more integrated society,’” Kish wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ahall\">\u003cem>Alex Hall\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/california\">California\u003c/a>’s Civil Rights Department is warning that the Trump administration’s crackdown on federal housing assistance for families with mixed immigration status could leave up to 30,000 people in the state at risk of eviction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a letter this week, the state agency called on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to walk back the proposal, which it said would force thousands to confront “inhumane choices” between facing eviction or separating from their loved ones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>‘We want them to withdraw this rule in its entirety,” CRD Director Kevin Kish said. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s going to harm people. It’s not going to help anyone.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In February, HUD proposed a change to federal housing policy requiring that every person in housing that receives the assistance submit proof of U.S. citizenship or of their eligibility as a noncitizen (as a refugee, asylum seeker or lawful resident). Those unable to do so could be evicted from HUD-supported programs, like public housing or Section 8 vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have zero tolerance for pushing aside hardworking U.S. citizens while enabling others to exploit decades-old loopholes,” HUD Secretary Scott Turner said at the time, adding that currently, only about a quarter of eligible Americans have access to HUD resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, a coalition of nearly 20 U.S. cities and counties, including San Francisco, Oakland and Marin County, also submitted a comment opposing the change, warning it would destabilize affordable housing operations. The National Housing Conference, which also submitted a letter, said the proposal “doesn’t fix a problem — it creates one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11738375\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11738375 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A young girl holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the San Francisco office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 19, 2018 in San Francisco over the Trump administration family separation policy.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1276\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2019/04/RS36430_GettyImages-978854834-qut-1200x798.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A young girl holds a sign during a demonstration outside of the San Francisco office of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on June 19, 2018, in San Francisco over the Trump administration’s family separation policy. \u003ccite>(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“It’s a step backward that undermines decades of policy precedent that already balanced statutory compliance, family stability, administrative feasibility, and prudent stewardship of scarce federal housing resources,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>HUD policy already prorates housing subsidies for mixed-status households to ensure that the benefit only applies to family members who have confirmed their immigration status. Eliminating those prorated subsidies, Kish wrote in the CDR letter on Tuesday, would cause the number and quality of public housing units to decline.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HUD says that the goal is to make more housing available to eligible people, but its own analysis shows that won’t happen,” he told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Currently, household members who aren’t eligible for HUD assistance still contribute to the cost of housing. Kish said that HUD has estimated the proposed rule would require spending an additional $2,100 per household, which it anticipates would be paid for by reducing the number of households served by federal housing programs or by reducing the average spending on housing assistance.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>California has the highest percentage of mixed-status households in the U.S., accounting for about 36% of those that could be impacted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>About three-fourths of those families consist of children who are of eligible status, and parents who are not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Separation is not a viable option for these families, and they will therefore be forced out of their homes,” the letter continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, of an estimated 645 tenants who could be affected, about 210 are children and 40 are seniors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The federal government should be helping to prevent homelessness, not making it worse,” San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu said. “This rule would destabilize affordable housing nationwide, increase homelessness, and punish eligible people simply because of who lives in their household.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since 70% of residents in mixed-status households have an eligible immigration status, the letter from the cities argues that the policy would be most harmful to people who are eligible for housing assistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>CRD also alleges that the proposed rule could lead to eligible seniors and people with disabilities losing their access to housing assistance, since all family members will have to submit to new verification procedures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Significant numbers of senior citizens, citizens of color, citizens with disabilities, transgender citizens, and citizens with low incomes may be disproportionately affected,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11888806\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11888806 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/09/GettyImages-1031228044-scaled-e1776901494677.jpg\" alt=\"A man and young boy hold hands as they walk in silhouette on an urban sidewalk in early morning sun.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Honduran father and his 6-year-old son walk to Sunday Mass on Sept. 9, 2018, in Oakland, California. They were one of almost 2,600 families separated due to the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy. \u003ccite>(Mario Tama/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Kish said that the department’s intent in filing the letter is to establish a record of opposition — and require HUD to respond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We want to hear what they have to say in response to our arguments,” he said. “And then if the rule goes forward, our letter helps us set up a challenge because we also believe that the rule is unlawful.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kish wrote in his letter that the rule is unlawful under intentional discrimination and disparate impact analyses. He said what a legal challenge could look like is not yet known, and would be a conversation with the attorney general’s office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It represents a glaring example of HUD’s failure to abide by its duty under the [Fair Housing Act of 1968]to administer housing programs in ways that ‘mov[e] the nation toward a more integrated society,’” Kish wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/author/ahall\">\u003cem>Alex Hall\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem> contributed to this report.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>State officials are escalating pressure against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/half-moon-bay\">Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> to approve a long-delayed affordable farmworker \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">housing\u003c/a> project there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five-story, 40-unit building for seniors aging out of farm work received a boost of support following the 2023 mass shooting at a mushroom farm in the city, which spotlighted the substandard living conditions many farmworkers face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But three years later, the project has yet to receive a final green light. That prompted the Housing Accountability Unit — the enforcement arm of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) — to send a \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Half-Moon-Bay-LOS-TA-040926-1-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sharply toned letter\u003c/a> earlier this month to Half Moon Bay city officials with a clear message: approve the project quickly or face fines, a loss in state funding, and potential legal action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HCD strongly encourages the city to expeditiously approve the agreements necessary to facilitate the project,” the letter read. Further down, it warned officials: “If HCD finds that a city’s actions do not comply with state law, HCD may notify the California Office of the Attorney General that the local government is in violation of state law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Manager Matthew Chidester said the city is taking the letter seriously and the city council plans to vote on the project next week. He said he felt the tone of the April 9 letter implied the city was “thumbing our nose at the state and its requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not indignant or not prioritizing affordable housing, but the opposite,” he said. “This project … just had more complexity [for the council] and caused a longer timeline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080755\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The project, located at 555 Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay, would provide 40 affordable homes for retired and current farmworkers age 55 and older. When it was initially introduced in 2022, the project received support from state and local officials. Three years later, it is stuck behind city approvals. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Van Meter William Pollock, LLP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Colloquially called 555 Kelly, the project faced initial support soon after it was introduced in 2022. That support grew the following year after the city experienced the worst mass shooting in San Mateo County history, which took place at a mushroom farm and killed seven people. The shooting exposed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987049/half-moon-bay-farm-where-mass-shooting-took-place-settles-workplace-violations-for-nearly-400000\">substandard living conditions\u003c/a> of many farmworkers there and became a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981087/progress-being-made-on-providing-housing-for-farmworkers-in-half-moon-bay\">call-to-action\u003c/a> for state and city leaders to make way for more affordable housing for farmworkers in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s planning commission approved the project in May 2024, but appeals were subsequently filed against the project. A month later, the City Council denied the appeals and upheld the planning commission’s approval. But since then, the project has been stuck behind negotiations surrounding its land-lease agreement. As the state faces an increasingly dire housing crisis, officials are using whatever tools they can to push cities towards approving more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state knows Half Moon Bay can move quickly to approve projects. A year after the mass shooting, city and county officials approved a different affordable housing development for farmworkers called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037511/2-years-after-the-half-moon-bay-shooting-new-housing-for-farmers-starts-to-take-shape\">Stone Pine Cove\u003c/a>. That development included 47 affordable factory-built homes, and residents moved in last year.[aside postID=news_12037511 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/GettyImages-1246581187-1020x765.jpg']But Jeremy Levine, policy manager for the local pro-housing group, Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo, said that project and 555 Kelly are very different. Stone Pine Cove is located on the east side of the city. It’s directly across from the California Terra Garden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983338/more-than-a-year-after-shooting-half-moon-bay-is-making-progress-on-farmworker-housing\">where the mass shooting happened\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“555 Kelly is closer to the commercial part of Half Moon Bay,” he said. “It’s more walkable, it’s more integrated into the community writ large, rather than being sort of to the side, in a corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its location is intentional. The development will include a community resource center, where residents can receive mental health care, case management and other services. Chidester said the project is centrally located so that residents can take advantage of the fact that the development is on a main artery leading into the city’s downtown and is across from a health clinic and a farmers market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But during public meetings about the project, its location has proved controversial among some neighbors who worry that traffic and parking could be impacted by additional residents. And at five stories, it would be the tallest building in Half Moon Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chidester said, as city council members negotiate the land-lease agreement, which would be valid for 99 years, they want to make sure neighbors’ concerns don’t go unnoticed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The council wants to just make sure that the terms of the agreements really protect the city in the long run,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982571\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982571\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At a Half Moon Bay City Council meeting on March 14, 2024, Mayor Joaquín Jiménez speaks about the urgency of building affordable housing for farmworkers and other essential workers with low incomes. \u003ccite>(Tyche Hendricks/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State officials are watching these negotiations play out and want to see a decision soon, but their hands are somewhat tied because the development is on city-owned land. Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California, Davis, said he has seen cities delay approvals on projects built on private land, but this case is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State law doesn’t provide nearly as strong legal hooks for controlling cities’ disapproval of projects on land that they own than it does for controlling city’s disapproval of projects on privately owned land,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, the state pulled the only lever it could pull: warning the city that it could be violating state housing law by delaying action on a project it promised it would build. In 2024, the city adopted a state-mandated plan to allow for more homes to compensate for growing demand. It included Stone Pine Cove and 555 Kelly Ave. as projects that would help it achieve that goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made some progress, but you don’t get to claim that you’re getting an A-plus because you complete half of the assignment,” Levine said. “I think we can celebrate [Stone Pine Cove] and the city’s success, while still recognizing that there are farm workers who need housing, who are living in terrible conditions, and it is the city’s responsibility to meet those needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Following the 2023 mass shooting at a mushroom farm in Half Moon Bay, city officials rallied around housing projects that served local farmworkers. Three years later, one project is still stuck behind city approvals.",
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"title": "California Escalates Pressure on Half Moon Bay to Approve Farmworker Housing | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State officials are escalating pressure against \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/half-moon-bay\">Half Moon Bay\u003c/a> to approve a long-delayed affordable farmworker \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">housing\u003c/a> project there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The five-story, 40-unit building for seniors aging out of farm work received a boost of support following the 2023 mass shooting at a mushroom farm in the city, which spotlighted the substandard living conditions many farmworkers face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But three years later, the project has yet to receive a final green light. That prompted the Housing Accountability Unit — the enforcement arm of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) — to send a \u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/Half-Moon-Bay-LOS-TA-040926-1-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sharply toned letter\u003c/a> earlier this month to Half Moon Bay city officials with a clear message: approve the project quickly or face fines, a loss in state funding, and potential legal action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“HCD strongly encourages the city to expeditiously approve the agreements necessary to facilitate the project,” the letter read. Further down, it warned officials: “If HCD finds that a city’s actions do not comply with state law, HCD may notify the California Office of the Attorney General that the local government is in violation of state law.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City Manager Matthew Chidester said the city is taking the letter seriously and the city council plans to vote on the project next week. He said he felt the tone of the April 9 letter implied the city was “thumbing our nose at the state and its requirements.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re not indignant or not prioritizing affordable housing, but the opposite,” he said. “This project … just had more complexity [for the council] and caused a longer timeline.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080755\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080755\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1125\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/HMBRendering2-1200x675.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The project, located at 555 Kelly Ave in Half Moon Bay, would provide 40 affordable homes for retired and current farmworkers age 55 and older. When it was initially introduced in 2022, the project received support from state and local officials. Three years later, it is stuck behind city approvals. \u003ccite>(Courtesy of Van Meter William Pollock, LLP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Colloquially called 555 Kelly, the project faced initial support soon after it was introduced in 2022. That support grew the following year after the city experienced the worst mass shooting in San Mateo County history, which took place at a mushroom farm and killed seven people. The shooting exposed the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11987049/half-moon-bay-farm-where-mass-shooting-took-place-settles-workplace-violations-for-nearly-400000\">substandard living conditions\u003c/a> of many farmworkers there and became a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11981087/progress-being-made-on-providing-housing-for-farmworkers-in-half-moon-bay\">call-to-action\u003c/a> for state and city leaders to make way for more affordable housing for farmworkers in particular.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s planning commission approved the project in May 2024, but appeals were subsequently filed against the project. A month later, the City Council denied the appeals and upheld the planning commission’s approval. But since then, the project has been stuck behind negotiations surrounding its land-lease agreement. As the state faces an increasingly dire housing crisis, officials are using whatever tools they can to push cities towards approving more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state knows Half Moon Bay can move quickly to approve projects. A year after the mass shooting, city and county officials approved a different affordable housing development for farmworkers called \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12037511/2-years-after-the-half-moon-bay-shooting-new-housing-for-farmers-starts-to-take-shape\">Stone Pine Cove\u003c/a>. That development included 47 affordable factory-built homes, and residents moved in last year.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But Jeremy Levine, policy manager for the local pro-housing group, Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo, said that project and 555 Kelly are very different. Stone Pine Cove is located on the east side of the city. It’s directly across from the California Terra Garden, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11983338/more-than-a-year-after-shooting-half-moon-bay-is-making-progress-on-farmworker-housing\">where the mass shooting happened\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“555 Kelly is closer to the commercial part of Half Moon Bay,” he said. “It’s more walkable, it’s more integrated into the community writ large, rather than being sort of to the side, in a corner.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Its location is intentional. The development will include a community resource center, where residents can receive mental health care, case management and other services. Chidester said the project is centrally located so that residents can take advantage of the fact that the development is on a main artery leading into the city’s downtown and is across from a health clinic and a farmers market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But during public meetings about the project, its location has proved controversial among some neighbors who worry that traffic and parking could be impacted by additional residents. And at five stories, it would be the tallest building in Half Moon Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chidester said, as city council members negotiate the land-lease agreement, which would be valid for 99 years, they want to make sure neighbors’ concerns don’t go unnoticed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The council wants to just make sure that the terms of the agreements really protect the city in the long run,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11982571\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11982571\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/04/240410-HMB-Farmworkers-TH-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">At a Half Moon Bay City Council meeting on March 14, 2024, Mayor Joaquín Jiménez speaks about the urgency of building affordable housing for farmworkers and other essential workers with low incomes. \u003ccite>(Tyche Hendricks/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>State officials are watching these negotiations play out and want to see a decision soon, but their hands are somewhat tied because the development is on city-owned land. Chris Elmendorf, a land use law professor at the University of California, Davis, said he has seen cities delay approvals on projects built on private land, but this case is different.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State law doesn’t provide nearly as strong legal hooks for controlling cities’ disapproval of projects on land that they own than it does for controlling city’s disapproval of projects on privately owned land,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, the state pulled the only lever it could pull: warning the city that it could be violating state housing law by delaying action on a project it promised it would build. In 2024, the city adopted a state-mandated plan to allow for more homes to compensate for growing demand. It included Stone Pine Cove and 555 Kelly Ave. as projects that would help it achieve that goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They made some progress, but you don’t get to claim that you’re getting an A-plus because you complete half of the assignment,” Levine said. “I think we can celebrate [Stone Pine Cove] and the city’s success, while still recognizing that there are farm workers who need housing, who are living in terrible conditions, and it is the city’s responsibility to meet those needs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "700-a-month-sleeping-pods-make-sf-more-affordable-but-at-what-cost",
"title": "For $700 a Month, Sleeping Pods Make SF More Affordable, but at What Cost?",
