Just because technology is forward thinking when it comes to technology doesn’t mean it’s not based on the same old ideas of business, where only a few special people deserve to have all of the wealth. The Guardian highlighted the glaring income inequality in Palo Alto, California, known around the world as “Silicon Valley.”
Remarkably, slightly more than one-third of students – or 1,147 children – are defined as homeless here, mostly sharing homes with other families because their parents cannot afford one of their own, and also living in RVs and shelters. The district is being squeezed from every side: teachers, administrative staff and even principals have housing woes of their own.
The circumstances of the crisis are striking. Little more than a strip of asphalt separates East Palo Alto from Palo Alto, with its startups, venture capitalists, Craftsman homes and Whole Foods.
The difference between being on one side of the tracks and the other is ginormous. The poor areas, once populated by mostly black and hispanic neighborhoods, is being gentrified and housing costs have skyrocketed. Remember, the Bay Area’s housing is at a ludicrous level of cost these days, with rents reaching modern-day sharecropping levels. It’s not simply the families—even the teachers at schools in the area cannot afford to live there.
Amanda Kemp, 47, is the principal of an East Palo Alto school. Based on her income, she says she has no option but to share a home with three other educators. “I was done with roommates in college,” she said. “Not once did I even think I would live with others unless it was a significant other.”
While companies like Facebook have pledged big money to building affordable housing, it is far from a fix. In Facebook’s case, they have pledged $20 million towards that effort. To put this in perspective:
- Facebook is currently valued at around $323.5 billion dollars.
- As of 2014, the poverty-level income for one person in the United States is $11,670.
Facebook dropping $20 million on anything is the same as that person, at poverty-level, dropping 0.72 cents. It’s not Facebook’s job to fix the housing issues in America, but entities that are accumulating great wealth must realize that wealth does not grow on trees.