A family in Yolo County who makes minimum wage needs to work 104 hours per week. It requires a minimum of 2.6 jobs to be able to afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment in Yolo County.
More alarmingly is that in order to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Yolo County, one must work 85 hours per week.
These data are available at: click here for data
This is for Yolo County as a whole, it does not break it down by city. However since the average home price is over 25% higher in the City of Davis than the county overall, it seems likely that in Davis, those average apartment rents would be even higher.
Once again, this give us a startling example that the jobs that are being brought with the counstruction of a Davis Target are not going to be sufficent for the workers to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Davis.
The Davis Enterprise on Sunday quoted the executive director Robert Wiener:
"Every year it is becoming more difficult for low-income families to find decent homes they can afford in California... This report clearly illustrates the pressing need for affordable housing in our communities."
As the city council begins to look at the general plan, they need to seriously address the issue of affordable housing in Davis. Living wage laws would help in this regard, but we cannot increase these wages to $17.50 per hour or even higher. The bulk of that difference needs to come in the form of providing the average working person a place where they can afford housing. Otherwise, all Davis is doing by bringing in businesses like Target, is create a bunch of new commuter jobs for Dixon or West Sacramento residents.
