A six-figure salary is considered 'low income' in San Francisco, and the threshold is rising

#BayArea #MarinCounty #SanFrancisco #SanMateo #HighcostofLiving #LowIncome

The Bay Area is so expensive, earning $117,400 a year qualifies you as "low income" in some counties.

Every year the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development releases "income limits," the minimum income level required to qualify for some affordable housing programs.

To be considered "low income" in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin counties, a family of four must earn $117,400 a year. "Very low income" is considered $73,300.

The Bay Area figures are the highest in the country and continue to increase year over year. Income limits in some Bay Area cities increased by 10 percent just in the last year.

Most residents will roll their eyes at such figures — they're used to seeing the cost of rent and homeownership increase with the years. In May, the median home price in the Bay Area hit a record high at $935,000.

The high cost of living likely accounts for what some perceive to be a "Bay Area exodus." It's hard to quantify such a trend with limited census data, but multiple reports imply Bay Area residents are at least thinking about leaving. Real estate site Redfin determined the Bay Area as the top region for "outward migration" in the nation by analyzing where people were searching for homes.

"Jobs and housing are really the primary criteria driving people's decisions," Hans Johnson, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, told The Chronicle in March. "It's kind of a balancing act between the two. If jobs predominate, people are moving in. If housing predominates, you have less people moving in."

Here's the list of counties and the annual salaries that qualify as low income for a four-person family:

Alameda County: $89,600

Contra Costa County: $89,600

Marin County: $117,400

Napa County: $73,450

San Francisco County: $117,400

San Mateo County: $117,400

Santa Clara County: $94,450

Solano County: $66,950

Sonoma County: $78,550

By Michelle Robertson, SFGATE Updated 10:53 am PDT, Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.

Comments

4 Strategies for practicing Radical Self-Acceptance

Radical Self-Acceptance Painting by Jennifer Mazzucco #mindfulness #self-judgment #RadicalSelfAcceptance #negativethinkingpatterns #thoughts Radical acceptance involves acknowledging how life unfolds without resistance, even if we don't like things at any given moment. It can take effort to apply this principle. How can we begin to accept our situation and ourselves despite experiencing anxiety, uncertainty, and fear? Why self-acceptance is not the same as complacency. It is essential now, more than ever, to practice radical self-acceptance. This means training ourselves to find inner stability despite unpredictable external circumstances. Ultimately, we are responsible for acknowledging our hidden wounds, which can lead to personal and collective growth. Radical self-acceptance is the opposite of avoiding responsibility or giving up in self-defeat. It requires pushing against old ways of being to open the door to deep healing. Embracing radical self-acceptance allows us to int...

"Love is a combination of six ingredients: care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust". Bell Hooks

#AfricanAmerican #BellHooks #Love #Respect #WhereWeStand #ClassMatters "Love is a combination of six ingredients: care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust". Bell Hooks A writer, teacher and cultural critic, bell hooks is best known for her work examining systems of domination, especially racism and patriarchy, and how they may be overcome. She has published more than twenty books, including Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black; Killing Rage: Ending Racism , and Where We Stand: Class Matters . hooks says that uncovering and naming the forms of oppression in our society is an extension of her lifelong curiosity about love and her desire to see love manifested. “Perhaps the most common false assumption about love is that it means we will not be challenged or changed,” she once wrote in the Buddhist magazine Shambhala Sun . “When I write provocative social and cultural criticism that causes readers to stretch the...

On its 40th anniversary, a look at how 'The Wiz' forever changed black culture

#TheWiz #DianaRoss #LenaHorne #MichaelJackson #QuincyJones #SidneyLumet #StephanieMills Forty years after its original release, no film has uniquely defined black culture and shaped the framework of a musical genre quite like “The Wiz.” An adaptation of the groundbreaking Broadway musical — itself a retelling of L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 children's fantasy “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” that became the beloved Judy Garland movie — the Sidney Lumet-directed film had a rapturous soundtrack produced by Quincy Jones, a cast that included Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Lena Horne, Nipsey Russell, Mabel King and Richard Pryor and an aesthetic firmly rooted in black culture. For a generation of black Americans, this was the first time they saw people who spoke, sung and moved the way they did in a Broadway production and, later, a big-screen musical, and it has become a kind of rite of passage for the black community. Everyone remembers their first time experiencing “The Wiz.” I...

The five W’s of Life

#Anxiety #Fear #5W #Change #Choices #AfricanAmericantherapist #BlackMaleTherapist #Triple5Light.com The five W’s of Life Who you are is what makes you special. Do not change for anyone. What lies ahead will always be a mystery. Do not be afraid to explore. When life pushes you over, you push back harder. Where there are choices to make, make the one you won’t regret. Why things happen will never be certain. Take it in stride and move forward.

Triple5Light Therapy

Search This Blog