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"headTitle": "For $700 a Month, Sleeping Pods Make SF More Affordable, but at What Cost? | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some San Franciscans, giving up space and privacy is a worthwhile trade for affordable rent. At Brownstone Shared \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/housing\">Housing\u003c/a>, residents take that tradeoff to the extreme, paying $700 per month for a bunk bed in a room with 30 other adults in the heart of downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brownstone is a sleeping pod company. Pods have been around San Francisco for over a decade, but they are having a moment as droves of tech workers flock to one of the world’s most expensive cities, chasing AI fortunes. They have been characterized as everything from \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/san-francisco-brownstone-sleeping-pods-b2885522.html\">dystopian\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.deanprestonsf.com/blog/are-sleeping-pods-even-legal\">potentially illegal\u003c/a> to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/start-up-sets-up-sleeping-pods-at-site-of-former-bank-in-san-francisco/\">affordable\u003c/a> housing solution — and they have proven popular among some young professionals, who say pods offer them an efficient, simple housing option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some housing experts are skeptical that sleeping pods can provide anything more than a short-term stopgap for a narrow group of residents navigating the housing crisis in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of silly to think we’re going to need a single-family home at every point of our life, from birth ‘til death,” Brownstone CEO James Stallworth said. “So that’s how I see the pods, more as a utility to fill in the gaps in life, understanding that we’ll always need shelter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At his company’s Mint Plaza location, people are sold on the simple offer. For $700, each resident is guaranteed a twin-sized sleeping pod with a privacy curtain, a thermostat and a light, as well as access to a central common area with a small kitchen, workspaces and bathrooms split between roughly 30 roommates. No deposit. No one-year lease. No background checks or proof of income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has long been known for a variety of group living quarters, from hacker houses to hippie communes to residential hotels. But as the cost of living and a tech-fueled economy have drawn young people from all over to San Francisco in more recent years, various models of dormitory-style housing have entered a new iteration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080130\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080130\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of Brownstone Shared Housing in San Francisco on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the earliest pod sites to arrive on the scene was PodShare, a co-living company founded in 2012 that has properties in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other companies attempting something similar, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/haasliving/\">Haas Living\u003c/a>, have come and gone. But Brownstone is the only one looking to dramatically expand into the market with a massive 400-bed super dorm downtown. Stallworth sees the current AI boom as a potential funnel of new residents for whom pod living might be ideal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is still thousands of spots in the city, and potentially hundreds of thousands in the nation,” Stallworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tech workers embarking on their careers, and especially students, say they’re feeling the squeeze and looking for creative housing options.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Life inside the pods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Haseab Ullah first tucked his tall, broad frame into one of Brownstone’s sleeping pods, located in a former bank building in Mint Plaza, while participating in a tech incubator program in 2023. After bouncing between San Francisco and Toronto, his hometown, he’s spent about two years living in the pods and is still there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he’s stayed because he has an “aversion” to spending the money he earns inefficiently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I first came to San Francisco, I wasn’t ready to stay. I just came for the incubator. I didn’t feel ready, and I didn’t think I had enough money,” he said recently, in a conference room in the back of Brownstone’s main common area, a modern space with exposed brick walls, a projector screen and large cushioned chairs. Elements of the building’s former bank still remain, such as a teller counter that now functions as a row of stations where residents can work remotely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080128\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080128\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Haseab Ullah, a resident, uses his laptop in the common area at Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After seeing Brownstone online, he said he messaged the owner on several different platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist to lock in a bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This reporter spent several nights and days living the pod life at Mint Plaza and met several residents who told KQED they arrived at Brownstone for reasons similar to Ullah’s. They were moving to the city from out of town, or out of the country, either to start or find a job, and needed a cheap place to get their footing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, residents go about their days quietly and IRL interactions are friendly but brief, while the house WhatsApp group buzzes with recommendations for local tech events or occasional complaints about missing food or clothing. From what this reporter observed, the common areas were sparsely populated, with the exception of one or two people clicking away at their laptops.[aside postID=news_12079098 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_002_qed.jpg']“Of course, you do have people who only need a month, and then they’re out. And then you have some who are more social and interact with people, and then you have people who just kind of keep to themselves and you never really hear from them,” Stallworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Personal space is hard to come by. The bunk curtains offer some semblance of privacy, and first-come, first-served unlocked storage cubbies give the illusion of security, while a small room in the common space can be reserved for calls or meetings. But other private needs, like changing clothes, take place either in the pod, a restroom or between the bunk beds — a practice that quickly became uncomfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also not an ideal home for someone who enjoys cooking. A small kitchenette offers a sink, a countertop burner, a toaster oven and an air fryer. The fridge and cabinets operate on an honor system and a “use the space you can find” approach. While the lack of rules and boundaries gives people freedom to do as they please, it also means pantry items go missing on occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stolen leftovers are not unique to Brownstone, of course. But what sets it and other sleeping pods apart from other group living setups like co-ops or hacker houses is not only the extremely tight living quarters but their very solitary, often transient nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The average apartment in San Francisco is 716 square feet, about 8% larger than a decade ago, according to a 2025 study from \u003ca href=\"https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/market-snapshots/national-average-apartment-size/\">RentCafe\u003c/a>, while rent on average in the city is currently at $3,650 per month, according to Zillow. Meanwhile, the pods at Brownstone in Mint Plaza have just enough space to lie down and sit up, but not fully extend both arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of a sleeping pod at Brownstone Shared Housing on March 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pods clearly appeal to some people; they are often near capacity at Mint Plaza with guests moving in and out. But pod life was certainly not for this 32-year-old woman, who is candidly skeptical of AI and missed sleeping with her dog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it certainly would not be suitable for all kinds of people, like those with certain disabilities or who want to live with a partner. (One Brownstone resident said he books a hotel when his girlfriend is in town, which is starting to outweigh the savings from staying in a pod.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly not a permanent home in the sense that you expect to come and stay here for the rest of your natural life. We see it as a utility to satisfy that need at different points in life that currently aren’t served by the existing housing stock,” Stallworth said. “We have had older people use the pods if they are traveling for long-term work assignments or they got their visa, and their family isn’t here yet, so there’s all sorts of different points in life where you might need a pod.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rebranding an old concept\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernando Martí, a housing activist who teaches at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of San Francisco, thinks pods are merely a rebranding of a centuries-old concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Big cities have always had residential hotels. That’s where workers first came to the city and needed a place to stay,” Martí said. “I don’t think it’s anything new, other than the branding and the cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Stallworth walks toward the sleeping pod area of Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sleeping pods are not a new concept outside of California, but are often geared toward travelers looking for cheap short-term accommodations. Stallworth is trying to cultivate a longer-term clientele, whether it’s a few months or even a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while pods aren’t set up for seniors on fixed incomes and families with children, who bear the brunt of the housing crisis, according to Carolina Reid, a professor in affordable housing and urban policy at the University of California, Berkeley, single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels continue to serve them.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']These short-term micro-housing units with shared bathrooms and kitchen spaces have been a common source of affordable housing for generations of newcomers to San Francisco, and, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2025/07/how-states-and-cities-decimated-americans-lowest-cost-housing-option\">Pew Charitable Trusts report\u003c/a>, were used to rent for as low as $100 to $300 per month in 2025 dollars. Today, monthly rent in an SRO in San Francisco costs, on \u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfplanning.org/community-stabilization/sro-hotel-protections.htm#:~:text=The%20total%20average%20rent%20for,neighborhoods%20for%20renting%20SRO%20units\">average, around $900\u003c/a>, according to the San Francisco Planning Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In stark contrast to the pods, SROs in San Francisco’s most densely packed neighborhoods have become de facto permanent housing for the city’s lowest-income residents, as the stock of extremely affordable housing has diminished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, there’s this question of, is [a sleeping pod] a primary residence?” said Malcolm Yeung, CEO of Chinatown Community Development Center, which manages a portfolio of SROs in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While SROs went from primarily serving as stopgap housing to a permanent place to live, Charlotte Sarfati didn’t think she could do the same in a sleeping pod. She reached her personal limit at nine months after staying in different pod buildings, like Haas Living, before moving to a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially with having a full-time job, it starts kind of getting to you just being around people and wanting privacy,” the nurse-turned-tech worker said. “Once you feel the drain of working a 9-to-5, it became a little too much for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Riding the AI wave\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With its minimalistic \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification\">AirSpace\u003c/a> aesthetic, Brownstone is actively catering to Safrati’s demographic: residents in their 20s to early 40s, with many current residents telling KQED they work in tech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 400-pod megadorm that Brownstone is trying to launch, the same twin-sized pods would go for $1,200 per month, about $500 more than the Mint Plaza location. Stallworth said that’s simply a reflection of the market, which has seen rents go up this year in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re making a lot more money per square foot than a studio would be,” Martí said. “And that’s always been the case, right? Developers make more money on studios than they do on two-bedrooms because if you can cram more little studios, you can earn a lot more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080129\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080129\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A common area with seating and a projector screen is seen inside Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In other words, cramming more people into smaller spaces is a simple way to squeeze money out of more renters. The market for sleeping pods, currently valued at around $2.7 billion in 2026, is growing globally, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/sleeping-pod-market-104352\">Business Research Insights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>House prices have nearly tripled in San Francisco in the recovery following the Great Recession, according to Reid. As a result, households that are cost burdened have gone from those making under $50,000 per year to now close to $100,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really making San Francisco a place that only the extremely rich can afford,” Reid said. “It means affordability pressures are moving up the income ladder, just because of the lack of both rental and affordable home ownership opportunities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stallworth, 34, got the idea for Brownstone while he was a student at Stanford University, facing his own housing struggles in the 2010s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080447\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Stallworth, co-founder of Brownstone Shared Housing, on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was crashing on couches and trying to make it work, but it was extremely difficult,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stallworth ended up living for free in the basement of a hacker house stacked with Ikea bunk beds in exchange for helping run the booking system. He met his co-founder, Christina Lennox, while working as an auditor for the state. She had experience as a landlord, and the two wanted to create an alternative to what they saw on the housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Housing is a barrier to opportunities,” Stallworth said. “In Silicon Valley, we like to pretend that it’s a meritocracy, but access to housing is mostly determined by money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business hasn’t all been smooth, and the company’s relationship with the city has been rocky.[aside postID=news_12078615 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260320-KOGURACOMPANY00242_TV-KQED.jpg']Last year, Brownstone was hit with an eviction notice after landlords of the Mint Plaza location said the startup failed to pay rent and allegedly owed more than $150,000. The case was later dismissed, and the company said it would pivot to a franchise model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, Brownstone is not officially approved to operate the 30-pod building in Mint Plaza, according to Dan Sider, chief of staff for the San Francisco Planning Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s now attempting to move forward with its 400-pod facility along mid-Market. \u003ca href=\"https://brownstone.live/market-street\">Video renderings\u003c/a> show rows of dozens of rectangular bunk beds in a cavernous office-like space. Sider said no permits have been sought or granted for the proposed new space, which has already faced criticism for serving more as a warehouse than housing and has raised questions about how such a site could safely and legally house so many people under one roof.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Sider said the city is open to working with Brownstone on the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, Brownstone is building new places for people to live. We support that wholeheartedly. Especially so in these cases because their projects would activate underused buildings,” Sider said. “It’s also worth noting that, regarding their Mid-Market proposal, we’ve had encouraging preliminary conversations with Brownstone that suggest a departure from the ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ approach they used at Mint Plaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New legislation that took effect last year in San Francisco waived impact fees for residential adaptive reuse projects like Brownstone’s buildings, meaning it does not have to contribute funding to the city’s overall affordable housing goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether Brownstone can scale up remains to be seen. One day in the Mint Plaza location, Stallworth himself was taking out trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080126\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080126\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dry-erase board displaying house rules is posted near the sleeping pod area at Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another key question: Is there enough of a market for the pods, especially at a steeper price, to sustain an enterprise like Brownstone long term? While the swelling AI industry has drawn workers to San Francisco, the current bubble could just as quickly pop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The housing crisis is so severe that we need to be experimenting with lots of different models,” Reid said. “But I’m not sure that it is a long-term solution to San Francisco’s housing crisis, just because my hunch is that nobody wants to stay in a pod permanently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For residents like Ullah, who spends much of his time working on the various tech projects he has brewing, saving money is worth giving up some space. He’s not actively looking to move right now, as rents have only gone up in San Francisco in recent months. But in theory, he said, he’d take a better option if something came along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, if there was a better option, if the housing situation in San Francisco was better, I would pick that option,” he said. “But I thought about it like, will I compromise on my housing right now, temporarily, in order to be successful in the future? Absolutely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For some San Franciscans, giving up space and privacy is a worthwhile trade for affordable rent. At Brownstone Shared \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/housing\">Housing\u003c/a>, residents take that tradeoff to the extreme, paying $700 per month for a bunk bed in a room with 30 other adults in the heart of downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brownstone is a sleeping pod company. Pods have been around San Francisco for over a decade, but they are having a moment as droves of tech workers flock to one of the world’s most expensive cities, chasing AI fortunes. They have been characterized as everything from \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/san-francisco-brownstone-sleeping-pods-b2885522.html\">dystopian\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.deanprestonsf.com/blog/are-sleeping-pods-even-legal\">potentially illegal\u003c/a> to an \u003ca href=\"https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/start-up-sets-up-sleeping-pods-at-site-of-former-bank-in-san-francisco/\">affordable\u003c/a> housing solution — and they have proven popular among some young professionals, who say pods offer them an efficient, simple housing option.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some housing experts are skeptical that sleeping pods can provide anything more than a short-term stopgap for a narrow group of residents navigating the housing crisis in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s kind of silly to think we’re going to need a single-family home at every point of our life, from birth ‘til death,” Brownstone CEO James Stallworth said. “So that’s how I see the pods, more as a utility to fill in the gaps in life, understanding that we’ll always need shelter.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At his company’s Mint Plaza location, people are sold on the simple offer. For $700, each resident is guaranteed a twin-sized sleeping pod with a privacy curtain, a thermostat and a light, as well as access to a central common area with a small kitchen, workspaces and bathrooms split between roughly 30 roommates. No deposit. No one-year lease. No background checks or proof of income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city has long been known for a variety of group living quarters, from hacker houses to hippie communes to residential hotels. But as the cost of living and a tech-fueled economy have drawn young people from all over to San Francisco in more recent years, various models of dormitory-style housing have entered a new iteration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080130\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080130\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_017-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The exterior of Brownstone Shared Housing in San Francisco on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One of the earliest pod sites to arrive on the scene was PodShare, a co-living company founded in 2012 that has properties in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other companies attempting something similar, like \u003ca href=\"https://www.instagram.com/haasliving/\">Haas Living\u003c/a>, have come and gone. But Brownstone is the only one looking to dramatically expand into the market with a massive 400-bed super dorm downtown. Stallworth sees the current AI boom as a potential funnel of new residents for whom pod living might be ideal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our goal is still thousands of spots in the city, and potentially hundreds of thousands in the nation,” Stallworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tech workers embarking on their careers, and especially students, say they’re feeling the squeeze and looking for creative housing options.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Life inside the pods\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Haseab Ullah first tucked his tall, broad frame into one of Brownstone’s sleeping pods, located in a former bank building in Mint Plaza, while participating in a tech incubator program in 2023. After bouncing between San Francisco and Toronto, his hometown, he’s spent about two years living in the pods and is still there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said he’s stayed because he has an “aversion” to spending the money he earns inefficiently.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I first came to San Francisco, I wasn’t ready to stay. I just came for the incubator. I didn’t feel ready, and I didn’t think I had enough money,” he said recently, in a conference room in the back of Brownstone’s main common area, a modern space with exposed brick walls, a projector screen and large cushioned chairs. Elements of the building’s former bank still remain, such as a teller counter that now functions as a row of stations where residents can work remotely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080128\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080128\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_012-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Haseab Ullah, a resident, uses his laptop in the common area at Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>After seeing Brownstone online, he said he messaged the owner on several different platforms, including Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist to lock in a bed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This reporter spent several nights and days living the pod life at Mint Plaza and met several residents who told KQED they arrived at Brownstone for reasons similar to Ullah’s. They were moving to the city from out of town, or out of the country, either to start or find a job, and needed a cheap place to get their footing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the most part, residents go about their days quietly and IRL interactions are friendly but brief, while the house WhatsApp group buzzes with recommendations for local tech events or occasional complaints about missing food or clothing. From what this reporter observed, the common areas were sparsely populated, with the exception of one or two people clicking away at their laptops.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Of course, you do have people who only need a month, and then they’re out. And then you have some who are more social and interact with people, and then you have people who just kind of keep to themselves and you never really hear from them,” Stallworth said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Personal space is hard to come by. The bunk curtains offer some semblance of privacy, and first-come, first-served unlocked storage cubbies give the illusion of security, while a small room in the common space can be reserved for calls or meetings. But other private needs, like changing clothes, take place either in the pod, a restroom or between the bunk beds — a practice that quickly became uncomfortable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s also not an ideal home for someone who enjoys cooking. A small kitchenette offers a sink, a countertop burner, a toaster oven and an air fryer. The fridge and cabinets operate on an honor system and a “use the space you can find” approach. While the lack of rules and boundaries gives people freedom to do as they please, it also means pantry items go missing on occasion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stolen leftovers are not unique to Brownstone, of course. But what sets it and other sleeping pods apart from other group living setups like co-ops or hacker houses is not only the extremely tight living quarters but their very solitary, often transient nature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The average apartment in San Francisco is 716 square feet, about 8% larger than a decade ago, according to a 2025 study from \u003ca href=\"https://www.rentcafe.com/blog/rental-market/market-snapshots/national-average-apartment-size/\">RentCafe\u003c/a>, while rent on average in the city is currently at $3,650 per month, according to Zillow. Meanwhile, the pods at Brownstone in Mint Plaza have just enough space to lie down and sit up, but not fully extend both arms.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080485\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080485\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260416-Sleeping-Pod-SJ-01-KQED-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The inside of a sleeping pod at Brownstone Shared Housing on March 16, 2026. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Pods clearly appeal to some people; they are often near capacity at Mint Plaza with guests moving in and out. But pod life was certainly not for this 32-year-old woman, who is candidly skeptical of AI and missed sleeping with her dog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it certainly would not be suitable for all kinds of people, like those with certain disabilities or who want to live with a partner. (One Brownstone resident said he books a hotel when his girlfriend is in town, which is starting to outweigh the savings from staying in a pod.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s certainly not a permanent home in the sense that you expect to come and stay here for the rest of your natural life. We see it as a utility to satisfy that need at different points in life that currently aren’t served by the existing housing stock,” Stallworth said. “We have had older people use the pods if they are traveling for long-term work assignments or they got their visa, and their family isn’t here yet, so there’s all sorts of different points in life where you might need a pod.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Rebranding an old concept\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Fernando Martí, a housing activist who teaches at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and the University of San Francisco, thinks pods are merely a rebranding of a centuries-old concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Big cities have always had residential hotels. That’s where workers first came to the city and needed a place to stay,” Martí said. “I don’t think it’s anything new, other than the branding and the cost.