In Silicon Valley, a New Investment: Eviction

[Newsjock]

Source: Bloomberg

Virginia Valencia earns $12 an hour working the morning shift at Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) headquarters in Palo Alto, California, where she serves food and drinks to the staff and billionaire co-founder Elon Musk.

... Valencia has been fighting eviction since she fell behind on her $1,064 rent payment in November. And she’s not the only one. Each month, as many as 300 Woodland Park residents receive notices from Equity Residential giving them three days to pay or vacate their homes, according to an employee’s sworn testimony in a lawsuit.

... East Palo Alto is the last haven of low-rent housing in a region where companies like Tesla, Facebook Inc. (FB) and Google Inc. (GOOG) have minted at least two dozen billionaires and thousands of millionaires. Woodland Park is where Silicon Valley’s cooks, janitors and housekeepers live, often working second jobs to hang on to their homes as rents soar and wages stagnate.

... The surge in rents has been acute in Silicon Valley, where a thriving technology industry is fueling economic growth and higher property values. In Palo Alto, rents have jumped more than 45 percent in the past five years to an average of $2,604.69 in February, Axiometrics data show. East Palo Alto limits increases in its rent-controlled units to 2 percent for leases renewed during the year beginning July 1.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-07/silicon-valley-cooks-to-housekeepers-facing-home-eviction.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. $12 per hour and $1000 plus rent? that doesnt compute.

[haele]

2. $12 per hour would be her primary or full-time job. She probably has another part-time job or-

She's got a roommate or spouse who's job supplements the household finances - or she's got some sort of additional supporting income or subsidy that allows her to put what she gets out of her paycheck into rent.

A full-time $12 an hour in CA nets a single person a minimum of $375 a week (40 hours) with no deductions or exemptions. That means her Tesla paycheck basically pays her rent and monthly bus pass with probably $50 left over. She's got to have another job, supporter, or income of some sort to pay for food, basic sundries, utilities, and clothes - and she might make it if she doesn't fall into a payday loan or credit card trap.


Haele

[Liberal_in_LA]

3. got it. thx

[REP]

4. That's about what I made/paid when I moved here

I actually made a little less per hour but my rent was just under $1000/mo. After paying the light bill, it left about $100 per week for food, gas and the laundromat. I worked for a much much richer company than Tesla and I was part of a Union.

[dilby]

5. Here is the secret, don't play the Game.

All of the industries in Silicon Valley are dependent on low wage workers to survive. If all the low wage workers packed up and left then these companies would either have to pay their workers more or supply subsidized housing. I was offered a job in Silicon Valley about a year ago and even though I was going to be making around 6 figures I said no, because the cost of living is ridiculous and I did not want to have roommates. A studio apartment was going for 2k a month which is stupid, I have a 2 bedroom apartment in Portland for $850.

[KamaAina]

6. Or the workers would have to commute obscene distances.

Enough of them have been forced into the Central Valley, 60 miles away, that there is now a commuter train between Stockton and San Jose.