Between 2000 and 2013, the number of low-income households in the Bay Area increased by 10%, but the region lost 50% of units defined affordable for this population, according to researchers at the University of Berkeley, California, who have closely studied gentrification and displacement.

Studies have also repeatedly shown that Silicon Valley tech firms are exacerbating inequality and that many local workers do not make enough to support a family.

The region that has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country.

Amid this intensifying housing crisis, mobile home parks, large homeless encampments and other complexes that house vulnerable residents have faced increasing threats of closure and eviction.

Projects like the one replacing the Reserve apartments are designed to help address the housing shortage by building denser apartment buildings in an area where demand is so high.

The developer, Greystar Real Estate Partners, intends to build 640 new apartments on site, along with 8,000 square feet of commercial space. “We believe for the long term, the best way of bringing rents down is to increase supply,” said Dan Orloff, spokesman for Greystar.

None of the new units will be below market-rate, he added.

The lack of protections for tenants and an absence of local anti-displacement laws means that it’s entirely legal for Greystar to displace hundreds of residents and replace them with wealthier renters in the coming years.  ...