Study: Housing And Transport Costs Burden SF Area

EVELYN NIEVES

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Bay area households spend up to two-thirds of their income on transportation and housing costs, a severe burden that leaves workers with insufficient resources for other basic needs, according to a recently-released study.

The costs in the nine-county Bay area vary from 54 percent in Santa Clara to 66 percent in Sonoma County, the Urban Land Institute's Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing said in the study released Wednesday.

The average household spends nearly 60 percent of their income on transportation and housing, the center said.

For one-fourth of all households in the Bay area, housing and transportation costs account for two-thirds or more of their income, leaving workers with insufficient resources for health care, education and food, according to the study.

The report blames "ever-sprawling" development resulting in a growing gap between where people work and where they live. The consequences are both economic and environmental — transportation accounts for 40.6 of greenhouse emissions in the Bay Area, compared to 33 percent nationally, the study said.