In San Francisco, even $180k tech salaries are no longer enough

Thing is, social media discussions on the subject are completely pointless. No one ever changes their mind and nothing gets resolved. But I'll give my spiel anyway:

I live in rent-controlled housing in SF. When I was apartment hunting circa 2023, it was fairly easy to find rent-controlled listings if you were diligent. In objective terms, my rent is high, but it's also locked in. Rent can only increase a few percentage points a year.

In the past year, a bunch of wealthy AI workers moved into the city, increasing rents catastrophically. You could find people in the SF subreddit complaining with disturbing regularity about 50% rent spikes and similar. We had new tenants move in to the upstairs apartment recently and they're literally paying $2000/m more than us for the same floor plan. If we had to pay the same amount — if our rent increased arbitrarily due to circumstances outside our control — I think we'd be kicked out of the city. It's just not possible to build a stable, adult life unless you have some security around your housing expenses (or you're filthy rich).

Rent control detractors suggest that eliminating rent control will lead to lower housing costs eventually. That does not help me in the present. Why would I support a policy that will kick me out of my house today, replace everyone in my historically working class neighborhood with millionaires, and then maybe, many years down the line, lead to lower rents? (With a giant "citation needed" on that argument to boot.) It's a non-starter.

Fortunately, building more housing does not require eliminating rent control. We can have both. And if enough housing gets built, rent goes down anyway and rent control largely becomes a moot point.

I regularly hear about acquaintances getting kicked out of their apartments elsewhere in the country due to sudden rent spikes and thank my lucky stars we're not subject to that horror.

There was no zoning, no fire safety inspections, no fire safety, haphazard infrastructure, lack of water to drink and clean with, etc…it was basically an unregulated slum (which you can still find in many countries).

Hong Kong has density sure. But no one would call it cheap density.