Chinatown's Hidden Poverty: How a Family of Six Survives Living in a Tiny Room
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- čas přidán 14. 02. 2023
- San Francisco is home to thousands of SROs, or Single Room Occupancy units, originally designed to fit one person. These small rooms, typically around 100 square feet, used to house San Francisco's low-wage workers, transient laborers and immigrants. Now, they are home to an increasingly large number of families, predominantly located in the city's Chinatown and Tenderloin neighborhoods.
Miyu Yu, her husband and four children have been living in one SRO in San Francisco's Chinatown for the past 9 years. Three of those years have been during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Watch our video to see how Yu and her family have navigated living in such a small space.
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#housing #poverty #immigration #sfstandard #sanfrancisconews #sanfrancisco #chinatown #sfchinatown #sro
I pray God opens doors for your future
This family qualifies for a lot of social programs. They need a social worker to advocate for them.
Not in California you can read whatever you want online but here are the facts. The waiting list are over 10 years. I been on the waiting list 18 years now. I have just given up on affordable housing.
they need birth control!
Hidden sadness in Chinatown, nothing new. So many offices empty, city should renovate to make some low cost housing for working people
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 LMAO the Taiwan gov can't take care of themselves.
Those kids better be killing it in school otherwise it wouldn’t be worth it
Mixed feelings for this case. Happy that their situation did improve - they were moved to a very nice 4-bedroom apartment and need only pay 30% of their income for that. But i have questions - what kind of immigrants were they, the type that 1) comes to make it, or the type that 2) just comes. During their 9 years in the SRO, what did they do to improve their situation? How did they fight for a better life? What led them to come to the US at all if they would suffer so much being here, what was their goal? Was their immigration thesis simply to just come and accept a life of poverty because it would at least be better than life in their hometown? 9 years after arriving, has not much has changed (in terms of skills, job, opportunities, income, english), except that they have more kids? Have they really tried and failed for 9 years, or did they not try the way some other immigrants would? If they were the kind of immigrants whose goal was to simply arrive and tread water while hoping for the best, that doesn't make them bad people. But I think that other types of immigrants, the types that have the fight in them, should have higher priority for receiving assistance and rewards. I am happy to see this mother smile in the video about her new home, but I wonder if immigrants like them will endlessly continue to come and suffer, in part encouraged by the benefits received by this family and other families like it - awarding benefits to them creates this distortion in the calculus of whether to immigrate. All of that said, I understand how urgent it is to get those kids into a better living situation, and i am still glad to see that these kids will grow up in comfort. Again, mixed feelings.
I appreciate your comment and thoughts, as I had many of the same. I know that it's 2023 and the world is different than in 1970 when my parents came from HK (with my Bro; I wasn't born yet). They lived in one of those same SF Chinatown apartments with my Grandma. Back then, my Dad couldn't find work to match his skillset in SF, so he got the hook up from friends out of state for work there. So the family was separated for three years till he saved enough $$$ and sent for my Mom and Bro to where he was, eventually saving enough $$$ for a house where I was born in. My late Dad was super frugal and I resented him at times growing up for how cheap he was, but that's how my Bro and I never had to struggle or even borrow money for college. My Dad and Mom would be the example of those with the fight in them that you referred to. And all of them from their generation were like that. Let me not be insensitive because I know nothing of the modern day Chinese immigrant, but I too wondered, "What in the world have they been doing for the last 9 years?!" Haven't been able to save anything all this time to try to get out of SF (which I know is very $$$)?
Nobody gives an f about your mixed feelings.
based on my poor understanding of dialects, possibly from the more rural areas guangxi or guangdong. possibly hong kong. if you look at cost of living vs income, the most affordable city in the US is about 3x better than san fran. that being said, san fran is still 6x more affordable than hong kong. well... you've had 3 months to think about your comment and feelings. I wonder if in that time you constantly held yourself to the same standard of "having the fight in them". something unintuitive to American's is the idea of an objectively classist society, where regardless of how hard you work in that situation, you will never be able to move more than a couple rungs up the ladder. in my experience, asians are the least vocal of their adversity here.... and i think therefore the least well understood. I wonder what had to be sacrificed in-order for them to get over here, and what debts they have had to repay. usually im pretty conservative about immigration, but to be here for 9 yrs... there has to have been several factors stacked against them. A recent movie which changed my perspective is called "everything everywhere all at once." i think its worth watching if you were never able to reconcile your mixed feelings.
