Police and Sheriff Reporter

San Francisco’s Youth, Poverty & Crime over the past 14 years

By: “the eyes and ears of the community”

The information in this article was provided from the SF Planning Commissions office. The compilation of information started in 1997. The poverty levels shown here are not to single out populations, but to emphasis the need to help members of these communities with adequate income. We believe that implementing a creative employment program that will earn the participants a livable wage will help reduce the crime rates associated with poverty and lack of education.

We are using these old statistics to point out how long these conditions have affected these S.F. neighborhoods and communities. We will focus on other cities and cultural problems associated with language barriers to obtaining gainful employment.

Women, Head of Households

Considering the California Institute of Mental Health (CIMH) profiles of TANF recipients and DHS statistics, we expect the following client profile:

· 91% single-parent families headed by women, with an average of two children in each family.

· 30 - 40% of recipients/clients having substance abuse and/or mental health problems.

In fact, about 50% of TANF families are headed by a single parent; most are woman between the ages of 25 and 55 with an average of two children. In San Francisco and across the USA this constitutes a large “Domestic Nation of Poverty” comparable to many third world and emerging world countries.

“...India, Hungary, Russia, The Philippines and other poorer nations are discovering in software a lucrative industry that requires the one resource in which they are rich: an under-employed, [creative, competent] labor force.”

Scientific America, “The Crisis in Software Development”, Sept. 1994

While San Francisco has a citywide per-capita income envied by others, our minority populations fall well below the city average.

Per Capita Income by Race/Ethnic Group

(1990 Census)

The “Minority Majority City” per capita incomes.

San Francisco’s Poverty Class

San Francisco, was number 13 in “Money” magazine’s 1996 survey “Best Places to Live”, but continues to neglect its under served communities. Isolated in housing projects in Hunter’s Point, Potrero Hill, North Beach, Ingleside, Sunnydale and the Western Addition.

Chart.2: San Francisco City population by Race/Ethnic group

(1990 Census)

Chart 3: San Francisco Poverty population by Race/Ethnic group

(1990 Census)

Youth, Poverty and Crime

San Francisco’s future is largely dependent on today’s youth. Yet today’s minority youth are an overwhelming percentage of youth living below the poverty line (1990 Census of Population & Housing, Dept. of City Planning). More alarming, African American Youth are, 14% of the youth population, make up 50% of juveniles committing crimes.

Chart 4.4: Status of Youth

S. F. Youth population Youth in Poverty Youth in Crime

When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, a San Francisco Black youth replied:

“I don’t know if I’ll be alive, so I don’t think about it.”

RSN will provide families of inner-city youth the means and opportunity of “Breaking the Cycle of Poverty without breaking the Law.” With proper training this will allow underserved communities to participate in the American Dream, by achieving economic success, without breaking the law, risking their lives, their freedom, or their futures.

S.F. Housing Authority Profiles

In San Francisco, public housing tenants are (74%) African American, (83%) are single parents with minor children, and have a per-capita income of $2,770 in contrast with the citywide per-capita income approximating $20,000 (Table 4.1, below). In other words, we are ‘warehousing’ low-income single mothers and their children with little to no hope for escape.

Family Characteristic	Public Housing	City Wide
Percent Single Parents with Minors	83%	5.8%
Average Household Income	$9,138	$45,600
Average Number of Family Members	3.3	2.27
Average per capita Household Income	$2,770	$20,000
Percentage of AFDC recipients	54.6%	10.3%
High School Drop-Out Rate	13.0%	1.5%
Preschoolers to Young Adults (0-24 years)	67%	33%
Racial/Ethnic Origin Composition
African American	74.6%	10.9%
Asian	5.3%	29.1%
Hispanic	9.3%	13.9%
Other	6.3%	7.5%
White	4.5%	53.6%

The US has a long tradition of warehousing low-income single mothers with dependent children.

This practice of warehousing low-income women in housing projects benefited both the areas’ economy and women themselves in the 1940’s when women became a primary labor source for local US defense companies. Today’s low-income women may be equally valuable to local business as trained computer users, receptionist, retail clerks, nurse’s aides telemarketing associates, or advertising sales persons. RSN Training will create platoons of knowledge workers ready to take their places in government and commercial establishments throughout the Bay Area. Not every person has the skills or learning ability to make it in the technology field, so that is all the more reason to create jobs that people without the education can still earn a livable wage. Below is the actual welfare appendix from 1997. In a future article we will present the latest statistics and that is evidence of the ongoing problems. We need to fix the system to keep it from draining the economy any further.

CASELOAD SIZE

The numbers above are real and the problem still exists in 2004. We need to stop paying attention to foreign problems and start repairing our own economy. Politicians promote how much they are going to do if elected. I see no changes or fixes in these problems and it’s time we take action to help fix our own problems. With your help we can make a difference and make our neighborhoods safer place’s to live and do business.

If you know someone who is having trouble with drugs or alcohol, remember the 24-hour hotline number is 1-888-USE-NONE

# Single Parent families	7455
# 2 Parent families	1948
Total families	9403

Gender	Single Parent Families		2-Parent families
	Children	Adults	Children	Adults
Female	51%	90%	50%	50%
Male	49%	10%	50%	50%

Age	In Single parent families		In 2-parent families
	#	%	#	%
0-1	1534	12.1%	469	10.9%
2-5	3363	26.5%	1000	23.2%
6-10	3769	29.6%	1192	27.6%
11	610	4.8%	222	5.1%
12	612	4.8%	231	5.4%
13-17	2827	22.2%	1204	27.8%
Total	12,715	100%	4318	100%

Ethnicity	In Single parent families		In 2-parent families
	#	%	#	%
African American	3511	47.1%	115	5.9%
Asian	1625	21.8%	1165	59.8%
Caucasian	794	10.7%	124	6.4%
Hispanic	1258	16.9%	230	11.8%
Russian	174	2.3%	268	13.8%
Other	93	1.2%	46	2.3%
Total	7455	100%	1948	100%

Gender	In Single parent families		In 2-parent families
	#	%	#	%
Female	5563	90%	1884	50.4%
Male	583	10%	1856	49.6%