The San Francisco Chronicle on October 11th had a front-page story about the decline of real estate prices, but failed to mention the dramatic rise in rents. In the short span of a few months, finding an apartment in San Francisco has gone from a challenge to a nightmare – with landlords demanding rents that are beyond laughable. We all know it’s expensive to live here, but $1445 for a studio in the Mission? $2500 for a one-bedroom in Cole Valley? $3685 for a two-bedroom in Noe Valley? We all know that the mortgage crisis caused families to foreclose, and that no renter wants to buy a house right now. But you can’t just explain the recent spike in rents to “supply-and-demand.” And while Gavin Newsom lauds the “booming” local economy that have filled the City’s coffers, bear in mind that this means a higher class of renters who might afford the insane rents. But it leaves the rest of us behind …

The rents I quoted above were posted on Craigslist last Friday. I’ve considered moving recently, and have started looking at the listings more frequently. I’ve lived in a four-bedroom flat near the Panhandle for the last three years, and since I’ll be 30 next year I’m sick of living with roommates.

But looking at these rental listings, I can only conclude that it will be impossible for me to do so. With my paycheck minus student loans, there’s no way I could pay the rent and have living expenses to survive. And I do pretty well for a public interest lawyer who’s been out of school for a year!

I can only be grateful that I’m not getting evicted, and so don’t have to move. A friend of mine who’s still in law school is currently losing her apartment because of an owner move-in. Based on what’s being advertised, she’ll have to take out more student loans just to pay the rent – making it difficult later to pursue a public interest career.

As Randy Shaw reported last month, the rental market will remain hot for some time – but it probably won’t provoke speculator evictions. “For most tenants living in small buildings,” he said, “this is a time to enjoy the lull and get prepared for the next storm.”

But what about the new wave of renters who come to the City – not all who have money to burn? Or what about people who want to move, but are now stuck in a “cheap” apartment? (I never imagined my flat that was renovated and re-rented during the dot-com boom would now be “below-market-rate.”)

San Francisco’s culture has always depended on people who come from elsewhere to bring diversity, creativity, and spirit to make this City such a liberal haven. That means people who don’t have money – artists, musicians, and non-profit activists. If the new renters who move in are all upper-middle-class corporate types who work at Google, what does that mean for the future of social movements in this town?

How did the beatniks move to North Beach in the 1950’s? Cheap rent. How did the hippies move to the Haight in the 1960’s? Cheap rent. How did Harvey Milk and the gay rights movement come to the Castro in the 1970’s? Cheap rent. Based on the Craigslist ads, there won’t be any places for such people to go in San Francisco.

In the Tenderloin, Skyline Realty (a.k.a. CitiApartments) has gobbled up scores of multi-unit apartment buildings – and with their mob-style intimidation tactics have emptied buildings of low-income people. Their only crime was that they are covered by rent control.

Now Skyline’s impact is starting to show in the neighborhood. The massive real estate conglomerate owns so much property that they can price-fix the rental market -- and they typically rent out at 20% above market rate. New Skyline tenants through the nose – to live in the Tenderloin!

And how does a working-class immigrant family manage to rent a new Skyline building in the Mission or the Tenderloin? They crowd themselves into a small studio and work multiple jobs, which adversely affects their quality of life. Think about all the health consequences involved, and you're not surprised why the City is losing its families of color.

The Chronicle’s October 11 article talked about a “state housing market agony” – but they weren’t talking about tenants who just want an apartment at a sane rent. They meant realtors who have had it so good for so long, but now fret that the median single-family home in California next year will “tumble” to $553,000.

Guess what? The housing bubble burst – because, as the Chronicle admitted, “prices got ahead of incomes.” It’s hard to understand when you’re a wealthy real estate speculator who’s been playing the market and making a killing for the past decade – but some of us actually live paycheck to paycheck.

And now that real estate prices had soared to levels that were unrealistic and are inevitably declining, we’re seeing San Francisco rents explode to levels that could drive more people out of this City. I don’t have much sympathy for realtors who will lose their fat commissions, but I am angry to see this affect the average tenant.

I became a housing activist in the late 1990’s when I was an undergrad at Berkeley and the dot-com boom was in full swing. I never want to see those days again – as landlords preyed on the most vulnerable tenants to make a quick buck. So it infuriates me to see these rents so quickly and suddenly explode.

Send feedback to paul@beyondchron.org