I'm always puzzled, when people question other people's migratory movements around the world --- from the Stone Age to 2024, to see safety, foods, opportunities, freedom, etc ---- but they never question their own movements or the movements of their parents, grandparents, and ancestors.
It's such bizarre logic people use. It's always OTHERS who are X, Y, or Z but never they themselves... as if they or their own family/ancestors dropped straight down from the sky to be where they are!
I am especially oddly incensed, when Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Jews, and others ---- who or whose parents or ancestors having come, having face HORRIBLE treatments and racism ---- are banding with Conservative White Christians (the most kind, tolerant, moral, ethical, gentle, tolerant, and God loving human beings on earth) to tell other Asians, Blacks, Jews, Latinos et al NOT to dream of coming to America...
Again, human migratory across and around the world... to seek more or better foods, more and better shelter, more bountiful hunting or farming lands, etc.... didn't just start during Obama or Biden's terms at the White House.
Our species has been doing since we WERE STILL primitive, small groups in Africa.
Many of our ancestors and other closely related human groups, from Africa, started trekking out of that continent a few million years ago (with our immediate homo sapiens sapiens) being the last one, 50,000 to 100,000 years ago.
We are NOT about to stop doing that, just because a few crazy, Flat Earth Christian Conservative say so.... Or just because you put some imaginary lines around plots of lands... even with some fences or concrete walls.... and that is especially true when the people NORTH OF THE EQUATOR have been digging up and using so much more of the earth's heat-trapping molecular compounds, changing the climate in such a rapid rate... so that the poorer people around the equator are finding it harder and harder, in each successive generation, to fish, to farm, and to find liveable places....
The stupidity, greedy, and viciousness of some homo sapiens never cease to impress me!
Wait what the hell?? Clicking on this, my first thought was “how selfish to have FOUR kids who have to live this way” and then I said to myself “nah, ur too judgemental, they probably fell on hard times and used to have it better” and I see it’s 9 years here?? And these kids are all younger than that?? Wtf?? They CHOSE to bring 4 children into this??
Some of the comments here are cruel. Jesus reminds us: "What you measure unto others will be measured unto you."
Jesus also said God is more important than family.
Wtf. This happens in Chinatown America???
US Chinatowns have worse living standards than poor villages in China. They are relics from the past, unchanged in the last 100 years. Actually worse off than they were since the buildings are aging and go unmaintained
So many children they can not support 🤬🤬🤬🤬
I waited to have a child until i could afford 1, just 1. She's LUCKY she had 4 kids. Im jealous.
Imagine leaving a country with an exponentially rising living standard and growing economy to live in filth like this in the US slum that is Chinatown. And then having multiple children while living broke in a first world country. Everything is on them.
Seems like despite living in a cramped SRO with 4 people, they wanted to have a boy, and end up from a bad situation to a worse situation with 6 people in said SRO...
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
People will put up with any condition just to live in San Francisco…
The rent is just as high in Oakland, San Jose, and Berkeley.
Id live in a kind of crappy place in san francisco if it saved me money but theres a few no go things and sharing a toilet and shower with that many people is a big h*ll no
I am shocked why she has four if she cant support them why not to go to Modesto Or Tracy
that's what struck me, too. they'd been there for nine years, but that youngest boy was born living there. why would you bring ANOTHER kid into that situation?
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
Maybe the family will have better luck in Iowa or Nebraska?
Such a sad situation. But since I'm a horrible person what popped into my mind was if a child is bad you point to the corner and say "Go to your room!" Also, no worries that your daughter will sneak out at night to meet her boyfriend.
most FOB are first landed in SF CT.....Later on when they work..work harder ,,saved up their money..and move out CT for a better lives better House.....