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080125\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080125\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_006-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Stallworth walks toward the sleeping pod area of Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sleeping pods are not a new concept outside of California, but are often geared toward travelers looking for cheap short-term accommodations. Stallworth is trying to cultivate a longer-term clientele, whether it’s a few months or even a few years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while pods aren’t set up for seniors on fixed incomes and families with children, who bear the brunt of the housing crisis, according to Carolina Reid, a professor in affordable housing and urban policy at the University of California, Berkeley, single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels continue to serve them.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>These short-term micro-housing units with shared bathrooms and kitchen spaces have been a common source of affordable housing for generations of newcomers to San Francisco, and, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2025/07/how-states-and-cities-decimated-americans-lowest-cost-housing-option\">Pew Charitable Trusts report\u003c/a>, were used to rent for as low as $100 to $300 per month in 2025 dollars. Today, monthly rent in an SRO in San Francisco costs, on \u003ca href=\"https://projects.sfplanning.org/community-stabilization/sro-hotel-protections.htm#:~:text=The%20total%20average%20rent%20for,neighborhoods%20for%20renting%20SRO%20units\">average, around $900\u003c/a>, according to the San Francisco Planning Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In stark contrast to the pods, SROs in San Francisco’s most densely packed neighborhoods have become de facto permanent housing for the city’s lowest-income residents, as the stock of extremely affordable housing has diminished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To me, there’s this question of, is [a sleeping pod] a primary residence?” said Malcolm Yeung, CEO of Chinatown Community Development Center, which manages a portfolio of SROs in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While SROs went from primarily serving as stopgap housing to a permanent place to live, Charlotte Sarfati didn’t think she could do the same in a sleeping pod. She reached her personal limit at nine months after staying in different pod buildings, like Haas Living, before moving to a one-bedroom apartment in Oakland.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Especially with having a full-time job, it starts kind of getting to you just being around people and wanting privacy,” the nurse-turned-tech worker said. “Once you feel the drain of working a 9-to-5, it became a little too much for me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Riding the AI wave\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>With its minimalistic \u003ca href=\"https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/3/12325104/airbnb-aesthetic-global-minimalism-startup-gentrification\">AirSpace\u003c/a> aesthetic, Brownstone is actively catering to Safrati’s demographic: residents in their 20s to early 40s, with many current residents telling KQED they work in tech.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the 400-pod megadorm that Brownstone is trying to launch, the same twin-sized pods would go for $1,200 per month, about $500 more than the Mint Plaza location. Stallworth said that’s simply a reflection of the market, which has seen rents go up this year in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re making a lot more money per square foot than a studio would be,” Martí said. “And that’s always been the case, right? Developers make more money on studios than they do on two-bedrooms because if you can cram more little studios, you can earn a lot more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080129\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080129\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_014-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A common area with seating and a projector screen is seen inside Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In other words, cramming more people into smaller spaces is a simple way to squeeze money out of more renters. The market for sleeping pods, currently valued at around $2.7 billion in 2026, is growing globally, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.businessresearchinsights.com/market-reports/sleeping-pod-market-104352\">Business Research Insights\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>House prices have nearly tripled in San Francisco in the recovery following the Great Recession, according to Reid. As a result, households that are cost burdened have gone from those making under $50,000 per year to now close to $100,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is really making San Francisco a place that only the extremely rich can afford,” Reid said. “It means affordability pressures are moving up the income ladder, just because of the lack of both rental and affordable home ownership opportunities.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stallworth, 34, got the idea for Brownstone while he was a student at Stanford University, facing his own housing struggles in the 2010s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080447\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080447\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026Affordability_-Sleeping-Pods_GH_002_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Stallworth, co-founder of Brownstone Shared Housing, on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I was crashing on couches and trying to make it work, but it was extremely difficult,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stallworth ended up living for free in the basement of a hacker house stacked with Ikea bunk beds in exchange for helping run the booking system. He met his co-founder, Christina Lennox, while working as an auditor for the state. She had experience as a landlord, and the two wanted to create an alternative to what they saw on the housing market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Housing is a barrier to opportunities,” Stallworth said. “In Silicon Valley, we like to pretend that it’s a meritocracy, but access to housing is mostly determined by money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Business hasn’t all been smooth, and the company’s relationship with the city has been rocky.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Last year, Brownstone was hit with an eviction notice after landlords of the Mint Plaza location said the startup failed to pay rent and allegedly owed more than $150,000. The case was later dismissed, and the company said it would pivot to a franchise model.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, Brownstone is not officially approved to operate the 30-pod building in Mint Plaza, according to Dan Sider, chief of staff for the San Francisco Planning Department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s now attempting to move forward with its 400-pod facility along mid-Market. \u003ca href=\"https://brownstone.live/market-street\">Video renderings\u003c/a> show rows of dozens of rectangular bunk beds in a cavernous office-like space. Sider said no permits have been sought or granted for the proposed new space, which has already faced criticism for serving more as a warehouse than housing and has raised questions about how such a site could safely and legally house so many people under one roof.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, Sider said the city is open to working with Brownstone on the project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the end of the day, Brownstone is building new places for people to live. We support that wholeheartedly. Especially so in these cases because their projects would activate underused buildings,” Sider said. “It’s also worth noting that, regarding their Mid-Market proposal, we’ve had encouraging preliminary conversations with Brownstone that suggest a departure from the ‘ask for forgiveness rather than permission’ approach they used at Mint Plaza.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>New legislation that took effect last year in San Francisco waived impact fees for residential adaptive reuse projects like Brownstone’s buildings, meaning it does not have to contribute funding to the city’s overall affordable housing goals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whether Brownstone can scale up remains to be seen. One day in the Mint Plaza location, Stallworth himself was taking out trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12080126\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12080126\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041026AFFORDABILITY_-SLEEPING-PODS_GH_007-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dry-erase board displaying house rules is posted near the sleeping pod area at Brownstone Shared Housing on April 10, 2026. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another key question: Is there enough of a market for the pods, especially at a steeper price, to sustain an enterprise like Brownstone long term? While the swelling AI industry has drawn workers to San Francisco, the current bubble could just as quickly pop.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The housing crisis is so severe that we need to be experimenting with lots of different models,” Reid said. “But I’m not sure that it is a long-term solution to San Francisco’s housing crisis, just because my hunch is that nobody wants to stay in a pod permanently.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For residents like Ullah, who spends much of his time working on the various tech projects he has brewing, saving money is worth giving up some space. He’s not actively looking to move right now, as rents have only gone up in San Francisco in recent months. But in theory, he said, he’d take a better option if something came along.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Of course, if there was a better option, if the housing situation in San Francisco was better, I would pick that option,” he said. “But I thought about it like, will I compromise on my housing right now, temporarily, in order to be successful in the future? Absolutely.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Amid major debate in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> on how to handle people camping in public places, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-city-council\">Oakland City Council\u003c/a> enacted a controversial new encampment policy Tuesday over the objections of dozens of advocates for the unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy, which passed on a 5-1 vote, revises the way the city manages encampments and eases restrictions on sweeps. Councilmember Caroll Fife abstained, and Janani Ramachandran was excused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policy allows Oakland to redefine “encampment” to exclude vehicles, including RVs, making it possible for the city to cite and tow inhabited vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also authorizes immediate encampment closures, including tents blocking sidewalks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation, introduced by District 7 Councilmember Ken Houston, also expands the definition of “high sensitivity areas,” where encampments are assumed to negatively impact health and safety, and are therefore subject to more aggressive sweeping. These high-sensitivity areas already include sites like schools and hospitals and now include utilities and public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials framed the new policy as a public health and safety issue aimed at reducing fires, assaults, robberies and other crimes associated with encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 Oakland residents came to the meeting to voice their support or concerns for the measure. Some public speakers said they hoped the new rules would protect infrastructure around BART, and others came to advocate for their neighborhoods and businesses to be included in the high-sensitivity zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12045783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12045783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The majority of speakers, however, called on the council to vote against the policy, saying relaxing limits on encampment sweeps amounted to “criminalizing homelessness,” and would have dire consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father Dominic DeMaio, a Catholic priest who works with residents of an Oakland encampment, spent the morning in the council’s chambers, where he said he saw frustration from people hoping to see more care for unhoused residents and council members trying to do their best with limited resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeMaio said many of the people who he works with have chronic conditions and are not receiving the appropriate care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to help to sweep them again,” DeMaio said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armando Solorzano, an advocate working with Wood Street Commons, East Oakland Collective, and Love and Justice in the Streets, told KQED that the new policy is not consistent with Mayor Barbara Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/03/04/homeless-action-plan-oakland-barbara-lee-prevention/\">proposal\u003c/a> to cut homelessness by 50%. The mayor’s plan said to “slow down the pace of sweeps to keep pace with shelter availability,” said Solorzano, but there are not more shelters available.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']This problem has not been helped by three Oakland shelters \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandside.org/2026/03/31/oakland-homeless-shelters-close-3rd-peralta-hceb/\">closed\u003c/a> their doors in the past few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness is on the rise in Oakland, increasing 8.5% between 2022 and 2024, according to the city’s point-in-time count. The 5,485 unhoused people in the city far outpace the number of overnight parking spots, shelter beds, transitional housing or permanent supportive housing units than the city currently provides, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7493872&GUID=4D7B3D3D-ED16-403A-9988-B11E206E01E7&Options=&Search=\">bill text\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Encampment closures already skyrocketed from 240 closures in 2024 to 1,212 closures in 2025 following the Supreme Court Decision in Grant Pass v. Johnson, which permitted cities to punish people sleeping on the street even if there were no available shelter beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s new abatement policy is less severe than Houston’s original text: Five council members amended the proposal to implement further notice and more safeguards for people who are at risk of displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These include considerations for towing vehicles that house families with children and people with disabilities, allowing more time to relocate and requiring referrals to appropriate shelters that would accommodate their needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is also required to identify safe areas in all council districts to relocate affected individuals within 90 days of towing their vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland’s new policy also clarifies the responsibilities of the city’s Department of Transportation and the police department, according to Houston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038000\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland City Hall in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting accused the council of trying to sneak the ordinance through with a 9:30 a.m. special meeting, outside the council’s regular schedule, because they knew how unpopular it would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Cornu, executive director of St. Mary’s Center in West Oakland, which advocates for seniors and young children, said she and her colleagues rescheduled their days to come to Tuesday’s meeting after closely tracking the policy for about nine months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the vote, Houston said he recognized Oaklanders’ frustrations around the new rules and said it was a necessary “starting point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people would be happy if their policy passed. I’m not. I’m really not,” said Houston, lead sponsor of the bill. “I feel hurt that we had to come to this point to make something happen for an unhoused individual … We have to start somewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Amid major debate in the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bay-area\">Bay Area\u003c/a> on how to handle people camping in public places, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/oakland-city-council\">Oakland City Council\u003c/a> enacted a controversial new encampment policy Tuesday over the objections of dozens of advocates for the unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The policy, which passed on a 5-1 vote, revises the way the city manages encampments and eases restrictions on sweeps. Councilmember Caroll Fife abstained, and Janani Ramachandran was excused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new policy allows Oakland to redefine “encampment” to exclude vehicles, including RVs, making it possible for the city to cite and tow inhabited vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also authorizes immediate encampment closures, including tents blocking sidewalks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The legislation, introduced by District 7 Councilmember Ken Houston, also expands the definition of “high sensitivity areas,” where encampments are assumed to negatively impact health and safety, and are therefore subject to more aggressive sweeping. These high-sensitivity areas already include sites like schools and hospitals and now include utilities and public transit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Officials framed the new policy as a public health and safety issue aimed at reducing fires, assaults, robberies and other crimes associated with encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 Oakland residents came to the meeting to voice their support or concerns for the measure. Some public speakers said they hoped the new rules would protect infrastructure around BART, and others came to advocate for their neighborhoods and businesses to be included in the high-sensitivity zones.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12045783\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12045783\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250304-OaklandHighStreetEncampment-14-BL_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A section of an encampment on Alameda Avenue in Oakland is cleared on March 4, 2025. A shipping container barrier now surrounds the property. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The majority of speakers, however, called on the council to vote against the policy, saying relaxing limits on encampment sweeps amounted to “criminalizing homelessness,” and would have dire consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Father Dominic DeMaio, a Catholic priest who works with residents of an Oakland encampment, spent the morning in the council’s chambers, where he said he saw frustration from people hoping to see more care for unhoused residents and council members trying to do their best with limited resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DeMaio said many of the people who he works with have chronic conditions and are not receiving the appropriate care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not going to help to sweep them again,” DeMaio said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Armando Solorzano, an advocate working with Wood Street Commons, East Oakland Collective, and Love and Justice in the Streets, told KQED that the new policy is not consistent with Mayor Barbara Lee’s \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2026/03/04/homeless-action-plan-oakland-barbara-lee-prevention/\">proposal\u003c/a> to cut homelessness by 50%. The mayor’s plan said to “slow down the pace of sweeps to keep pace with shelter availability,” said Solorzano, but there are not more shelters available.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>This problem has not been helped by three Oakland shelters \u003ca href=\"http://oaklandside.org/2026/03/31/oakland-homeless-shelters-close-3rd-peralta-hceb/\">closed\u003c/a> their doors in the past few months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness is on the rise in Oakland, increasing 8.5% between 2022 and 2024, according to the city’s point-in-time count. The 5,485 unhoused people in the city far outpace the number of overnight parking spots, shelter beds, transitional housing or permanent supportive housing units than the city currently provides, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7493872&GUID=4D7B3D3D-ED16-403A-9988-B11E206E01E7&Options=&Search=\">bill text\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Encampment closures already skyrocketed from 240 closures in 2024 to 1,212 closures in 2025 following the Supreme Court Decision in Grant Pass v. Johnson, which permitted cities to punish people sleeping on the street even if there were no available shelter beds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city’s new abatement policy is less severe than Houston’s original text: Five council members amended the proposal to implement further notice and more safeguards for people who are at risk of displacement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These include considerations for towing vehicles that house families with children and people with disabilities, allowing more time to relocate and requiring referrals to appropriate shelters that would accommodate their needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is also required to identify safe areas in all council districts to relocate affected individuals within 90 days of towing their vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oakland’s new policy also clarifies the responsibilities of the city’s Department of Transportation and the police department, according to Houston.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12038000\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12038000\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/04/250428-OAKLAND-CITY-HALL-FILE-MD-02-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oakland City Hall in Oakland on April 28, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Some public commenters at Tuesday’s meeting accused the council of trying to sneak the ordinance through with a 9:30 a.m. special meeting, outside the council’s regular schedule, because they knew how unpopular it would be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sharon Cornu, executive director of St. Mary’s Center in West Oakland, which advocates for seniors and young children, said she and her colleagues rescheduled their days to come to Tuesday’s meeting after closely tracking the policy for about nine months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After the vote, Houston said he recognized Oaklanders’ frustrations around the new rules and said it was a necessary “starting point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Most people would be happy if their policy passed. I’m not. I’m really not,” said Houston, lead sponsor of the bill. “I feel hurt that we had to come to this point to make something happen for an unhoused individual … We have to start somewhere.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "when-teachers-cant-afford-to-live-in-the-bay-area-districts-get-into-the-housing-game",
