Disappointing photos show what living in San Francisco on a tech salary really looks like
Advertisement
Jan 16, 2019, 00:02 IST
Due to a housing shortage, the high demand for living accommodations has sent real estate values skyrocketing in the Bay Area.
Advertisement
And the region's behemoth tech companies aren't slowing down on talent recruitment. Engineers are constantly pouring in.
Advertisement
Many arrive viewing their new lives through rose-colored glasses, holding high expectations of what a tech salary will look.
Fancy cars, colossal homes, and a more-than-comfortable lifestyle fill their minds.
Advertisement
The reality is oftentimes much different than what they expected.
The biggest wake up call? The astronomically-priced rent.
Advertisement
They end up spending a good portion of their salary purely on rent, leaving little else to cover the other outrageous expenses in the city.
And so tech workers, both seasoned and newly-minted, have had to get creative with how they can outsmart the city's notoriously absurd rental costs.
Advertisement
Like the people behind The Negev, a communal living organization that houses tech workers in San Francisco.
It's one of many communal spaces in the city designed to help techies circumvent the housing shortage and high rent. The home offers 50 rooms across three floors.
Advertisement
Many of the Negev residents sleep in bunk beds and shell out $1,900 a month to live here.
The tenants are software engineers, UI designers, operations analysts, or virtual reality engineers, and most are under the age of 30.
Advertisement
There's also a social element to The Negev. Residents are encouraged to bounce ideas off of each other, and to code and create apps.
Resident Zandar Dejah (left) told Reuters that it's "basically an extension of college. We sort of live in a frat house."
Advertisement
Every Sunday there's a communal dinner for housemates, and on the weekend the house hosts parties.
As convenient as it is for its occupants, the home has been criticized for depriving natives of affordable housing.
Advertisement
But many young tech workers can't afford conventional housing...
...especially if they have a family.
Advertisement
Micah, along with his wife Jana and their son, moved to the Bay Area to pursue a tech career.
To avoid the city's steep rental costs, they had a tiny home built for their family of three in Texas and lugged it out to California.
Advertisement
The next step was finding a place to park it...
...so they teamed up with a family already settled in the Bay who allowed them to post up in their RV pad, for a fee.
Advertisement
They use an extension chord to stay hooked up to the house for power, and they also keep a generator outside for when they want to use the air conditioner or washer and dryer.
They also keep solar panels in the yard for extra power.
Advertisement
The pint-sized abode has everything the family needs.
There's a washer and dryer in the bathroom.
Advertisement
Guests are educated on proper toilet use with a handy cheat sheet on the windowsill.
And there's a fold-down table for eating.
Advertisement
The couple has a lofted sleeping nook, with another loft opposite them in the house for their son as he gets older...
...at which point they said they might need to reevaluate living spaces since a teenager will make the home a tad more cramped.
Advertisement
The D'Andrea's are also new parents...
...and like Micah and Jana, they're accustomed to the small-living lifestyle.
Advertisement
Googler Pete D'Andrea...
...and his wife Kara shelled out $1,900 for a Winnebago van and moved to Silicon Valley from Chicago when Pete snagged a job with one of Google's self-driving car teams.
Advertisement
They parked their mobile digs in the Google parking lot and lived there for a year and a half to two years (before having their daughter,) putting 80% of their income into savings.
An upraised Ikea twin mattress served as their bed...
Advertisement
...and a small compartment opened up to a toilet, sink, and shower.
The sink pulls out from the wall.
Advertisement
The couple kept a mini fridge in their small kitchen...
...and there was a stovetop for cooking.
Advertisement
To maximize space, they placed a cutting board over the sink for when they're not using it.
Kara knows it's not an ideal set up, but she didn't mind in the least.
Advertisement
“I think a lot of people think this is like the antithesis of comfortable, but I actually really loved it,” Jana told Tech Insider in 2016. “I was really happy.”
They saved up enough to put a down payment on a house. Seven months after moving into it, they got a dog, four cats, and three chickens. That was also when their daughter was born.
Advertisement
As for their van, they'll hang on to it and use it for traveling. Pete told Tech Insider that he sees plenty of other vans parked in the parking lot at Google. “We’re not the only ones," he said.