Born in San Francisco and raised in the East Bay, the Bay Area holds a very special place in my heart. My parents immigrated from Mexico to San Francisco for a better life for me and my sister, but little did they know this so-called ‘better life’ came with a lot of stress.

I imagined having my career in San Francisco and living in the East Bay next to my parents. I imagined myself having a cute little house with a white picket fence in a friendly neighborhood, but gentrifiers and tech companies have ruined this aspiration of mine.

The cost of living in San Francisco is what I think to be unconstitutional.

Gentrifiers, techies and home shortages are the reasons why I won’t be able to purchase a home in my beloved Bay Area. This problem has caused many Bay Area natives stress and an absence of hope to purchase a home in the cities we were raised in.

According to Zillow, the median home value for San Francisco is at $1,289,300. For Oakland, the neighboring town from where my parents reside, the median home value is at $755,600.

The depressing statistics don’t stop there. SFGate ranks San Francisco as the second most expensive city in the United States.

As an aspiring journalist, the cost of living in the Bay Area is impracticable in my field of work and overall just plain depressing.

Bay Area natives deserve the best when it comes to a living situation because in reality, we were here long before the tech boom. We have raised countless generations of diverse people in these neighborhoods that have strived for the very best.

Tech companies and those that come out of town to buy houses to displace the lower income seem to enjoy living in our cities. However, when it comes to the problems these cities face, such as housing shortages and absurd rent prices, they seem to disappear into their hot yoga and overpriced kombucha.

The Bay Area is facing a serious housing crisis that has to be addressed by the citizens of the cities surrounding the Bay. Housing has become very difficult to find in places like San Francisco and Oakland, but finding affordable housing in the Bay Area has become almost non-existent.  

There are families that have been living in cities like San Francisco for generations, but because this housing crisis is so atrocious, they’re forced to relocate.

The Bay Area is the epicenter of the the tech industry, which is at an all time high, and will continue to grow. That means less housing for the poor and more housing for the rich.

Bay Area natives don’t deserve to suffer like this, we deserve sufficient living opportunities. We deserve a proper way of living.