"title": "When Teachers Can’t Afford to Live in the Bay Area, Districts Get Into the Housing Game",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Ms. Hernandez’s son began to ask her where he would attend high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His curiosity brought forward a bigger question looming in her mind: Was their family going to be able to stay in San Francisco at all?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sorry, baby, but I don’t know,” she told her middle-schooler. “I don’t know if we’re going to continue to be living in the city; things are going to be too expensive here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> paraeducator and her husband had lived in the Bay Area for two decades, mostly in the city. For the last 10 years, they’d shared a two-bedroom apartment in the Outer Mission, paying about $3,000 a month in rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building was aging, the family was growing tired of struggles with their landlord, and they wanted to be in a neighborhood that felt safer. For years, though, finding another apartment in their price range seemed impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At one point we even wondered if we wanted to stay here or move even across the country,” Hernandez, who asked to be identified by only her last name because of ongoing litigation with a previous landlord, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple affordable housing applications had gotten her no further than long waiting lists and only a few calls back to apply. Then, in May, MidPen Housing called to say her family had been selected for a unit in a new affordable housing development that gives priority to school district staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079592 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shirley Chisholm Village, an affordable housing development that gives priority to San Francisco Unified School District educators, on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I felt like I was dreaming,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez remembers picking her son up from school after they got the keys, ordering pizza and bringing him to the building near Ocean Beach as a surprise. “This is going to be your new house,” she told him, hopeful that he’d attend high school in their new neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new, five-story apartment building, nestled between the Sunset District’s signature two-story single-family homes and a burgeoning number of neighborhood restaurants, bookstores and coffee shops, is now home to more than 100 SFUSD employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.midpen-housing.org/shirley-chisholm-village/\">Shirley Chisholm Village development\u003c/a> sprang from a partnership between the school district and the city’s affordable housing program that was announced in 2015. It’s part of a growing number of teacher housing projects cropping up throughout the Bay Area as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">cost of living in the region continues to climb\u003c/a>, often outpacing the salaries of essential education workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Sarah Karlinsky, the director of research and policy at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the trend follows many universities and public sector employers, who have provided housing options for decades — both because of sky-high costs and a shortage of units in urban areas.[aside postID=news_12075761 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00263_TV-KQED.jpg']“Many of us are familiar with this idea of the ‘company town,’” she said. “When there’s a large-scale employer and they want to make sure they can attract talent and workers … they need to ensure their workers have housing. Even if you think about building the railroads, large infrastructure projects involve thinking about where workers might live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, even companies in higher-paying sectors like tech have sought to help house their employees because of the lack of housing stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School districts are among the latest to pursue the model as they find themselves with vacant properties and employees who say they can’t afford to live near work or, in some cases, stay in the profession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarita Lavin, an ethnic studies teacher at George Washington High School, has worked in SFUSD for five years and lived in San Francisco for more than 10, but she said that before she moved into Shirley Chisholm Village, she was considering leaving both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d lived with roommates for a decade, navigating the usual cohabitating strifes like dirty dishes in the sink and uninvited guests, as well as some less common circumstances — like a pet reptile on the loose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s nothing like opening a cabinet and having a six-foot African king snake looking at you,” Lavin said. “That was the big moment where I was like, ‘Maybe it’s time for me to really start thinking about independent living.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin said the Sunset District apartment, which is considered affordable, still costs more than half of her monthly take-home income at about $2,500 a month. But it’s a far cry from the rates she saw on Craigslist and Zillow when she started looking at studios and one-bedrooms. Those, which she said could top $3,000, are “totally out of the price range for teachers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079591 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shirley Chisholm Village has units designated for various income levels between 40% to 120% of the area median income, with priority to San Francisco Unified School District educators. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She makes the cost work in part because it was important to her to stay in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like a place where my family had roots in the U.S.,” said Lavin, whose mother immigrated from Guatemala to Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin grew up in Oakland but moved to the Inland Empire at 11, after her family was priced out. She said they spent a lot of their time in San Francisco, though, so she felt drawn to move here more than a decade ago to attend college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her last apartment, Lavin paid $1,100 a month, plus about $200 to $300 in utilities, for a room with two roommates — a low outlier among city rents, because the three tenants split the cost of their space equitably based on their salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as she got older, it became increasingly important to have her own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really thinking, if I can’t get this place, then I might want to start looking outside of San Francisco, move maybe out to the East Bay and leave SFUSD, because it’s just too unaffordable to live here,” Lavin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now I kind of feel like maybe I don’t need an exit strategy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Seeing results, but challenges remain\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 2010s, Jefferson Union High School District was losing and replacing about 25% of its employees every year across its five campuses in Daly City and Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we surveyed our staff, we found that the number one reason that they were leaving our district was long commutes and housing affordability,” said Denise Shreve, the district’s director of housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jefferson Union, the lowest-funded high school district in San Mateo County, “had to be creative” to retain teachers and recruit new ones, Shreve said. That led to a plan to build affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the district was one of the first in the nation to pass a bond measure to fund affordable teacher housing, generating about $33 million. Shreve said it borrowed an additional $40 million or so through certificates of participation, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/certificateofparticipation.asp\">form of municipal financing\u003c/a> often used as an alternative to traditional voter-approved bonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district broke ground in 2020 on a 122-unit development at its Serramonte Del Rey campus in Daly City, which opened in 2022 with all of its one- to three-bedroom units filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two years later, the district began the school year without any job openings. “We were completely, fully staffed. Before we had staff housing, that was unheard of,” Shreve said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other districts across the Bay Area have also pursued similar projects in recent years. Neighboring Jefferson Elementary School District opened 56 apartments for staff in 2024. Santa Clara Unified School District was one of the first in the state to provide housing for teachers, constructing 40 units in 2001 and 30 more in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, an Oakland nonprofit announced it had purchased an apartment complex that it would turn into housing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12078453/one-way-to-help-oakland-teachers-salaries-go-further-affordable-housing\">Oakland Unified School District employees\u003c/a>, pricing units at 30% of their household income. The 33-unit building in the Temescal District is the first that the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation’s Rooted program has acquired as part of its effort to purchase 150 residential units in the next three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When SFUSD began work on the Shirley Chisholm development, it cited many of the same challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, more than 64% of district teachers surveyed said they spent more than 30% of their income on rent, and about 15% spent 50% or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Shayla Putnam walks through a courtyard at Shirley Chisholm Village on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a resolution committing to pursue workforce housing that was passed the previous year, the San Francisco school board said, “High housing costs are a significant contributing factor to SFUSD educators’ ability to remain in San Francisco and remain employed with SFUSD, risking dire and unpredictable negative effects on the quality of SFUSD education when educators can no longer afford to live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, workforce housing has not completely solved the problem for teachers in areas with a high cost of living. For those like Lavin, even an affordable housing unit can take up a large chunk of their take-home salary. And in San Francisco, many teachers, especially those with more experience, make too much to qualify for some of the units in Shirley Chisholm Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building has units designated for various income levels between 40% to 120% of the area median income. For a single person, that equates to an annual salary between $41,130 and $130,900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, fully credentialed \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/information-employees/labor-relations/labor-partners/uesf-certificated#78271\">teacher salaries\u003c/a> ranged from $81,350 to $134,762, meaning that even entry-level teachers are ineligible for 34 of the affordable apartments. And as educators — especially those with more post-college credits — gain seniority, they surpass the income threshold for more units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While SFUSD educators have priority for the building, about 10% of its units are occupied by non-SFUSD renters, most of whom have priority for specially designed ADA units. Of the 115 units that house SFUSD employees, many are occupied by support staffers who make lower salaries, such as paraeducators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the district’s housing is operated in partnership with the city, residents have to go through San Francisco’s affordable housing lottery to apply for a unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin and Hernandez said that the process took months, and they had to provide a lot of information that the district already knows, like income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these issues are less pervasive in districts like Jefferson Union, which operates its housing independently, with the help of a property manager. It designates about two-thirds of its units for certificated teachers, while the rest are available to paraeducators and other staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a smaller district, it’s also able to have a bigger impact. While about a quarter of the staff lives in Jefferson Union’s workforce housing, only about 115 of more than 6,000 SFUSD employees live in its apartment complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, SFUSD set a goal of developing more than 500 housing units by 2030, and the district said it is exploring additional sites and partnerships to expand. It’s already broken ground on a second subsidized housing development in the Western Addition, which will add 75 more apartment units. And it’s identified \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2024-04-04-sfusd-identifies-additional-sites-educator-housing#:~:text=In%20October%202023%2C%20SFUSD%20formed,enable%20the%20development%20of%20housing.\">multiple other district-owned properties\u003c/a> throughout the city for future projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before pursuing future projects, the district said it will conduct a “thorough analysis — including surveying staff — to understand the needs and preferences” of educators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the demand is clear. Nearly 15% of SFUSD’s workforce applied for the Shirley Chisholm Village complex, and about 395 district employees are on the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079589\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Shayla Putnam stands outside Shirley Chisholm Village on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shayla Putnam, who teaches ceramics at George Washington High School, said securing a spot there felt like “hard work paid off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Putnam is the main earner for her and her partner, who have bounced around to one-bedroom apartments in the city for five years. Even at the below-market rates at Shirley Chisholm Village, they could only afford a one-bedroom unit, but she said amenities like a dishwasher and in-building laundry, as well as a measurably larger living space, have made a huge difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the extra space does bring a quality of life that I haven’t necessarily experienced in the city,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her partner, who is an artist, has a dedicated workspace, and they were able to get a kitchen table for the first time. The bathroom is also big enough to move around comfortably — “you could spin in here with your arms out,” Putnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, they save about $300 a month compared to their last apartment, which was also in the Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a little more leeway,” Putnam said. “It’s the difference [between] literally cooking food every night versus being like, ‘We can eat out at this locally-owned business, we can have this coffee shop’ — those little things that make life worth living rather than scraping by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cstrong>\u003cem>How We Get By\u003c/em>\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003cem>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003c/em>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">\u003cem>full series here\u003c/em>\u003c/a>\u003cem>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, Ms. Hernandez’s son began to ask her where he would attend high school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His curiosity brought forward a bigger question looming in her mind: Was their family going to be able to stay in San Francisco at all?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m sorry, baby, but I don’t know,” she told her middle-schooler. “I don’t know if we’re going to continue to be living in the city; things are going to be too expensive here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco-unified-school-district\">San Francisco Unified School District\u003c/a> paraeducator and her husband had lived in the Bay Area for two decades, mostly in the city. For the last 10 years, they’d shared a two-bedroom apartment in the Outer Mission, paying about $3,000 a month in rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building was aging, the family was growing tired of struggles with their landlord, and they wanted to be in a neighborhood that felt safer. For years, though, finding another apartment in their price range seemed impossible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At one point we even wondered if we wanted to stay here or move even across the country,” Hernandez, who asked to be identified by only her last name because of ongoing litigation with a previous landlord, told KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Multiple affordable housing applications had gotten her no further than long waiting lists and only a few calls back to apply. Then, in May, MidPen Housing called to say her family had been selected for a unit in a new affordable housing development that gives priority to school district staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079592\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079592 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_016_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shirley Chisholm Village, an affordable housing development that gives priority to San Francisco Unified School District educators, on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I felt like I was dreaming,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hernandez remembers picking her son up from school after they got the keys, ordering pizza and bringing him to the building near Ocean Beach as a surprise. “This is going to be your new house,” she told him, hopeful that he’d attend high school in their new neighborhood.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new, five-story apartment building, nestled between the Sunset District’s signature two-story single-family homes and a burgeoning number of neighborhood restaurants, bookstores and coffee shops, is now home to more than 100 SFUSD employees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://www.midpen-housing.org/shirley-chisholm-village/\">Shirley Chisholm Village development\u003c/a> sprang from a partnership between the school district and the city’s affordable housing program that was announced in 2015. It’s part of a growing number of teacher housing projects cropping up throughout the Bay Area as the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">cost of living in the region continues to climb\u003c/a>, often outpacing the salaries of essential education workers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Sarah Karlinsky, the director of research and policy at UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, the trend follows many universities and public sector employers, who have provided housing options for decades — both because of sky-high costs and a shortage of units in urban areas.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“Many of us are familiar with this idea of the ‘company town,’” she said. “When there’s a large-scale employer and they want to make sure they can attract talent and workers … they need to ensure their workers have housing. Even if you think about building the railroads, large infrastructure projects involve thinking about where workers might live.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In recent years, even companies in higher-paying sectors like tech have sought to help house their employees because of the lack of housing stock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>School districts are among the latest to pursue the model as they find themselves with vacant properties and employees who say they can’t afford to live near work or, in some cases, stay in the profession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sarita Lavin, an ethnic studies teacher at George Washington High School, has worked in SFUSD for five years and lived in San Francisco for more than 10, but she said that before she moved into Shirley Chisholm Village, she was considering leaving both.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She’d lived with roommates for a decade, navigating the usual cohabitating strifes like dirty dishes in the sink and uninvited guests, as well as some less common circumstances — like a pet reptile on the loose.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s nothing like opening a cabinet and having a six-foot African king snake looking at you,” Lavin said. “That was the big moment where I was like, ‘Maybe it’s time for me to really start thinking about independent living.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin said the Sunset District apartment, which is considered affordable, still costs more than half of her monthly take-home income at about $2,500 a month. But it’s a far cry from the rates she saw on Craigslist and Zillow when she started looking at studios and one-bedrooms. Those, which she said could top $3,000, are “totally out of the price range for teachers.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079591\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12079591 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_015_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shirley Chisholm Village has units designated for various income levels between 40% to 120% of the area median income, with priority to San Francisco Unified School District educators. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>She makes the cost work in part because it was important to her to stay in the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It just felt like a place where my family had roots in the U.S.,” said Lavin, whose mother immigrated from Guatemala to Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin grew up in Oakland but moved to the Inland Empire at 11, after her family was priced out. She said they spent a lot of their time in San Francisco, though, so she felt drawn to move here more than a decade ago to attend college.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In her last apartment, Lavin paid $1,100 a month, plus about $200 to $300 in utilities, for a room with two roommates — a low outlier among city rents, because the three tenants split the cost of their space equitably based on their salaries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But as she got older, it became increasingly important to have her own space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I was really thinking, if I can’t get this place, then I might want to start looking outside of San Francisco, move maybe out to the East Bay and leave SFUSD, because it’s just too unaffordable to live here,” Lavin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Now I kind of feel like maybe I don’t need an exit strategy,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Seeing results, but challenges remain\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Throughout the 2010s, Jefferson Union High School District was losing and replacing about 25% of its employees every year across its five campuses in Daly City and Pacifica.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When we surveyed our staff, we found that the number one reason that they were leaving our district was long commutes and housing affordability,” said Denise Shreve, the district’s director of housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jefferson Union, the lowest-funded high school district in San Mateo County, “had to be creative” to retain teachers and recruit new ones, Shreve said. That led to a plan to build affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, the district was one of the first in the nation to pass a bond measure to fund affordable teacher housing, generating about $33 million. Shreve said it borrowed an additional $40 million or so through certificates of participation, a \u003ca href=\"https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/certificateofparticipation.asp\">form of municipal financing\u003c/a> often used as an alternative to traditional voter-approved bonds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The district broke ground in 2020 on a 122-unit development at its Serramonte Del Rey campus in Daly City, which opened in 2022 with all of its one- to three-bedroom units filled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just two years later, the district began the school year without any job openings. “We were completely, fully staffed. Before we had staff housing, that was unheard of,” Shreve said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other districts across the Bay Area have also pursued similar projects in recent years. Neighboring Jefferson Elementary School District opened 56 apartments for staff in 2024. Santa Clara Unified School District was one of the first in the state to provide housing for teachers, constructing 40 units in 2001 and 30 more in 2008.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, an Oakland nonprofit announced it had purchased an apartment complex that it would turn into housing for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12078453/one-way-to-help-oakland-teachers-salaries-go-further-affordable-housing\">Oakland Unified School District employees\u003c/a>, pricing units at 30% of their household income. The 33-unit building in the Temescal District is the first that the Oakland Fund for Public Innovation’s Rooted program has acquired as part of its effort to purchase 150 residential units in the next three years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When SFUSD began work on the Shirley Chisholm development, it cited many of the same challenges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, more than 64% of district teachers surveyed said they spent more than 30% of their income on rent, and about 15% spent 50% or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079588\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079588\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_009_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Shayla Putnam walks through a courtyard at Shirley Chisholm Village on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a resolution committing to pursue workforce housing that was passed the previous year, the San Francisco school board said, “High housing costs are a significant contributing factor to SFUSD educators’ ability to remain in San Francisco and remain employed with SFUSD, risking dire and unpredictable negative effects on the quality of SFUSD education when educators can no longer afford to live here.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, workforce housing has not completely solved the problem for teachers in areas with a high cost of living. For those like Lavin, even an affordable housing unit can take up a large chunk of their take-home salary. And in San Francisco, many teachers, especially those with more experience, make too much to qualify for some of the units in Shirley Chisholm Village.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The building has units designated for various income levels between 40% to 120% of the area median income. For a single person, that equates to an annual salary between $41,130 and $130,900.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This year, fully credentialed \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/information-employees/labor-relations/labor-partners/uesf-certificated#78271\">teacher salaries\u003c/a> ranged from $81,350 to $134,762, meaning that even entry-level teachers are ineligible for 34 of the affordable apartments. And as educators — especially those with more post-college credits — gain seniority, they surpass the income threshold for more units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While SFUSD educators have priority for the building, about 10% of its units are occupied by non-SFUSD renters, most of whom have priority for specially designed ADA units. Of the 115 units that house SFUSD employees, many are occupied by support staffers who make lower salaries, such as paraeducators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because the district’s housing is operated in partnership with the city, residents have to go through San Francisco’s affordable housing lottery to apply for a unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lavin and Hernandez said that the process took months, and they had to provide a lot of information that the district already knows, like income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these issues are less pervasive in districts like Jefferson Union, which operates its housing independently, with the help of a property manager. It designates about two-thirds of its units for certificated teachers, while the rest are available to paraeducators and other staff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a smaller district, it’s also able to have a bigger impact. While about a quarter of the staff lives in Jefferson Union’s workforce housing, only about 115 of more than 6,000 SFUSD employees live in its apartment complex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2018, SFUSD set a goal of developing more than 500 housing units by 2030, and the district said it is exploring additional sites and partnerships to expand. It’s already broken ground on a second subsidized housing development in the Western Addition, which will add 75 more apartment units. And it’s identified \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfusd.edu/about-sfusd/sfusd-news/press-releases/2024-04-04-sfusd-identifies-additional-sites-educator-housing#:~:text=In%20October%202023%2C%20SFUSD%20formed,enable%20the%20development%20of%20housing.\">multiple other district-owned properties\u003c/a> throughout the city for future projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before pursuing future projects, the district said it will conduct a “thorough analysis — including surveying staff — to understand the needs and preferences” of educators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the demand is clear. Nearly 15% of SFUSD’s workforce applied for the Shirley Chisholm Village complex, and about 395 district employees are on the waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079589\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079589\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/041226Affordability-series-teacher-housing_GH_010_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teacher Shayla Putnam stands outside Shirley Chisholm Village on April 12, 2026, in San Francisco. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Shayla Putnam, who teaches ceramics at George Washington High School, said securing a spot there felt like “hard work paid off.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Putnam is the main earner for her and her partner, who have bounced around to one-bedroom apartments in the city for five years. Even at the below-market rates at Shirley Chisholm Village, they could only afford a one-bedroom unit, but she said amenities like a dishwasher and in-building laundry, as well as a measurably larger living space, have made a huge difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Having the extra space does bring a quality of life that I haven’t necessarily experienced in the city,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her partner, who is an artist, has a dedicated workspace, and they were able to get a kitchen table for the first time. The bathroom is also big enough to move around comfortably — “you could spin in here with your arms out,” Putnam said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Plus, they save about $300 a month compared to their last apartment, which was also in the Sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have a little more leeway,” Putnam said. “It’s the difference [between] literally cooking food every night versus being like, ‘We can eat out at this locally-owned business, we can have this coffee shop’ — those little things that make life worth living rather than scraping by.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "cambrian-park-plaza-a-beloved-san-jose-strip-mall-awaits-a-new-future",
