Mile-long RV encampment symbolizes growing housing crisis in Bay Area

Landlords charge as much as they can, and employers pay as little as they can. What do you expect?

As a trucker who drives all over the country I am seeing this absolutely everywhere now…if people only knew how bad it is. The price of everything has forced people into poverty.. it’s sad.

📍To my own research In USA, individuals living in cars due to partial homelessness result from a complex interplay of factors. High housing costs relative to income, stagnant wages, and income inequality drive this issue. Job loss, weak social support, medical expenses, evictions, and lack of affordable housing also contribute, while systemic problems and inadequate policies further perpetuate the phenomenon.

I'm 54 and my wife and I are VERY worried about our future, gas and food prices rising daily. We have had our savings dwindle with the cost of living into the stratosphere, and we are finding it impossible to replace them. We can get by, but can't seem to get ahead. My condolences to anyone retiring in this crisis, 30 years nonstop just for a crooked system to take all you worked for...

These are the lucky ones with RVs. So many have literally nothing. Lack of affordable housing drives crime and drug use. We need to ban investors from buying up huge portfolios of property that drive out residents. It's been happening here in Arizona for decades and it's gotten so bad that nobody can afford a one bedroom on a low wage salary. Forget minimum wage. 😢

I am a truck driver that has been to all major cities. Truth is that going to Portland, Chicago, and Philadelphia is like entering War zone. You come out shell shocked and sick to your stomach. Imagine What a 3rd world country must be like. I never did talk to my friends and family about how bad it was in my own free country. Its embarrassing

Disgusting state of our country. I blame Airbnb, hoarding real estate pigs that lets units sit empty. Then you have hedge funds buying everything else up so they can rent it back to you at 3times the cost. Im sick and tired of the greedy making bank for doing nothing .

There is no housing crisis. There is only greed, an utter lack of compassion and a lack of will to give people homes. It is disgusting how these people are treated.

Actually one of the cleanest encampment I’ve seen yet.

Living in a RV isn’t homeless. It’s a home on wheels.

As a California/SF Bay Area resident, many homeless hitchhike/take a bus here for our generous social services. The problem is that too many of them get hooked on drugs, don't want to work or be productive, and the California taxpayer foots the bill. Eventually, people are gonna have to get off their butt and get a job, and contribute to society. Social nets are there to catch you when you fall, but it's not a lifestyle. The Midwest is HUGE and cheap, and anyone looking to rebuild their life for next to nothing will always have a good start there. Yeah, you won't have the California weather and beaches, but you'll have a job and a roof over your head that's yours: foreclosures are everywhere. How bad do you want to NOT be homeless? A bus/train ride to a cheaper state is often the first step, but you can't be substance-addicted and you can't be entitled.

I used to be a mail carrier on this route until 2009 when I retired. I'm shocked to how this area has devolved from a bucolic wildlife sanctuary to this. 😢

Kind of hard to live the Amercian dream when the price of housing and purchasing houses is now unaffordable to middle-class citizens !

The last source of housing these people have left, and we want to displace them from that too. We don’t want them on the streets, but we refuse to let them live in a way they can afford. There is zero excuse for why government managed RV lots are not being implemented all over the Bay Area, these people can park their RV’s and connect to utilities, with safety and cleanliness enforced strictly round the clock. This will cost us 1/20th of what the current sham affordable housing plan is. Instead of engaging in realistic solutions that provide relief now, we’re all still moronically holding on to the current affordable housing plan that’s creating just a handful of units 5 years down the road, while the homeless population grows exponentially.

This is the future for the entire country. Houses cost too much money. I remember in late 2019 and early 2020 houses in an area near me going for 250k. I live in Missouri. The other day i saw a new subdivision in the same area and the starting prices were 400k with the least features, and if you wanted the features of the houses that were 250k in 2020, now you have to pay 475k. That's more than double for the same house. This housing bubble needs to burst badly.

I think of RV encampments like this every time I hear people talk about how wonderful it will be to ditch their house and spend the money on a large RV and live on the open road. You might notice that a few of those RVs in the vid are rather large and nice looking, and were not cheap. I wonder if some of the older people there didn't do that, just to see their house equity evaporate as the vehicle depreciates, and fuel, parking, and maintenance costs eat up the rest of their retirement funds.

Outlaw corporate ownership of residential real estate.

Rent is too expensive everywhere. It's $1800 for a one bedroom here in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area. More of America will look just like this sooner than later. The price of homes are too high and rent is double or triple the price of a mortgage.

I lived in silicon valley for 3yrs. Part of the problem is government elected people pass laws and regulations that make it extremely expensive and difficult to build new homes/apartments. Taxes on new units are disgusting, and it is almost impossible to get permits to build in certain areas.

There might be open class warfare soon if something isn't done. The "not homeless" are really getting sick of this mess. Not only here, but all over the planet.