We often hear about the number of people experiencing homelessness in our region, 35,000 as of 2020 across the nine Bay Area counties. But what we rarely hear about, nor see as we walk the streets, are the 457,000 extremely low-income households in the region trying to make ends meet on an average of $18,000 a year. Seniors are particularly prone to falling into this extremely low income category, as are households with children and single parent families. Black households are nearly twice as likely to be extremely low income as white households. The majority of these households, 68%, are renters.

Over 80% of these extremely low income households are on very thin ice when it comes to their housing. They receive no housing assistance from the government and pay more than 30% of their income on housing, most of them spending more than 50%. With median rental prices in each Bay Area county requiring a wage of at least $31.43/hour — and up to $55.69/hour in San Francisco — it’s no surprise that so many households are on the precipice of missing rent each month and facing possible eviction.

Unlike other benefits, such as food assistance, housing assistance for low income families is not an entitlement. That means even if you are eligible for support, you are by no means guaranteed to get it as funding is insufficient to meet need. In fact, less than 20 percent of extremely low income renters in the Bay Area receive a housing subsidy. Much more government funding is spent subsidizing home owners and more wealthy families via the mortgage interest deduction program than helping low income families and renters. For example, in the Bay Area, 715,000 homeowners claimed the mortgage interest tax deduction in 2018, for around $3 billion in public housing subsidy.

       Source: Center on Budget & Policy Priorities    

Keeping people housed is much more humane than allowing them to fall into homelessness and then trying to get them shelter. Homelessness is traumatic and extremely stressful. It can lead to a host of other additional traumas, health issues and challenges, so much so that life expectancy for our unhoused neighbors is nearly 18 years lower than housed populations. 

Fortunately, keeping people housed is not only more humane, it’s also relatively inexpensive. In a recent homelessness prevention pilot project in Santa Clara County, it cost on average $4,106 to keep a family housed. 

During the COVID pandemic, an eviction moratorium statewide prevented the majority of evictions for non payment of rent. This protection ended on September 1, 2021.  Some tenants are eligible for rental relief assistance to pay off rent owed. To date, the state has provided 156,000 renter households more than $5 billion in federal aid across California. The situation around evictions is evolving and uncertain as the various city,  state and federal programs shift and roll out. But many fear an increase in evictions come spring of 2022. 

There are a number of ways to prevent people who are at risk from becoming homeless. One major one is increasing government funding for housing assistance — in other words, increasing the percent of low income families who get housing support. Rent control is an often debated measure that can help keep people housed, but may depress housing development long term. Battery Powered will focus on two areas where philanthropy has an important role to play and where grants of our size can make a difference: legal services for renters, and emergency rental assistance for those at risk of homelessness. 

Legal Services. Eviction is one leading cause of homelessness. A recent survey of homeless individuals in San Francisco found that 38% of them lost their housing due to eviction or threat of eviction. Eviction also wreaks other forms of damage on a family: children may have to switch schools, uprooting their stability; families often lose some of their possessions. Evictions disproportionately impact communities of color as a result of a long history of discrimination in housing and employment markets. While evictions are warranted in some cases, the process is abused and displacement can often be prevented with support.  

It is well documented that legal services are effective in preventing displacement and evictions. Tenants with legal representation are much more likely to be able to stay in their homes, preventing possible homelessness. But, only  10% of renters nationwide have legal representation in an eviction proceeding versus 90% of landlords. More locally, only 4.4% of Santa Clara County tenants facing eviction are represented by an attorney.

San Francisco voters passed a ballot measure in 2018 creating a legal right to counsel for tenants facing eviction, and new funding was approved in the budget this year to fund that counsel. But other Bay Area counties do not have similar measures.  

Battery Powered can support organizations that provide free services to represent renters in mediation and legal proceedings to prevent unfair evictions. We also can support outreach and implementation activities to ensure that new tenant protection measures and programs are effectively implemented.

Rental Assistance: While state and federal funding is available for low-income tenants who missed rent payments during COVID, there are limitations to that support and a backlog of unpaid assistance as of this writing. Rental assistance can help families get current with their rent, fill a temporary loss of income that prevents them from making their rent or provide a security deposit to move into housing. 

Not everyone who is precariously housed and low income will fall into homelessness. All Home, a Bay Area organization that advances regional solutions to poverty and homelessness, has studied factors that compound a family's likelihood of becoming homeless. These factors include: extremely low income; previous experience of homelessness; those without access to other benefits like undocumented immigrants; areas hard hit by COVID; and households of color.  Battery Powered is interested in supporting rental assistance programs that prioritize those families and individuals who have a high likelihood of becoming homeless.