"title": "Cambrian Park Plaza, A Beloved San José Strip Mall, Awaits a New Future",
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"headTitle": "Cambrian Park Plaza, A Beloved San José Strip Mall, Awaits a New Future | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing a lot of people notice about Cambrian Park Plaza on the west side of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> is the sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s big; it’s yellow; and it has a carousel on top, complete with playful figures encircling the outside. At one point, the carousel actually rotated — but like many things in this shopping plaza — it has seen better days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaza itself is low slung with a massive parking lot that is often empty. Storefronts are made of brick and nestle under a covered walkway. It’s not your average strip mall with a big grocery store at the center and smaller chains flanking it. Instead, there’s a bit more charm. Shops are clustered around little courtyards with white picket fences, picnic benches and trees. Some stores have window boxes with flowers. There are roses and palm trees. It’s quaint, but faded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has a circus slash English garden theme, cottage theme,” Connie Young said. “I was like, ‘This seems like an interesting place, and a place that has a lot of history.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was visiting Cambrian Park to volunteer at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ibokrescue.org/info/display?PageID=21948\">Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Cafe\u003c/a>, a pet adoption organization located in the plaza. She was surprised to see many nostalgic memories of the place online. She wanted to learn more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A covered walkway lined with storefronts stretches through Cambrian Park Plaza on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There seem to be a lot of people who are mourning the loss of Cambrian Park Plaza, a 1950s era strip mall in San José that is set to be demolished for housing and retail space,” she wrote in to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a>. “What’s the history of that place?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Valley of Heart’s Delight\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Cambrian Park neighborhood represents the quintessential story of San José development. For a long time, San José was small, an agricultural center for the many orchards and farms nearby. But after World War II, the Defense industry was booming and more people were moving to the area for jobs. The city manager at the time, Dutch Hammond, wanted to create the Los Angeles of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Largely what got developed here was track housing, which was very cheap to build,” said Michael Brillot, a retired San José city planner. “You just knock down the cherry orchard or the apricot and prune orchard, and you plop in houses like you build Model T Fords on an assembly line, except the workers move as opposed to the product.”[aside postID=news_12077572 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/10/251027-ALMADENQUICKSILVER00034_TV-KQED.jpg'] The push was to develop outwards from San José’s core and to build enough housing to supply the workforce to places like Sunnyvale and Cupertino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cambrian Park neighborhood — and its shopping mall — was part of that history. A large landowner named Paul Schaeffer owned the orchards that became Cambrian Park. He decided to tear out the trees and build houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He recognized people need to buy stuff,” said Peter Clarke, a Cambrian Park resident and member of the Friends of Cambrian Park group. “They need a post office and a grocery store. So he assembled this particular plaza as the only real center in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, many families only had one car. It was common for the breadwinner to drive north to work while the other parent stayed home with the children. During its heyday, Cambrian Park Plaza had everything families needed within walking distance of their home — a grocery store, a hardware store, clothing stores, a post office, a bowling alley, even doctors’ and dentists’ offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the downtown,” said Bob Burres, another local resident. “There is no ‘main street’ in the Cambrian Park area. This was it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A slow decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That remained true for decades, but over time, the plaza began to fade and social patterns changed. People drove more and further for things, making the plaza less central to their needs. The Schaeffer family retained ownership of the plaza \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/08/05/structures-cambrian-timeline.html\">until 2015\u003c/a>. Peter Clarke guesses that it was passive income for owner Paul Schaeffer and his wife in their later years. But when they died, their children sold the plaza to a developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it was bought, and people said, ‘We’re going to redevelop it,’ we were in favor,” Peter Clarke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cambrian Park Plaza sign, built in 1953 with the shopping center, features a rotating carousel and received historic status in 2016, on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many Cambrian Park residents were ready for an updated space that might once again be the center of community life. The Friends of Cambrian Park group stayed involved as the developer, Texas-based Weingarten Realty, proposed various uses for the property. But residents did not like early proposals that resembled more traditional strip malls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The community was very clear,” Clarke said. “They wanted to see a place that was a location that people would come to linger at, that had sit-down dining. They didn’t want more fast food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They wanted something like \u003ca href=\"https://www.thepruneyard.com/\">The Pruneyard\u003c/a> in Campbell or the Los Gatos’ downtown, two locations residents currently go to for entertainment and dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>An iterative process\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/08/05/structures-cambrian-timeline.html\">Over many years,\u003c/a> after lots of city planning meetings featuring \u003cem>some\u003c/em> yelling, there’s finally a proposal on the table that many residents can get behind. It was approved by the city council in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new development would include underground parking, retail with apartments built above, a central plaza, a hotel, an assisted living facility, 48 single-family homes and 25 townhouses.[aside postID=news_12078615 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260320-KOGURACOMPANY00242_TV-KQED.jpg'] But four years later and nothing has been built yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan that you can look through on the city’s website is not economically feasible to build,” said Kelly Snider, a professor at San José State University and a development consultant. “There’s just a lot going on in a very small parcel. It’s a little bit of a Frankenstein.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said no one developer specializes in all those various uses. On top of that, very few big projects like this are moving forward anywhere in the Bay Area. The economics just don’t work out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interest rates are high, construction materials and labor are expensive and people’s work and consumer habits have changed. Brick-and-mortar retail stores have a lot of competition online. There’s fewer business travelers in San José. More people are working remotely, so office spaces sit empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Will the Cambrian Park project ever get built?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“I think that the interest rates, at some point, [will] come down,” Brilliot said. “And I think some projects will come back. But I think it’s gonna be slower, more flat growth. And because of that, I don’t think you’re gonna see a massive amount of development like you did in the dot-com boom when things were just going crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their part, Bob Burres and Peter Clarke are waiting nervously to see how it all turns out. They know that of all the elements in the approved plan, the single-family homes and townhouses will be the easiest for the developer to recoup investment. After all, housing is always in demand in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red roses rise above a white picket fence in a garden at Cambrian Park Plaza on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Once you put up housing on any piece of commercial land, it’s never going to be commercial again,” Peter Clarke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if that happens, the neighbors’ dream of a central gathering spot — like the Pruneyard — will never come to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The permit for the current \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/planning-building-code-enforcement/planning-division/major-development-projects/cambrian-park-plaza-signature-project\">Cambrian Park Signature Project\u003c/a> will expire in 2028. But the developer recently applied to alter the permit so they can build the housing part of the plan first and extend the permit up to 4 years in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is currently reviewing the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this article called this project the “Cambrian Park Urban Village” when in fact its official name is “Cambrian Park Signature Project.” A Signature Project is one element of a larger urban village area. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes questions come from the most random places.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I volunteer for a San José-based kitten rescue and it’s called Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Cafe. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Connie Young, from Mountain View.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we have adoptable foster kittens that come every weekend. And there’s two playrooms. And you can book a 50-minute slot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The kitten cafe where she volunteers is located in Cambrian Park Plaza on the west side of San José.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I went there to volunteer and I saw that plaza and it was kind of different than the other strip mall plazas in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cambrian Park Plaza isn’t one long flat fronted building like a typical strip mall. It was built to mimic the experience of a town’s main street, so the facade turns often, creating little plazas with white picket fences and brickwork. There are window boxes and roses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has kind of like a circus slash like English garden theme, cottage theme.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Circus because one of the defining features of this plaza is a huge yellow sign with a carousel on top. The figures \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to rotate, although like many things in this plaza, it has seen better days.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was like, this seems like an interesting place and a place that has a lot of history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shopping mall is slated for redevelopment, and Connie wants to know more about its history and what it could become. Connie also noticed that online many people have shared fond memories of this plaza’s heyday in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Let’s hear a few…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember driving by Cambrian Plaza and seeing the carousel from when we first arrived in San José.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was always a grocery store there when I was a little kid. So we’d walk up to the grocery store to do our shopping for the day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a go-to. I mean, you could do everything there. You could go to a delicatessen and get your meats and cheeses, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> There was Ben Franklin, which was the coolest store on the face of the planet. It was like a dime store and you could get anything there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Janet Gillis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were hardware stores there. There were pet shops, as I said, the clothing stores, very lot of practical things that, you know, people would need.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it was in walking distance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The minute I think of the smell of bubblegum ice cream, which for a four-year-old that was like Nirvana, I picture myself inside that ice cream parlor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember going to the bowling alley. We used to go there a lot during high school and hang out with the other teenagers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To this day remember the sound of the pins hitting the the back wall and the balls striking and people laughing and having a good time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Janet Gillis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’d go down in a little group of you know five or six or eight kids and be back before dinner. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were so many things that, that as a kid, it made my life feel a little bit bigger and richer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those were nearby residents Jaime Portillo, Carolyn Robinson and Janet Gillis sharing their memories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz headed to San José to find out more about the fate of Cambrian Park Plaza. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first Cambrian Park neighbors I meet are characters…they’ve been attending city meetings and organizing their neighbors to influence what gets built here for years. And they aren’t shy about some of the tactics they used..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m the guy who kicked over the apple cart, repeatedly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Bob Burres — a proud instigator. His friend and neighbor, Peter Clarke, has a different approach he says…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He’s nice, he’s polite, he’s a proper English gentleman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am the Brit, which is the funny accent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bob and Peter like this neighborhood for its views of the mountains and quiet, neighborly charm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This area was originally all farmland. Then the farmers decided they could make more money by essentially selling up and having housing developed on the periphery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The guy who owned all the land that became the neighborhood of Cambrian Park was named Paul Schaeffer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But then he recognized, you know, people need to buy stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This area was the heart of Cambrian Park. This was the downtown. There is no main street in Cambrian park area. This was it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Peter and Bob are showing me around it’s clear this mall is no longer the heart of the neighborhood. But the neighbors hope it could be again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you go through you see there’s numerous little plazas and sitting spaces all around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plaza has a faded quality. We walk down the outside of the building, which has covered walkways that protect us from the rain that’s falling. Many storefronts are empty and I hear just as much about what it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used to be\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as what it is now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This used to be the Cambrian Post office for years.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That used to be a Mexican restaurant, but closed down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The things that are left… a boxing gym, a pet adoption agency, a store for kids baseball gear…are on short term leases. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can’t put a lot of investment into a retail space for a six month lease.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peter and Bob have both lived in Cambrian Park for 30 years… but even back in the late 80s and early 90s the plaza was already in slow decline. The Schaeffer family owned it for most of its existence, but stopped keeping it up in later years. When Paul Schaffer and his wife died, their children sold it to a developer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it was bought and people said we’re going to redevelop it, we were in favor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peter and Bob are part of a group called the Friends of Cambrian Park Plaza. They’ve been pushing the city and developers to create a vibrant place to live, shop and gather.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We have hopes that something beautiful will come out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They look to a place like The Pruneyard in Campbell as their model. It’s got local businesses alongside chains..and is a pleasant place to hang out.We’ll dig into the details of what could be built here and explore why achieving that vision could be a tough sell in San José right now. All that, coming up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost a million people live in San José. It’s the largest city in Northern California, but its development hasn’t followed the pattern of a typical big city. That’s why despite being dubbed the Heart of Silicon Valley…many people think a more apt term would be “the bedroom” of Silicon Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you look at San José, it very much feels like you’re in the San Fernando Valley or somewhere in Los Angeles, not the old urban part, but the more auto suburban track housing part of LA. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Michel Brilliot worked for the city of San José for 27 years…retiring as the deputy director of long range projects. He says the sprawling, residential character of the city can be traced back to one man\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michalel Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dutch Hammond. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like Cambrian Park, the rest of San José was mostly agricultural. Before Dutch Hammond came along, there were fruit trees as far as the eye could see. But after World War II, the defense industry was booming and Hammond understood its workers needed somewhere to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Largely what got developed here was track housing which was very cheap to build you just knock down the cherry orchard or the apricot and prune orchard and you just you plop in houses like you build model t fords on an assembly line except the workers move as opposed to the product.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cambrian Park neighborhood was part of this era…built in the late 1950s. The homes are largely ranch style with yards and garages. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People historically would have a family and settle down and work and they would drive north for their job in what became and is now Silicon Valley. And that to a large extent has not changed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem with that, Michael says, is that running a city that is mostly residential, with few big businesses, is expensive. Residents want services.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They want code enforcement to deal with the RV that someone’s living in down the street or parks and maintaining the parks and they want libraries and. So they want all these things which cost money. Businesses generally don’t want as much services from the city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As early as the 1970s, San José city leaders realized it needed a better balance of businesses and homes. The goal was to bring more jobs into the city itself, to increase the tax base and to reduce congestion on the roads. Those are still the goals of city planners, says Michael.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the idea now is really to, instead of growing out, growing up, and growing up really along transit corridors and transit stations and in the downtown and create these places that are called urban villages.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed plan for Cambrian Park Plaza is one of these urban villages – a cluster of amenities, housing and jobs near a transit corridor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music to emphasize back and forth\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would have underground parking with retail above.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A six-story apartment block on top of retail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shops would be built around a central plaza for families and neighbors to gather. Then there’d be…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An assisted living building\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">48 single family homes, 25 townhouses, and…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A hotel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music ends\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But nothing has actually been built by the developer, Kimco Realty.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we’ve seen very little higher density projects break ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelly Snider:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The plan that you can look through on the city’s website is not economically feasible to build.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly Snider is an adjunct professor at San José State and a development consultant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelly Snider: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s just a lot going on in a very small parcel. It’s a little bit of a Frankenstein.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly says there’s no one developer who specializes in so many different types of buildings…hotels, assisted living, single family homes… retail..they’re all very different. And the economic picture right now makes it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even less likely \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this project will be completed anytime soon. It’s a story we see around the Bay Area. Labor is expensive. Construction materials cost more than ever… and interest rates aren’t favorable. Plus, Michael Brilliot says, the population of San José is now shrinking, not growing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, will the Cambrian Park urban village ever get built?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think that when the interest rates, at some point, they’ll come down. And I think some projects will come back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I think it’s gonna be a slower, more flat growth and because of that, I don’t think you’re gonna see masses of amount of development like you did in the dot-com boom when things were just going crazy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a post-COVID world, it may not make sense to build hotels and offices. Brick and mortar stores have to compete with online retailers. It’s a different real estate picture now than when this plan was conceived a few years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bob Burres, Peter Clarke and the other Friends of Cambrian Park are watching this play out nervously. They worry the only economically feasible thing to do with the property is to build townhouses…after all, in the Bay Area, housing is always in high demand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things that we have heard over and over from the folks in the city is developers come in with fairly grand plans. And they’re gonna do some housing, and they’re going to do some sort of commercial, and they are going to something else. Well, housing is the only thing that’s profitable. And so they decide to build, we’re going to build the housing first. And then phase two and phase three will have these other things. They build the housing and then they say, sorry, it doesn’t pencil and they abandon the project. