Redwood City, CA has built several highrise apartment buildings in the last decade, with more construction ongoing. The low end of rents for these buildings is $3000 for a studio apartment. On the high end, they can be ten figures. There are no poor people living in these apartments, except those made poor by high rents.
The poor people largely live in North Fair Oaks (AKA Little Mexico), Redwood Oaks, or Roosevelt neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are almost unnavigable due to the cars parked on the streets from all the people crammed into single-family homes. There are a few apartment complexes, but these are almost all low-rises and rents even there are $1500 at the lowest. At minimum wage, that's about 50% of income for a fulltime worker for a shitty apartment in a shitty neighborhood.
It will be a long, long time with a lot of building before it becomes unprofitable to buy the expensive land and build multi-family homes on it here. And Redwood City is about as far as you can get from San Francisco and San Jose while still being on the peninsula. Cupertino is right next to San Jose and I imagine rents are at least comparable, if not higher.
The poor people largely live in North Fair Oaks (AKA Little Mexico), Redwood Oaks, or Roosevelt neighborhoods. These neighborhoods are almost unnavigable due to the cars parked on the streets from all the people crammed into single-family homes. There are a few apartment complexes, but these are almost all low-rises and rents even there are $1500 at the lowest. At minimum wage, that's about 50% of income for a fulltime worker for a shitty apartment in a shitty neighborhood.
It will be a long, long time with a lot of building before it becomes unprofitable to buy the expensive land and build multi-family homes on it here. And Redwood City is about as far as you can get from San Francisco and San Jose while still being on the peninsula. Cupertino is right next to San Jose and I imagine rents are at least comparable, if not higher.