Struggling to live in America's $1M city: Photographer captures lives of ordinary San Francisco residents who are living in cars, trailers, garages and tents following the tech boom | Dailymail
2025-06-16 17:04

A recent report said that a family needs about $200,000 a year to live comfortably in San Francisco, so long as their children go to public school.

And in June the median home price hit $1 million.


Wenxin Zhang understands this better than most.

The Chinese-born, California-based photographer moved to the city in 2011 and started reaching out on internet forums to meet new people.


What she found was a community whose members had been displaced by a city hit with skyrocketing prices following the tech boom and the expansion of nearby Silicon Valley.

Zhang decided to start documenting these people and the alternative means of accommodation they had come to call home.


Displaced: California-based photographer Wenxin Zhang moved to San Francisco in 2011 and fell in with a group of people living in alternative means of accommodation, such as on a boat like this man

Homeless: This man now lives on a cliff by the sea due to the rising cost of living in San Francisco

Zhang found a community of people who have found alternative housing conditions and asked permission to photograph them 'at home'

Zhang decided to start documenting these people and the alternative means of accommodation they had been forced to find

This man decided to buy a second-hand van and turn that into his home, complete with a built-in gas kitchen

Alternative: Part of the photo essay also shows people living in an old hotel, such as this woman

Forced out: This man now lives on a cliff by the sea due to the rising cost of living in San Francisco

Forced out: This man now lives on a cliff by the sea due to the rising cost of living in San Francisco

Zhang called the project Goodnight Stories.

'At first glance, Goodnight Stories seems sweet and romantic, but in reality, people who have alternative living situations can have very bitter lives as well,' she told Feature Shoot.

'Some of them suffer from bankruptcy, poverty, health problems or depression.

'Sometimes being different from the majority can be very hard.'

An index on Zhang's website describes the project.

'Goodnight Stories is a narrative photo project taken when I was a new comer in San Francisco in 2012,' it said.

'I found strangers who have alternative housing conditions through Craigslist and visited them alone with mutual trust.

'Embedded with the photographer’s insecurity towards adult world, I has created a bittersweet fairy tale that explores the diversity of habitat choices, and the boundary between reality and fantasy.'

This man is one of many living in an old hotel in  San Francisco - one of many affordable accommodation options

This man decided to buy a second-hand van and turn that into his home, complete with a built-in gas kitchen

'I found strangers who have alternative housing conditions through craigslist and visited them alone with mutual trust,' Zhang said


This woman lives in her garage and rents out the other rooms in her house in order to make ends meet

This woman and her partner live on a sailboat that they bought. They feature in the photo essay Goodnight Stories

This man is one of many living in an old hotel in San Francisco and is one of many living in alternative housing

This woman is one of many living in an old hotel in San Francisco. Wenxin Zhang said she found such alternative housing 'beautiful'

This man is one of many living in an old hotel in San Francisco. He was photographed as part of narrative photo project Goodnight Stories

Wenxin Zhang decided to start documenting these people and the alternative means of accommodation they had to find

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Related Artists: ZHANG WENXIN 张文心