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you put up housing on any piece of commercial land it’s never going to be commercial again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if that happens, their dream of a gathering spot like the one in Campbell…the Pruneyard…will never become a reality. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I brought all this back to Connie Young, our question asker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can see why they would want to kind of redevelop it into something more community focused. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connie grew up in the South Bay and remembers wishing there was more to do…more places she could go without a ride from her parents. Now she’s living in Mountain View and has enjoyed the way streets have been closed downtown to make space for dining and gathering.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I feel like that’s what the South Bay is missing in a lot of the cities, especially San José, like a central plaza or the neighborhood where everybody gathers in the evening and their kids run around and play. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The permit for the current Cambrian Park Urban Village plan will expire in 2028. Getting new ones would be expensive for the developer…maybe that’s why the company recently applied to alter the permit so they can build the housing part of the plan first and extend the permit up to 4 years in the process. The city is currently reviewing the proposal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was Bay Curious editor and producer, Katrina Schwartz. Thanks to Connie Young for asking this week’s question. It was selected by you in a monthly voting round on Bay \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://curious.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curious.or\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">g. That’s one of the things I think makes Bay Curious unique… it is driven by you – your questions, about your community. And, it’s funded by you too. We need your support to keep things going, so please consider making a donation to KQED today. It only takes a few minutes. You can do it right from your phone. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the place to do it. Thanks!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Christopher Beale, Katrina Schwartz and Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With extra support from Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "Cambrian Park Plaza, A Beloved San José Strip Mall, Awaits a New Future | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"#Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">View the full episode transcript.\u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing a lot of people notice about Cambrian Park Plaza on the west side of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-jose\">San José\u003c/a> is the sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s big; it’s yellow; and it has a carousel on top, complete with playful figures encircling the outside. At one point, the carousel actually rotated — but like many things in this shopping plaza — it has seen better days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plaza itself is low slung with a massive parking lot that is often empty. Storefronts are made of brick and nestle under a covered walkway. It’s not your average strip mall with a big grocery store at the center and smaller chains flanking it. Instead, there’s a bit more charm. Shops are clustered around little courtyards with white picket fences, picnic benches and trees. Some stores have window boxes with flowers. There are roses and palm trees. It’s quaint, but faded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has a circus slash English garden theme, cottage theme,” Connie Young said. “I was like, ‘This seems like an interesting place, and a place that has a lot of history.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Young was visiting Cambrian Park to volunteer at the \u003ca href=\"https://www.ibokrescue.org/info/display?PageID=21948\">Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Cafe\u003c/a>, a pet adoption organization located in the plaza. She was surprised to see many nostalgic memories of the place online. She wanted to learn more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079115\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_015_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A covered walkway lined with storefronts stretches through Cambrian Park Plaza on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There seem to be a lot of people who are mourning the loss of Cambrian Park Plaza, a 1950s era strip mall in San José that is set to be demolished for housing and retail space,” she wrote in to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/podcasts/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a>. “What’s the history of that place?”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Valley of Heart’s Delight\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The Cambrian Park neighborhood represents the quintessential story of San José development. For a long time, San José was small, an agricultural center for the many orchards and farms nearby. But after World War II, the Defense industry was booming and more people were moving to the area for jobs. The city manager at the time, Dutch Hammond, wanted to create the Los Angeles of Northern California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Largely what got developed here was track housing, which was very cheap to build,” said Michael Brillot, a retired San José city planner. “You just knock down the cherry orchard or the apricot and prune orchard, and you plop in houses like you build Model T Fords on an assembly line, except the workers move as opposed to the product.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> The push was to develop outwards from San José’s core and to build enough housing to supply the workforce to places like Sunnyvale and Cupertino.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Cambrian Park neighborhood — and its shopping mall — was part of that history. A large landowner named Paul Schaeffer owned the orchards that became Cambrian Park. He decided to tear out the trees and build houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He recognized people need to buy stuff,” said Peter Clarke, a Cambrian Park resident and member of the Friends of Cambrian Park group. “They need a post office and a grocery store. So he assembled this particular plaza as the only real center in this area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, many families only had one car. It was common for the breadwinner to drive north to work while the other parent stayed home with the children. During its heyday, Cambrian Park Plaza had everything families needed within walking distance of their home — a grocery store, a hardware store, clothing stores, a post office, a bowling alley, even doctors’ and dentists’ offices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This was the downtown,” said Bob Burres, another local resident. “There is no ‘main street’ in the Cambrian Park area. This was it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>A slow decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>That remained true for decades, but over time, the plaza began to fade and social patterns changed. People drove more and further for things, making the plaza less central to their needs. The Schaeffer family retained ownership of the plaza \u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/08/05/structures-cambrian-timeline.html\">until 2015\u003c/a>. Peter Clarke guesses that it was passive income for owner Paul Schaeffer and his wife in their later years. But when they died, their children sold the plaza to a developer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When it was bought, and people said, ‘We’re going to redevelop it,’ we were in favor,” Peter Clarke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079113\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1999px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079113\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1999\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed.jpg 1999w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_013_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1999px) 100vw, 1999px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Cambrian Park Plaza sign, built in 1953 with the shopping center, features a rotating carousel and received historic status in 2016, on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many Cambrian Park residents were ready for an updated space that might once again be the center of community life. The Friends of Cambrian Park group stayed involved as the developer, Texas-based Weingarten Realty, proposed various uses for the property. But residents did not like early proposals that resembled more traditional strip malls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The community was very clear,” Clarke said. “They wanted to see a place that was a location that people would come to linger at, that had sit-down dining. They didn’t want more fast food.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They wanted something like \u003ca href=\"https://www.thepruneyard.com/\">The Pruneyard\u003c/a> in Campbell or the Los Gatos’ downtown, two locations residents currently go to for entertainment and dining.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>An iterative process\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2022/08/05/structures-cambrian-timeline.html\">Over many years,\u003c/a> after lots of city planning meetings featuring \u003cem>some\u003c/em> yelling, there’s finally a proposal on the table that many residents can get behind. It was approved by the city council in 2022.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new development would include underground parking, retail with apartments built above, a central plaza, a hotel, an assisted living facility, 48 single-family homes and 25 townhouses.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp> But four years later and nothing has been built yet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The plan that you can look through on the city’s website is not economically feasible to build,” said Kelly Snider, a professor at San José State University and a development consultant. “There’s just a lot going on in a very small parcel. It’s a little bit of a Frankenstein.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She said no one developer specializes in all those various uses. On top of that, very few big projects like this are moving forward anywhere in the Bay Area. The economics just don’t work out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Interest rates are high, construction materials and labor are expensive and people’s work and consumer habits have changed. Brick-and-mortar retail stores have a lot of competition online. There’s fewer business travelers in San José. More people are working remotely, so office spaces sit empty.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Will the Cambrian Park project ever get built?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“I think that the interest rates, at some point, [will] come down,” Brilliot said. “And I think some projects will come back. But I think it’s gonna be slower, more flat growth. And because of that, I don’t think you’re gonna see a massive amount of development like you did in the dot-com boom when things were just going crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their part, Bob Burres and Peter Clarke are waiting nervously to see how it all turns out. They know that of all the elements in the approved plan, the single-family homes and townhouses will be the easiest for the developer to recoup investment. After all, housing is always in demand in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079109\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079109\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/040726Bay-Curious_Cambrian-Plaza_GH_005_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Red roses rise above a white picket fence in a garden at Cambrian Park Plaza on April 7, 2026, in San José. \u003ccite>(Gustavo Hernandez/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Once you put up housing on any piece of commercial land, it’s never going to be commercial again,” Peter Clarke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if that happens, the neighbors’ dream of a central gathering spot — like the Pruneyard — will never come to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The permit for the current \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/planning-building-code-enforcement/planning-division/major-development-projects/cambrian-park-plaza-signature-project\">Cambrian Park Signature Project\u003c/a> will expire in 2028. But the developer recently applied to alter the permit so they can build the housing part of the plan first and extend the permit up to 4 years in the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city is currently reviewing the proposal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>*An earlier version of this article called this project the “Cambrian Park Urban Village” when in fact its official name is “Cambrian Park Signature Project.” A Signature Project is one element of a larger urban village area. We regret the error.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"Viewthefullepisodetranscript\">\u003c/a>Episode transcript\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes questions come from the most random places.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I volunteer for a San José-based kitten rescue and it’s called Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Cafe. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Connie Young, from Mountain View.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we have adoptable foster kittens that come every weekend. And there’s two playrooms. And you can book a 50-minute slot.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The kitten cafe where she volunteers is located in Cambrian Park Plaza on the west side of San José.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So I went there to volunteer and I saw that plaza and it was kind of different than the other strip mall plazas in the area. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cambrian Park Plaza isn’t one long flat fronted building like a typical strip mall. It was built to mimic the experience of a town’s main street, so the facade turns often, creating little plazas with white picket fences and brickwork. There are window boxes and roses.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has kind of like a circus slash like English garden theme, cottage theme.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Circus because one of the defining features of this plaza is a huge yellow sign with a carousel on top. The figures \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to rotate, although like many things in this plaza, it has seen better days.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I was like, this seems like an interesting place and a place that has a lot of history. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This shopping mall is slated for redevelopment, and Connie wants to know more about its history and what it could become. Connie also noticed that online many people have shared fond memories of this plaza’s heyday in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Let’s hear a few…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember driving by Cambrian Plaza and seeing the carousel from when we first arrived in San José.\u003c/span>\u003cb> \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was always a grocery store there when I was a little kid. So we’d walk up to the grocery store to do our shopping for the day. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was a go-to. I mean, you could do everything there. You could go to a delicatessen and get your meats and cheeses, \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> There was Ben Franklin, which was the coolest store on the face of the planet. It was like a dime store and you could get anything there.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Janet Gillis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were hardware stores there. There were pet shops, as I said, the clothing stores, very lot of practical things that, you know, people would need.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And it was in walking distance.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The minute I think of the smell of bubblegum ice cream, which for a four-year-old that was like Nirvana, I picture myself inside that ice cream parlor. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Jaime Portillo: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I remember going to the bowling alley. We used to go there a lot during high school and hang out with the other teenagers.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To this day remember the sound of the pins hitting the the back wall and the balls striking and people laughing and having a good time. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Janet Gillis: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We’d go down in a little group of you know five or six or eight kids and be back before dinner. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Carolyn Robinson: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There were so many things that, that as a kid, it made my life feel a little bit bigger and richer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those were nearby residents Jaime Portillo, Carolyn Robinson and Janet Gillis sharing their memories.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious editor and producer Katrina Schwartz headed to San José to find out more about the fate of Cambrian Park Plaza. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first Cambrian Park neighbors I meet are characters…they’ve been attending city meetings and organizing their neighbors to influence what gets built here for years. And they aren’t shy about some of the tactics they used..\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m the guy who kicked over the apple cart, repeatedly. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is Bob Burres — a proud instigator. His friend and neighbor, Peter Clarke, has a different approach he says…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He’s nice, he’s polite, he’s a proper English gentleman.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am the Brit, which is the funny accent.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bob and Peter like this neighborhood for its views of the mountains and quiet, neighborly charm. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This area was originally all farmland. Then the farmers decided they could make more money by essentially selling up and having housing developed on the periphery. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The guy who owned all the land that became the neighborhood of Cambrian Park was named Paul Schaeffer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But then he recognized, you know, people need to buy stuff.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This area was the heart of Cambrian Park. This was the downtown. There is no main street in Cambrian park area. This was it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Peter and Bob are showing me around it’s clear this mall is no longer the heart of the neighborhood. But the neighbors hope it could be again. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you go through you see there’s numerous little plazas and sitting spaces all around.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plaza has a faded quality. We walk down the outside of the building, which has covered walkways that protect us from the rain that’s falling. Many storefronts are empty and I hear just as much about what it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">used to be\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as what it is now.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This used to be the Cambrian Post office for years.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That used to be a Mexican restaurant, but closed down.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The things that are left… a boxing gym, a pet adoption agency, a store for kids baseball gear…are on short term leases. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can’t put a lot of investment into a retail space for a six month lease.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peter and Bob have both lived in Cambrian Park for 30 years… but even back in the late 80s and early 90s the plaza was already in slow decline. The Schaeffer family owned it for most of its existence, but stopped keeping it up in later years. When Paul Schaffer and his wife died, their children sold it to a developer.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When it was bought and people said we’re going to redevelop it, we were in favor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peter and Bob are part of a group called the Friends of Cambrian Park Plaza. They’ve been pushing the city and developers to create a vibrant place to live, shop and gather.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> We have hopes that something beautiful will come out. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They look to a place like The Pruneyard in Campbell as their model. It’s got local businesses alongside chains..and is a pleasant place to hang out.We’ll dig into the details of what could be built here and explore why achieving that vision could be a tough sell in San José right now. All that, coming up.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SPONSOR MESSAGE\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Almost a million people live in San José. It’s the largest city in Northern California, but its development hasn’t followed the pattern of a typical big city. That’s why despite being dubbed the Heart of Silicon Valley…many people think a more apt term would be “the bedroom” of Silicon Valley. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you look at San José, it very much feels like you’re in the San Fernando Valley or somewhere in Los Angeles, not the old urban part, but the more auto suburban track housing part of LA. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Michel Brilliot worked for the city of San José for 27 years…retiring as the deputy director of long range projects. He says the sprawling, residential character of the city can be traced back to one man\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michalel Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dutch Hammond. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like Cambrian Park, the rest of San José was mostly agricultural. Before Dutch Hammond came along, there were fruit trees as far as the eye could see. But after World War II, the defense industry was booming and Hammond understood its workers needed somewhere to live. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Largely what got developed here was track housing which was very cheap to build you just knock down the cherry orchard or the apricot and prune orchard and you just you plop in houses like you build model t fords on an assembly line except the workers move as opposed to the product.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Cambrian Park neighborhood was part of this era…built in the late 1950s. The homes are largely ranch style with yards and garages. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People historically would have a family and settle down and work and they would drive north for their job in what became and is now Silicon Valley. And that to a large extent has not changed.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The problem with that, Michael says, is that running a city that is mostly residential, with few big businesses, is expensive. Residents want services.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They want code enforcement to deal with the RV that someone’s living in down the street or parks and maintaining the parks and they want libraries and. So they want all these things which cost money. Businesses generally don’t want as much services from the city.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As early as the 1970s, San José city leaders realized it needed a better balance of businesses and homes. The goal was to bring more jobs into the city itself, to increase the tax base and to reduce congestion on the roads. Those are still the goals of city planners, says Michael.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And the idea now is really to, instead of growing out, growing up, and growing up really along transit corridors and transit stations and in the downtown and create these places that are called urban villages.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposed plan for Cambrian Park Plaza is one of these urban villages – a cluster of amenities, housing and jobs near a transit corridor.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music to emphasize back and forth\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would have underground parking with retail above.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A six-story apartment block on top of retail. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Shops would be built around a central plaza for families and neighbors to gather. Then there’d be…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An assisted living building\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">48 single family homes, 25 townhouses, and…\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A hotel.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music ends\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But nothing has actually been built by the developer, Kimco Realty.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So we’ve seen very little higher density projects break ground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelly Snider:\u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The plan that you can look through on the city’s website is not economically feasible to build.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly Snider is an adjunct professor at San José State and a development consultant. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Kelly Snider: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There’s just a lot going on in a very small parcel. It’s a little bit of a Frankenstein.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kelly says there’s no one developer who specializes in so many different types of buildings…hotels, assisted living, single family homes… retail..they’re all very different. And the economic picture right now makes it \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">even less likely \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this project will be completed anytime soon. It’s a story we see around the Bay Area. Labor is expensive. Construction materials cost more than ever… and interest rates aren’t favorable. Plus, Michael Brilliot says, the population of San José is now shrinking, not growing.