San Francisco’s house is too expensive, living in San Francisco is more and more struggle for middle class, that’s why so many people or business is leaving San Francisco!
台山人，加油！
700 for that?
Why would you have so many children if you are financially challenged? 2 is already enough regardless of 2 boys or 2 girls.
Yes I agree. They are just dumb.
Shut up
They should seek help fr the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
so why did she think it was a good idea to pop out FOUR children when she has no room for them to live in!?
Simple solution, close down the 20,000 plus SRO places down in San Fran.. That way they can live in a nice 3/2 in the city. If they cannot afford it, move to a nice place out of state.. Ahhh, they probably want to be right where they’re at…
I feel sorry for the kids, but the parents should not have had four. It's been nine years. Some very poor choices were made here.
Feel the same way .. I have 3 kids and got separated of my husband .. he was like a bag in my shoulders, I became single mom and I’m doing way better with my 3 kids.. we aren’t rich but they have their privacy… and I’m back to school. Parents could take advantage of free school and after school program and learn the language .some people just take all these free resources for granted.🤷♀️
Why you judge people like that.
@@martinking4842 Because the parents' decision had a direct effect on the livelihoods of others. At some point people need to be held accountable for their actions.
@@kathyramos2924 as if you're not taking free resources
@@MrTweetyhack I don’t take the resources for granted if that’s what u ment 😂🤷♀️
Why does code enforcement allow so many people to live in a single occupancy that means one person that's illegal this whole video what we're witnessing is illegal the police should have been there the very next day and arrested those people it is illegal
Let's take an objective look at this situation and crunch a few numbers. If she and her husband work, and I'm assuming they both do since Chinese people, as well as Latinos, are known to be hard workers, in San Francisco currently the minimum per hour you are paid is $17 dlls. ( X 2 persons X 40 hours per week X 52 weeks per year / 12 months equals $5,893.33 per month income) and they might be receiving Government assistance for each child ($500 X 4 children equals $2,000 per month assistance) plus food stamps, plus other programs, around $1,000 a month extra (and probably rent assistance which I'm not including in this analysis).
So, let's add that: $5,893.33 plus $2,000 plus $1,000 that amounts to a probable combined monthly income of: $8,893.33 (family income of $106,719.96 per year) or after deducting the $700 per month rent they must have a balance of $8,193.33 income each month (or X 12: $98,319.96 per year).
Or, if they get no assistance at all of any kind, then they have a combined income of $5,893.33 (X 12 months equal to $70,719.96 per year) or after deducting the $700 monthly rent equal to $5,193.33 monthly balance ( X 12 months equal to: $62,319.96 per year).
Not bad, either $106,719.96 with Government assistance or $70,719.96 per year if they get no Government assistance of any kind. I think they can afford to rent a larger place to live if they wanted to. Also, I respect their decision to live there and save as much as they can of their income, but then they would have no reason to complain. And I wouldn't label their situation as "poverty". Anyway, nobody can judge the decision by other people about the number of children they want to have.
I grew up in Chinatown in the 1980s and 1990s. My mom was paid by the half a cent per item completed for the first 10 years in America and she worked 7 days a week and brought work back home so the family can help. Our family never received any assistance because my parents did not speak any English and no one taught them how to apply. My parents' combined annual income were always below the national average of a single earner. During my 11th year living in the states, my mom's company/factory was forced to pay minimum wage to all the workers. Ever since she was paid minimum wage, her annual income was higher before when she worked 7 days a week, over 70 hours a week.
