They lose their housing first, then try to hang onto their job. Renting is increasingly out of range for the average worker as well. With the waiting time for subsidized housing up to several years, the situation will only get worse, officials say. Indeed, the housing burden is the the main reason why more people are leaving Silicon Valley these days than arriving, according to the California Department of Finance. People are earning more than they did 10 years ago, said Barbara Zahner of the Sacred Heart Community Service in San Jose, but they re spending 80 percent of their income on housing.
Food becomes a discretionary item.
We call them the invisible working poor.