In both SF and Oakland, a lot of the affordable housing exists because of rent control, and is scattered all over the place, in all kinds of different buildings.
But a lot of the poorest residents live in SROs, which are mostly located in the Tenderloin, Chinatown, Mission District, SOMA, and downtown Oakland. Here are a bunch of examples from the Tenderloin, which has the most by far:
Untitled by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Hotel Kinney by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Hotel Hurley by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Untitled by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Admiral Hotel, 608 O'Farrell Street (ca 1916) by
sftrajan, on Flickr
202010196 San Francisco Tenderloin by
taigatrommelchen, on Flickr
Here's a nice aerial view of it:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7808.../data=!3m1!1e3
That area is packed with SROs.
In addition to that, a lot of poor people also live in public housing. Some examples:
Potrero Hill, SF:
Public Housing - Potrero Terrace and Potrero Annex - San Francisco by
Tony Wasserman, on Flickr
morning // fog by
Ir Rational, on Flickr
Connecticut Street by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Sunnydale, SF:
SF SunnydaleCars 61.jpg by
Dan Ryan, on Flickr
https://www.sfchronicle.com/crime/ar...photo-15467144
Chinatown, SF:
The Ping Yuen Mural on Stockton Street in Chinatown. San Francisco by
Abariltur, on Flickr
0213 Ping Yuen by
mliu92, on Flickr
The Fillmore district, SF:
San Francisco, foggy afternoon by
sftrajan, on Flickr
Westside, built 1940/1943 by
sftrajan, on Flickr
https://www.nibbi.com/projects/rad-r...b-pitts-plaza/
West Oakland:
Acorn Projects by
ucat, on Flickr
East Oakland:
Lockwood Gardens by
BayRaised, on Flickr
Mission district, SF:
Valencia Gardens by
Cate, on Flickr
Untitled by
Amanda Martinez, on Flickr
Hunters Point, SF:
https://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build...s/hunters-view
Hunter's View Housing, San Francisco by
Mark Hogan, on Flickr
https://cahill-sf.com/portfolio/hunters-view/
https://cahill-sf.com/portfolio/hunt...int-east-west/
Newer housing in foreground Southeastern San Francisco 180316-110542 C4 by
Charlie & Melody Wambeke, on Flickr
Those new buildings above are part of the replacement for the old Double Rock projects, the most recent of SF's demolished and now rebuilt public housing:
Project housing in foreground Southeastern San Francisco 180316-110533 C4 by
Charlie & Melody Wambeke, on Flickr
In both pics you can also see various other project buildings lining the top of the hill in the distance.
There are also some affordable co-ops, like this 382 unit one in the Fillmore district, which was built with a loan from HUD in the 1960s:
San Francisco- Fillmore District by
Joseph Wingenfeld, on Flickr
Here's an aerial view of it and some of the neighboring public housing:
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.7774.../data=!3m1!1e3
Just like much of the region's public housing, there are plans to rebuild it, along with thousands of new market rate units.
And of course the poorest people are homeless. The biggest homeless camps have basically become shanty towns though, so even there you might have a building of sorts to live in:
Those are all in Oakland. Homeless people in SF are plentiful, but the camps are mostly on the small side and short-lived, as the city usually clears them out before they can grow too much and get established enough for people to start building plywood shacks and stuff.
There are some good quality, city-provided shacks in a few locations too:
https://eastbayexpress.com/oaklands-...e-numbers-2-1/
Now how about some good quality apartment buildings? Like, a lot of them, everywhere. Imagine if America built enough housing for everyone, wouldn't that be nice. There have been plenty of buildings going up in the Bay Area, including affordable ones, but as always it's not enough.