@@kennethli8 : Yes, that is your mom's experience back then, when there were a lot of sweatshops in the City. I am talking about current wages and work and living conditions that apply to every worker in the state of California and specifically in the City of San Francisco and Chinatown. The Chinese community in San Francisco is the largest and best organized in San Francisco with a lot of City agencies and NGOs that provide all kind of services to the Chinese population in the City in English, Mandarin and Cantonese and also in other dialects, from social services, orientation on how to apply for all kind of assistance, English lessons and help for new arrivals, City programs that provide groceries for free and places in Chinatown where residents can go and have hot meals every day, or have them delivered to their address, there are several VERY LARGE apartment buildings in Chinatown and around the city that belong to the City and City agencies that provide very low rent apartments (and even rent-free apartments) to Chinese families, you probably know several of them on Stockton St. that were built during the 1980's. I live in Chinatown and know everything about the issue, including the SROs, at several of them I have been there to help people. I didn't understand the point that you try to make in your comment.
Wow,you did a good math
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
@@peekaboopeekaboo1165 : It's something that changes according to the politics in the country; when George W Bush was President you would see many U.S. flags, a majority of Taiwan flags, and a few China flags in Chinatown. And then with Obama and Trump many U.S. flags, a majority of China flags, and a few Taiwan flags. Now with Biden and his cold war against China we have again many U.S. flags, a majority of Taiwan flags, and very few China flags...
.
"The cure for the whole misery of poverty is the development of the appreciation of those things that are really worth while; having attended to necessities such as the production of corn and wine, devote the surplus energies not to the production of that kind of luxury which can only be enjoyed by few, but to the creation of beauty." - Aleister Crowley
San Francisco has one of the priciest rentals in California. They should go to other states where rents are cheaper instead of squeezing 6 people in a 100-square feet space like this.
SF is one of the only places they can find a job without speaking English. Sure, they can rent a much larger unit for $700 in the midwest, but job opportunities are very limited, and it will be difficult for them to manage without speaking English.
the couple can barely feed themselves but have 4 kids. i think it's a form of child abuse. i don't feel sorry for the parents but for the kids.
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
This is also the reason why you:
• Don't get married !!
• Don't have children !!
😢😢😢
The father needs to step up and start being a man
They have been there 9 years and had the nerve to get pregnant multiple times? Plus, she’s crying about her situation like someone else caused it. Are we really supposed to feel sorry for them? She and her husband caused this situation. I only feel sorry for the children. But there are people who live in worse conditions than this. So she better be grateful that they have that room.
To be fair, the younger boys are twins, and they were born right when this family moved into the SRO (she probably got pregnant before), so it's not like they had additional kids after living in this SRO.
Please try not to step n people when they are down. She is not asking you to feel sorry for her; she is explaining her situation.
She had the kids before moving into the apartment....
@@Aikynbreusov No one forced them to have more kids than they can afford.
@@lindabanicki2169why not step on people while they're down if that's what you want to call it by pointing out somebody's ignorance is and failures in life people like you enable people to be exactly who that person is that is sad you are exactly the person who would not speak up while watching your friends or family go down the drain maybe do drugs maybe not do their job maybe beat their children but you wouldn't say anything because it wouldn't be your place right
First and foremost, you want to live here in America, make an effort to learn to speak English.
True, then more doors will open up. How do you expect to survive in a foreign country without speaking the language? 9 years and 4 kids later, now you're in a worse situation.
I'm sorry, but San Francisco cannot afford to house you. The new migrant vote is our priority right now. Please check back when you become a voting bloc large enough for our consideration.
I know people with poor mindset .. have more babies and get more government help🥴 like a easy pass for free resources … 3,4,5 kids won’t changed chances instead making it worse for those little ones, they have needs and parents won’t be able to meet those needs😢.
Wow thats so judgmental. Poor people=poor mindset. Please enlighten us Dr. Freud. Do you see them complaining to the government, stealing, throw out the poor immigrant card? At least they are waiting patiently.
They should seek help from the Taiwan government... notice the ROC flags.
Fake
I do _not_ know authenticity of this story since it's quite recent. People growing up in the 1980s and 1990s in Chinatown had it much worse and most of them never received any government assistance. During those days seamstresses were paid half a cent or less per item completed -- break the tags, sew the shirt and then sew a tag onto a shirt and the person would get paid half a cent, yes, $0.005 cents per completed item. I know because was one of those people from the 1980s and 1990s. Plenty of my classmates' parents when through the same.
No sympathy