BACK IN 1973 a General Assistance welfare recipient could afford a room in a single-room-occupancy residential hotel, and a minimum-wage worker could afford slightly better housing in many San Francisco neighborhoods. As the years went by, the cost of housing shot up, but the amount minimum-wage workers and G.A. recipients had to live on did not keep pace.

1973

General Assistance grant: $84

Average cost of a room in a single-room-occupancy hotel: $80

Monthly minimum wage: $286

Average rent on a two-bedroom apartment in the Haight-Ashbury: $153

2003

General Assistance grant: $332

Average cost of a room in a single-room-occupancy hotel: $550

Monthly minimum wage: $1,169