\u003c/span> \u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, will the Cambrian Park urban village ever get built?\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Michael Brilliot: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I think that when the interest rates, at some point, they’ll come down. And I think some projects will come back. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But I think it’s gonna be a slower, more flat growth and because of that, I don’t think you’re gonna see masses of amount of development like you did in the dot-com boom when things were just going crazy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a post-COVID world, it may not make sense to build hotels and offices. Brick and mortar stores have to compete with online retailers. It’s a different real estate picture now than when this plan was conceived a few years ago.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bob Burres, Peter Clarke and the other Friends of Cambrian Park are watching this play out nervously. They worry the only economically feasible thing to do with the property is to build townhouses…after all, in the Bay Area, housing is always in high demand.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Bob Burres: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the things that we have heard over and over from the folks in the city is developers come in with fairly grand plans. And they’re gonna do some housing, and they’re going to do some sort of commercial, and they are going to something else. Well, housing is the only thing that’s profitable. And so they decide to build, we’re going to build the housing first. And then phase two and phase three will have these other things. They build the housing and then they say, sorry, it doesn’t pencil and they abandon the project. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Peter Clarke: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once you put up housing on any piece of commercial land it’s never going to be commercial again.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And if that happens, their dream of a gathering spot like the one in Campbell…the Pruneyard…will never become a reality. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I brought all this back to Connie Young, our question asker. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can see why they would want to kind of redevelop it into something more community focused. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Connie grew up in the South Bay and remembers wishing there was more to do…more places she could go without a ride from her parents. Now she’s living in Mountain View and has enjoyed the way streets have been closed downtown to make space for dining and gathering.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Connie Young: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I feel like that’s what the South Bay is missing in a lot of the cities, especially San José, like a central plaza or the neighborhood where everybody gathers in the evening and their kids run around and play. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Katrina Schwartz: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The permit for the current Cambrian Park Urban Village plan will expire in 2028. Getting new ones would be expensive for the developer…maybe that’s why the company recently applied to alter the permit so they can build the housing part of the plan first and extend the permit up to 4 years in the process. The city is currently reviewing the proposal.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Olivia Allen-Price: \u003c/b>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was Bay Curious editor and producer, Katrina Schwartz. Thanks to Connie Young for asking this week’s question. It was selected by you in a monthly voting round on Bay \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://curious.org\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Curious.or\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">g. That’s one of the things I think makes Bay Curious unique… it is driven by you – your questions, about your community. And, it’s funded by you too. We need your support to keep things going, so please consider making a donation to KQED today. It only takes a few minutes. You can do it right from your phone. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://kqed.org/donate\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KQED.org/donate\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the place to do it. Thanks!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our show is produced by Christopher Beale, Katrina Schwartz and Olivia Allen-Price.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With extra support from Maha Sanad, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on team KQED.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some members of the KQED podcast team are represented by The Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, San Francisco Northern California Local.\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I’m Olivia Allen-Price. Have a great week!\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "When Child Care Costs Half a Paycheck, Bay Area Parents Must Choose: Kids or Career",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annie Malekzadeh was shopping at a Joanne Fabrics store in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/concord\">Concord\u003c/a> a couple of years ago when she had an encounter that stung her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An older woman who saw her pregnant while pushing her toddler son in a shopping cart, told her: “I don’t know why you would want more than two [children]. It’s basically impossible in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time I was like, how dare she?” she said. “But now I’m like, oh, [she] was right. It’s really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh wound up having another baby, and the decision to have three kids pushed her child care expenses to roughly $56,000 a year and ultimately changed the course of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061802/how-are-child-care-costs-affecting-the-lives-of-bay-area-families-you-told-us\">Rising child care costs in the Bay Area\u003c/a> are forcing parents to make painful tradeoffs, either by passing up career opportunities, cutting back work hours, or quitting altogether. For families with multiple young children, these expenses can surpass a parent’s entire salary, disproportionately affecting mothers and shaping their long-term economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh’s story is just one example of how the gap between what families can afford and the actual cost of care is pushing parents to find creative solutions — and prompting calls for systemic change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care has long been expensive for parents, but recently it’s been even more so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh, a mom who quit her teaching job to save on child care and is now pursuing her master’s degree in mathematics, studies at Pleasant Hill Library in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prices shot up almost 30% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing inflation by 7 percentage points, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.childcareaware.org/price-landscape24/\">a survey of child care resource and referral organizations \u003c/a>around the country. In just the last year, 40% of child care programs in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/user-174467/2026_survey_brief.pdf\">reported raising tuition \u003c/a>to offset rising operating costs like insurance and food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Malekzadeh was a math teacher at a private middle school, earning roughly $32,000 annually and working 25 hours per week. At the time, her son was in kindergarten and her daughter in preschool. Her husband is a psychiatrist, she said, and because he earned more money and worked more hours, most of the parenting responsibilities went to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With their joint income, the cost of preschool and before- and afterschool care was manageable for the Pleasant Hill couple. But when their baby boy came along in July 2022, and needed full-time infant care, the amount for all three kids’ care — about $4,700 per month — was almost double her teacher’s salary.[aside postID=news_12070762 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/01/240911-CHILDCARE-REAX-MD-01_qed.jpg']“It didn’t make sense,” she said. “My job wasn’t really making enough of a contribution to justify that kind of expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the school year ended, Malekzadeh decided to quit, even though she didn’t want to leave a profession she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandparents were both educators,” she said. “They were beloved by their community, and they were really excited when I chose to become a teacher. So that was my plan, and I didn’t ever expect to deviate from that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is saving about $600 a week in child care. The older two are in public school, and the youngest is still in preschool. While he’s in care, Malekzadeh takes classes at Diablo Valley College as she pursues a master’s degree in math, which she hopes will ultimately lead to a higher-paying job to make up for time away from the labor market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you quit to stay home with your kids, it creates gaps in your resume that a lot of places don’t necessarily look nicely at,” Melakzadeh said. “You have to have some kind of explanation for that, which might translate into less pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care prices vary by region and depend on a child’s age and the type of provider. In California, full-time infant care in 2024 cost an average of $22,628, which is 16% of the average married couple’s income and 50% of a single parent’s. Bay Area families pay the highest child care prices \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">compared to other parts of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh plays a card game with her daughter as they wait for her older son to finish school at Valhalla Elementary School in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spike in prices came as companies began mandating employees return to work and \u003ca href=\"https://rapidsurveyproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arpa-funding-factsheet-aug2023.pdf\">child care providers lost federal funds\u003c/a> meant to help them recover from the pandemic. Less flexibility and high costs led to a decline in labor force participation for moms of children under the age of 5, and college-educated moms in particular, according to\u003ca href=\"https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2025/october-2025-the-great-exit.html\"> an analysis by the financial firm KPMG.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their labor force participation declined by 2.3 percentage points, while the number of college-educated dads of young children who were working or seeking a job continued to increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are facing child care prices that are higher than the price of rent or mortgage. So this is a huge problem. It’s one of the biggest expenses in a family’s budgets,” said Julie Kashen, a researcher at The Century Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Cruz eats oatmeal for breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progressive think tank conducted an October survey of 1,400 voters about their affordability concerns. Kashen said that while all families are facing rising costs, it’s women who experience a greater threat to their economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are faring worse in terms of taking on debt to cover their basics, borrowing from friends and families to pay the bills,” she said. “So when you add child care on top of that, I think it’s incredibly challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those challenges led Amy Cruz to walk away from a six-figure nursing job to freelance as a dance teacher and care for her 3-year-old son, Nolan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1034.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon and Nolan Cruz cook oatmeal for breakfast on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until he was about two years old, Cruz paid $3,000 per month to share a nanny with another family for just four days a week of child care (on the fifth day, she leaned on family members to look after him). While child care wasn’t the only reason she left her job, it was a significant factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, half of my monthly income was going to child care,” Cruz said. “Watching that much money leave our account every month was tough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Nolan was old enough to start preschool, she enrolled him in a three-day program near her Berkeley home, which cut her child care costs in half. When he’s there, she teaches dance — something she did professionally before going to nursing school — to afford his tuition. With a second baby on the way, she also figured that it was “worth it to make a little less money but be able to be with my kids more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Cruz picks raspberries for her son Nolan’s breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Economists call child care a broken market because the actual cost of providing care is a lot more than what families can afford to pay. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://rrnetwork.org/assets/general-files/California.pdf\">the demand for licensed infant care exceeds supply\u003c/a> because it’s the most expensive and labor-intensive. Babies need constant care, and California has strict rules limiting the number of children each adult can care for in a licensed child care home or center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, low pay and benefits have made it tough for child care providers to attract or retain early educators. In January, nearly half of providers said they didn’t have enough staff to enroll children at capacity, according to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For providers, energy costs, food, insurance have all gone up,” said Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG. “They can’t necessarily raise their workers’ wages to the degree that they would like to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Brandon, Amy and Nolan Cruz prepare breakfast and pack a lunch for Nolan in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shortage can cause parents to weave in and out of the workforce. Malezadeh first left her job when her eldest child was born eight years ago, and she couldn’t find an open infant care slot when her maternity leave ended. She didn’t know she had to reserve months in advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t actually find any kind of daycare spot for him until he was two, and by then, I was already expecting my second child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh stayed out of teaching for four years and went back to work when her first two kids were a little older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after a year, the costs of infant care for her youngest, combined with her older children’s care, were too great, and she left her job again.[aside postID=news_12078480 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/AffordabilitySeriesIntro_Lede.jpg']Kashen, from The Century Foundation, said public investment can help close the gap between what parents like Malekzadeh and Cruz can afford and what it actually costs to provide child care. As an example, she pointed to New Mexico’s recent move to offer free child care for all residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When governments invest in child care, that is the biggest thing that we can do because right now what we have is essentially a DIY, do-it-yourself, system for families where everyone’s on their own,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, Cruz gave birth to a daughter. During her pregnancy, she considered becoming a nanny so she could take care of her baby alongside someone else’s, allowing her to make some money. She also thought about continuing to teach dance part-time, and while she’s at work, trading child care responsibilities with other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been thinking about it more and more, because I can make more money teaching dance than doing my own nanny share,” Cruz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a community with other parents has helped Malekzadeh get by when she’s in a child care pinch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re gonna be five minutes late to pick up, you have to have someone else that you can text, and be like, ‘Can you grab my kid for me real quick?’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh walks her kids home after school in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh tutors on the side to make some money and said she’s constantly revising the family budget as grocery and health insurance prices go up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking at where can we cut costs and what bundle can I use or coupon can I use to save money? I do most of our shopping at Costco now because buying in bulk is usually cheaper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family is also taking fewer trips, but Malezadeh said, despite these compromises, she’s grateful she has been able to afford raising three kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very fortunate that I got through having our second kid and didn’t feel done,” she said. “Instead of living with the potential of regretting it for the rest of my life, I was able to say, ‘Hey, can we have another one? Can we work that into the budget?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>This story is part of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">How We Get By\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/affordability\">full series here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Annie Malekzadeh was shopping at a Joanne Fabrics store in \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/concord\">Concord\u003c/a> a couple of years ago when she had an encounter that stung her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>An older woman who saw her pregnant while pushing her toddler son in a shopping cart, told her: “I don’t know why you would want more than two [children]. It’s basically impossible in the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At the time I was like, how dare she?” she said. “But now I’m like, oh, [she] was right. It’s really hard.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh wound up having another baby, and the decision to have three kids pushed her child care expenses to roughly $56,000 a year and ultimately changed the course of her career.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12061802/how-are-child-care-costs-affecting-the-lives-of-bay-area-families-you-told-us\">Rising child care costs in the Bay Area\u003c/a> are forcing parents to make painful tradeoffs, either by passing up career opportunities, cutting back work hours, or quitting altogether. For families with multiple young children, these expenses can surpass a parent’s entire salary, disproportionately affecting mothers and shaping their long-term economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh’s story is just one example of how the gap between what families can afford and the actual cost of care is pushing parents to find creative solutions — and prompting calls for systemic change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care has long been expensive for parents, but recently it’s been even more so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078461\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078461\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00035_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh, a mom who quit her teaching job to save on child care and is now pursuing her master’s degree in mathematics, studies at Pleasant Hill Library in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Prices shot up almost 30% between 2020 and 2024, outpacing inflation by 7 percentage points, according to \u003ca href=\"https://www.childcareaware.org/price-landscape24/\">a survey of child care resource and referral organizations \u003c/a>around the country. In just the last year, 40% of child care programs in California \u003ca href=\"https://www.naeyc.org/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/user-174467/2026_survey_brief.pdf\">reported raising tuition \u003c/a>to offset rising operating costs like insurance and food.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Four years ago, Malekzadeh was a math teacher at a private middle school, earning roughly $32,000 annually and working 25 hours per week. At the time, her son was in kindergarten and her daughter in preschool. Her husband is a psychiatrist, she said, and because he earned more money and worked more hours, most of the parenting responsibilities went to her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With their joint income, the cost of preschool and before- and afterschool care was manageable for the Pleasant Hill couple. But when their baby boy came along in July 2022, and needed full-time infant care, the amount for all three kids’ care — about $4,700 per month — was almost double her teacher’s salary.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“It didn’t make sense,” she said. “My job wasn’t really making enough of a contribution to justify that kind of expense.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By the time the school year ended, Malekzadeh decided to quit, even though she didn’t want to leave a profession she loved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“My grandparents were both educators,” she said. “They were beloved by their community, and they were really excited when I chose to become a teacher. So that was my plan, and I didn’t ever expect to deviate from that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move is saving about $600 a week in child care. The older two are in public school, and the youngest is still in preschool. While he’s in care, Malekzadeh takes classes at Diablo Valley College as she pursues a master’s degree in math, which she hopes will ultimately lead to a higher-paying job to make up for time away from the labor market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you quit to stay home with your kids, it creates gaps in your resume that a lot of places don’t necessarily look nicely at,” Melakzadeh said. “You have to have some kind of explanation for that, which might translate into less pay.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Child care prices vary by region and depend on a child’s age and the type of provider. In California, full-time infant care in 2024 cost an average of $22,628, which is 16% of the average married couple’s income and 50% of a single parent’s. Bay Area families pay the highest child care prices \u003ca href=\"https://tootris.com/edu/blog/parents/cost-of-child-care-in-california-by-city-age-and-type-of-care-provider/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\">compared to other parts of California\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078462\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-12078462 size-full\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-AFFORDABILITYCHILDCARE00228_TV-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh plays a card game with her daughter as they wait for her older son to finish school at Valhalla Elementary School in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The spike in prices came as companies began mandating employees return to work and \u003ca href=\"https://rapidsurveyproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/arpa-funding-factsheet-aug2023.pdf\">child care providers lost federal funds\u003c/a> meant to help them recover from the pandemic. Less flexibility and high costs led to a decline in labor force participation for moms of children under the age of 5, and college-educated moms in particular, according to\u003ca href=\"https://kpmg.com/us/en/articles/2025/october-2025-the-great-exit.html\"> an analysis by the financial firm KPMG.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Their labor force participation declined by 2.3 percentage points, while the number of college-educated dads of young children who were working or seeking a job continued to increase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families are facing child care prices that are higher than the price of rent or mortgage. So this is a huge problem. It’s one of the biggest expenses in a family’s budgets,” said Julie Kashen, a researcher at The Century Foundation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078476\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078476\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-04-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nolan Cruz eats oatmeal for breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The progressive think tank conducted an October survey of 1,400 voters about their affordability concerns. Kashen said that while all families are facing rising costs, it’s women who experience a greater threat to their economic security.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Women are faring worse in terms of taking on debt to cover their basics, borrowing from friends and families to pay the bills,” she said. “So when you add child care on top of that, I think it’s incredibly challenging.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those challenges led Amy Cruz to walk away from a six-figure nursing job to freelance as a dance teacher and care for her 3-year-old son, Nolan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078474\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1346\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-160x108.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-02-KQED-1536x1034.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brandon and Nolan Cruz cook oatmeal for breakfast on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Until he was about two years old, Cruz paid $3,000 per month to share a nanny with another family for just four days a week of child care (on the fifth day, she leaned on family members to look after him). While child care wasn’t the only reason she left her job, it was a significant factor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Essentially, half of my monthly income was going to child care,” Cruz said. “Watching that much money leave our account every month was tough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Once Nolan was old enough to start preschool, she enrolled him in a three-day program near her Berkeley home, which cut her child care costs in half. When he’s there, she teaches dance — something she did professionally before going to nursing school — to afford his tuition. With a second baby on the way, she also figured that it was “worth it to make a little less money but be able to be with my kids more.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078475\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-03-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Amy Cruz picks raspberries for her son Nolan’s breakfast in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Economists call child care a broken market because the actual cost of providing care is a lot more than what families can afford to pay. In California, \u003ca href=\"https://rrnetwork.org/assets/general-files/California.pdf\">the demand for licensed infant care exceeds supply\u003c/a> because it’s the most expensive and labor-intensive. Babies need constant care, and California has strict rules limiting the number of children each adult can care for in a licensed child care home or center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, low pay and benefits have made it tough for child care providers to attract or retain early educators. In January, nearly half of providers said they didn’t have enough staff to enroll children at capacity, according to a survey by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For providers, energy costs, food, insurance have all gone up,” said Matthew Nestler, senior economist at KPMG. “They can’t necessarily raise their workers’ wages to the degree that they would like to.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078473\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078473\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/251027-CHILD-CARE-PRICES-MD-01-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">(From left) Brandon, Amy and Nolan Cruz prepare breakfast and pack a lunch for Nolan in the morning on Oct. 27, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The shortage can cause parents to weave in and out of the workforce. Malezadeh first left her job when her eldest child was born eight years ago, and she couldn’t find an open infant care slot when her maternity leave ended. She didn’t know she had to reserve months in advance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We didn’t actually find any kind of daycare spot for him until he was two, and by then, I was already expecting my second child,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh stayed out of teaching for four years and went back to work when her first two kids were a little older.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But after a year, the costs of infant care for her youngest, combined with her older children’s care, were too great, and she left her job again.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kashen, from The Century Foundation, said public investment can help close the gap between what parents like Malekzadeh and Cruz can afford and what it actually costs to provide child care. As an example, she pointed to New Mexico’s recent move to offer free child care for all residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When governments invest in child care, that is the biggest thing that we can do because right now what we have is essentially a DIY, do-it-yourself, system for families where everyone’s on their own,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last month, Cruz gave birth to a daughter. During her pregnancy, she considered becoming a nanny so she could take care of her baby alongside someone else’s, allowing her to make some money. She also thought about continuing to teach dance part-time, and while she’s at work, trading child care responsibilities with other parents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’ve been thinking about it more and more, because I can make more money teaching dance than doing my own nanny share,” Cruz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Building a community with other parents has helped Malekzadeh get by when she’s in a child care pinch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re gonna be five minutes late to pick up, you have to have someone else that you can text, and be like, ‘Can you grab my kid for me real quick?’” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12078901\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12078901\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/260401-affordabilitychildcare00326_TV_qed-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Annie Malekzadeh walks her kids home after school in Pleasant Hill on April 1, 2026. \u003ccite>(Tâm Vũ/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Malekzadeh tutors on the side to make some money and said she’s constantly revising the family budget as grocery and health insurance prices go up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m looking at where can we cut costs and what bundle can I use or coupon can I use to save money? I do most of our shopping at Costco now because buying in bulk is usually cheaper,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her family is also taking fewer trips, but Malezadeh said, despite these compromises, she’s grateful she has been able to afford raising three kids.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I feel very fortunate that I got through having our second kid and didn’t feel done,” she said. “Instead of living with the potential of regretting it for the rest of my life, I was able to say, ‘Hey, can we have another one? Can we work that into the budget?’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "as-legal-aid-groups-face-budget-cuts-san-francisco-awards-1-group-millions",
"title": "As Legal Aid Groups Face Budget Cuts, San Francisco Awards 1 Group Millions",
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"content": "\u003cp>Katie Danielson has been bracing for city budget cuts to reach her organization, the Homeless Advocacy Project at the Bar Association of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, which helps low-income San Francisco residents sign up for benefits and navigate civil legal issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City funding for organizations that provide civil legal aid is plummeting as San Francisco looks to narrow a more than $600 million budget deficit. That’s why Danielson and other groups were shocked to find out the city’s homelessness department awarded a $4.7 million grant without a competitive bidding process to a single nonprofit that also provides civil legal services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We completely agree that these types of services help prevent homelessness. That’s why we’ve been doing that work for so long. It’s just that while our funds are being cut, this other grant is being awarded,” Danielson said. “So it was just quite confusing and alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing issued the grant to Open Door Legal, which wrote in a press release that they also expected to receive a matching investment of $3 million in private funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founder and director of Open Door Legal, Adrian Tirtanadi, said the funds will allow the nonprofit, which has offices in the Excelsior, Sunset, Western Edition and Bayview neighborhoods, to expand its work by partnering with community organizations in other parts of the city, including in the Mission District and the Tenderloin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tirtanadi agrees with attorneys from other organizations that offer legal aid services, who told KQED it doesn’t make sense that one city department is defunding civil legal services while another is adding funds through a one-time, 17-month grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil legal services advocates Juliana Fredman, Katie Danielson and Laura Chiera stand outside the city’s Homeless Oversight Commission meeting on April 7, 2026, where they raised concerns about a grant awarded without competitive bidding. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You have one department that is the expert on homelessness and who has determined that civil legal services should be like a core anti-homelessness strategy that the city should employ. And then you have another department that holds most of the [civil legal service] contracts that is trying to wind down those services,” Tirtanadi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is staring down a $643 million budget deficit over the next two years, and city officials this week began issuing layoff notices to city employees across departments. So far, 127 layoffs have been issued, and the mayor said that at least 500 positions could be cut across the city. Around 2,000 vacant positions have also been frozen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s budget also called for tough decisions and cuts. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which historically has funded civil legal services, reduced spending for those programs from around $4.2 million in 2024-25 to about $3 million in 2025-26. It’s slated to drop to nearly $1.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for civil legal aid say these services can help prevent homelessness by helping people navigate difficult legal systems, whether they are facing domestic violence, habitability issues, maintaining public benefits and other situations that can quickly spiral into an eviction case.[aside postID=news_12077101 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/03/260310-UnhousedMail-02-BL_qed.jpg']But many said they were unaware that the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing would be backfilling funding for civil legal services that the mayor’s office had planned to cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of around 10 organizations, including Asian Law Caucus, Bay Area Legal Aid, La Raza Centro Legal, and Legal Assistance to the Elderly, sent a letter to the mayor and other top officials on homelessness with their concerns about how the contract was issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The noncompetitive process failed to consider existing services relied upon by the target communities and the providers with a proven track record who are positioned to quickly scale up services with existing infrastructure,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shireen McSpadden, the outgoing director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said at a recent Homeless Oversight Commission meeting that the department was able to circumvent the competitive bidding process due to existing policies that allow the city to more quickly award contracts for homelessness services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This funding for civil legal services, combined with financial assistance, is core to HSH’s homelessness prevention strategy. Legal services play an important role in the fight against homelessness and are a tool in the city’s homelessness responses system,” McSpadden wrote in a Medium post co-authored by Tirtanadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other commissioners at the meeting, however, expressed concerns with the contract, which the body previously approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner Bevan Dufty said the concerns raised by other legal aid groups were legitimate and called it “not a good look,” adding a personal apology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adrian Tirtanadi stands outside of City Hall in San Francisco on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nasicmento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I should be better, and I’m going to be very careful in reading what comes before us at every turn,” said Bufty, a former supervisor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal aid providers that signed on to the letter have requested a meeting with city officials to discuss funding and the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our point is, if you want to get the services out the fastest, which is the point of that provision that they use to circumvent the competitive bidding process, then you need to look where the need is, where the services are being provided, and who has the capacity to upscale quickly,” said Laura Chiera, executive director of Legal Assistance to the Elderly. “You give me funding for another lawyer, I would have a full calendar that day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As cuts to their programs loom, Chiera said it’s difficult to keep up with demand for support as evictions and rent prices in the city continue upward. She described a recent client, a woman in her 70s whose rent increased from $1,300 to $8,000 per month. They represented her and brought her case to the rent board, she said, allowing her to reach an affordable rent amount and remain housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a senior on a fixed income [without legal support], rent going from $1,300 to $8,000, that does mean homelessness,” Chiera said. “All of this funding is disappearing, and there’s so much need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tirtanadi did not comment specifically on concerns raised about the lack of transparency behind the contract, but said different City Hall departments are not on the same page over whether civil legal services should be funded or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would encourage the city, especially the mayor’s office, to look at this holistically,” Tirtanadi said. “If the goal is to have ODL expand legal services, that will be undermined if contracts are being reduced or cut from other departments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Katie Danielson has been bracing for city budget cuts to reach her organization, the Homeless Advocacy Project at the Bar Association of \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a>, which helps low-income San Francisco residents sign up for benefits and navigate civil legal issues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City funding for organizations that provide civil legal aid is plummeting as San Francisco looks to narrow a more than $600 million budget deficit. That’s why Danielson and other groups were shocked to find out the city’s homelessness department awarded a $4.7 million grant without a competitive bidding process to a single nonprofit that also provides civil legal services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We completely agree that these types of services help prevent homelessness. That’s why we’ve been doing that work for so long. It’s just that while our funds are being cut, this other grant is being awarded,” Danielson said. “So it was just quite confusing and alarming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing issued the grant to Open Door Legal, which wrote in a press release that they also expected to receive a matching investment of $3 million in private funding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Founder and director of Open Door Legal, Adrian Tirtanadi, said the funds will allow the nonprofit, which has offices in the Excelsior, Sunset, Western Edition and Bayview neighborhoods, to expand its work by partnering with community organizations in other parts of the city, including in the Mission District and the Tenderloin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Tirtanadi agrees with attorneys from other organizations that offer legal aid services, who told KQED it doesn’t make sense that one city department is defunding civil legal services while another is adding funds through a one-time, 17-month grant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12079036\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079036\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2026/04/LegalServices-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Civil legal services advocates Juliana Fredman, Katie Danielson and Laura Chiera stand outside the city’s Homeless Oversight Commission meeting on April 7, 2026, where they raised concerns about a grant awarded without competitive bidding. \u003ccite>(Sydney Johnson/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“You have one department that is the expert on homelessness and who has determined that civil legal services should be like a core anti-homelessness strategy that the city should employ. And then you have another department that holds most of the [civil legal service] contracts that is trying to wind down those services,” Tirtanadi said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco is staring down a $643 million budget deficit over the next two years, and city officials this week began issuing layoff notices to city employees across departments. So far, 127 layoffs have been issued, and the mayor said that at least 500 positions could be cut across the city. Around 2,000 vacant positions have also been frozen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year’s budget also called for tough decisions and cuts. The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, which historically has funded civil legal services, reduced spending for those programs from around $4.2 million in 2024-25 to about $3 million in 2025-26. It’s slated to drop to nearly $1.2 million in the upcoming fiscal year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Advocates for civil legal aid say these services can help prevent homelessness by helping people navigate difficult legal systems, whether they are facing domestic violence, habitability issues, maintaining public benefits and other situations that can quickly spiral into an eviction case.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But many said they were unaware that the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing would be backfilling funding for civil legal services that the mayor’s office had planned to cut.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A group of around 10 organizations, including Asian Law Caucus, Bay Area Legal Aid, La Raza Centro Legal, and Legal Assistance to the Elderly, sent a letter to the mayor and other top officials on homelessness with their concerns about how the contract was issued.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The noncompetitive process failed to consider existing services relied upon by the target communities and the providers with a proven track record who are positioned to quickly scale up services with existing infrastructure,” the letter reads.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shireen McSpadden, the outgoing director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said at a recent Homeless Oversight Commission meeting that the department was able to circumvent the competitive bidding process due to existing policies that allow the city to more quickly award contracts for homelessness services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This funding for civil legal services, combined with financial assistance, is core to HSH’s homelessness prevention strategy. Legal services play an important role in the fight against homelessness and are a tool in the city’s homelessness responses system,” McSpadden wrote in a Medium post co-authored by Tirtanadi.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other commissioners at the meeting, however, expressed concerns with the contract, which the body previously approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commissioner Bevan Dufty said the concerns raised by other legal aid groups were legitimate and called it “not a good look,” adding a personal apology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12043661\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12043661\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1334\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/06/250610-LEGAL-AID-HUNGER-STRIKE-MD-02-KQED-1536x1025.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adrian Tirtanadi stands outside of City Hall in San Francisco on June 10, 2025. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nasicmento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“I should be better, and I’m going to be very careful in reading what comes before us at every turn,” said Bufty, a former supervisor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal aid providers that signed on to the letter have requested a meeting with city officials to discuss funding and the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our point is, if you want to get the services out the fastest, which is the point of that provision that they use to circumvent the competitive bidding process, then you need to look where the need is, where the services are being provided, and who has the capacity to upscale quickly,” said Laura Chiera, executive director of Legal Assistance to the Elderly. “You give me funding for another lawyer, I would have a full calendar that day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As cuts to their programs loom, Chiera said it’s difficult to keep up with demand for support as evictions and rent prices in the city continue upward. She described a recent client, a woman in her 70s whose rent increased from $1,300 to $8,000 per month. They represented her and brought her case to the rent board, she said, allowing her to reach an affordable rent amount and remain housed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For a senior on a fixed income [without legal support], rent going from $1,300 to $8,000, that does mean homelessness,” Chiera said. “All of this funding is disappearing, and there’s so much need.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tirtanadi did not comment specifically on concerns raised about the lack of transparency behind the contract, but said different City Hall departments are not on the same page over whether civil legal services should be funded or not.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I would encourage the city, especially the mayor’s office, to look at this holistically,” Tirtanadi said. “If the goal is to have ODL expand legal services, that will be undermined if contracts are being reduced or cut from other departments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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},
"closealltabs": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
"title": "Commonwealth Club of California Podcast",
"info": "The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. As a non-partisan forum, The Club brings to the public airwaves diverse viewpoints on important topics. The Club's weekly radio broadcast - the oldest in the U.S., dating back to 1924 - is carried across the nation on public radio stations and is now podcasting. Our website archive features audio of our recent programs, as well as selected speeches from our long and distinguished history. This podcast feed is usually updated twice a week and is always un-edited.",
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"source": "Commonwealth Club of California"
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"tagline": "The conversation starts here",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Forum-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"order": 9
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"meta": {
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},
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=214089682&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"source": "NPR"
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"airtime": "SUN 7:30pm-8pm",
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"link": "/radio/program/how-i-built-this",
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"hyphenacion": {
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"order": 15
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"jerrybrown": {
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
},
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"latino-usa": {
"id": "latino-usa",
"title": "Latino USA",
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?s=143441&mt=2&id=79681317&at=11l79Y&ct=nprdirectory",
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"rss": "https://feeds.npr.org/510016/podcast.xml"
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
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"source": "American Public Media"
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
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},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Mindshift-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
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"meta": {
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"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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},
"morning-edition": {
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 11
},
"link": "/podcasts/onourwatch",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5ucHIub3JnLzUxMDM2MC9wb2RjYXN0LnhtbD9zYz1nb29nbGVwb2RjYXN0cw",
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},
"on-the-media": {
"id": "on-the-media",
"title": "On The Media",
"info": "Our weekly podcast explores how the media 'sausage' is made, casts an incisive eye on fluctuations in the marketplace of ideas, and examines threats to the freedom of information and expression in America and abroad. For one hour a week, the show tries to lift the veil from the process of \"making media,\" especially news media, because it's through that lens that we see the world and the world sees us",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm-3pm, MON 12am-1am",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/onTheMedia.png",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.wnycstudios.org/shows/otm",
"meta": {
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"source": "wnyc"
},
"link": "/radio/program/on-the-media",
"subscribe": {
"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/on-the-media/id73330715?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/On-the-Media-p69/",
"rss": "http://feeds.wnyc.org/onthemedia"
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},
"pbs-newshour": {
"id": "pbs-newshour",
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"info": "Analysis, background reports and updates from the PBS NewsHour putting today's news in context.",
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"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/PBS-News-Hour-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
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"apple": "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pbs-newshour-full-show/id394432287?mt=2",
"tuneIn": "https://tunein.com/radio/PBS-NewsHour---Full-Show-p425698/",
"rss": "https://www.pbs.org/newshour/feeds/rss/podcasts/show"
}
},
"perspectives": {
"id": "perspectives",
"title": "Perspectives",
"tagline": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991",
"info": "KQED's series of daily listener commentaries since 1991.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "/perspectives/",
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"order": 14
},
"link": "/perspectives",
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"planet-money": {
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"title": "Planet Money",
"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
"airtime": "SUN 3pm-4pm",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/planetmoney.jpg",
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"meta": {
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},
"link": "/radio/program/planet-money",
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