{"id":486846,"date":"2026-10-06T11:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T11:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486846\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T11:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T11:38:12","slug":"sf-has-the-fewest-kids-city-leaders-hope-these-policies-will-help-families-stick-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/486846\/","title":{"rendered":"SF Has the Fewest Kids. City Leaders Hope These Policies Will Help Families Stick Around"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the full series here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After giving birth to her second child this Spring, Angelica Torres was able to take four months off work to care for herself and her baby.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a luxury not all working parents can afford, but Torres was able to take advantage of a San Francisco law, which offers parents full paychecks while they miss work to bond with a new child. That benefit, plus another city program that offers free childcare for her 3-year-old daughter, gave her welcome financial relief as she navigated the additional cost of growing her family, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything getting so expensive, I feel that San Francisco does a lot to support families,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is why we\u2019re still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For at least a decade, San Francisco has had the fewest children of any major American city, with about 13% of residents under the age of 18 in 2025, according to U.S. Census data. The cost of raising a family has long been cited as one reason.<\/p>\n

As the artificial intelligence boom fuels economic growth and stirs anxiety about the costs of living rising even higher, local leaders are trying to help families stay in San Francisco by making life a little more affordable.<\/p>\n

\"\"Angelica Torres and her children Valentina and Angel stand for a portrait in Torres\u2019 mother\u2019s home in San Francisco on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. Torres and her family stay with her mother for childcare assistance.\u00a0(Juliana Yamada for KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a joke about San Francisco having more dogs than kids, and that\u2019s a little funny, but a little sad,\u201d said Supervisor Danny Sauter, who pushed to expand the city\u2019s paid parental leave ordinance<\/a> to make it easier for workers to qualify. \u201cIt\u2019s our responsibility at City Hall to look to see if we can remove barriers, if we could lend a hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of this year, the city has focused on alleviating some of the largest expenses families face. In January, Mayor Daniel Lurie rolled out his \u201cFamily Opportunity Agenda,\u201d which included expanding the city\u2019s subsidized childcare<\/a> to include higher-income earners \u2014 a family of four making up to $324,000 a year can now qualify \u2014 as well as growing the city\u2019s after-school programs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lurie is among a handful of mayors and state governors who\u2019ve championed similar policies aimed at families, joining Delaware, Maine, Minnesota and Colorado in enacting or expanding paid parental leave<\/a> and New York City in rolling out free childcare for 2-year-olds<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those efforts come as the child population is trending down nationwide due to falling birth and fertility rates, and major cities saw the biggest decline<\/a> in the past five years, according to Census data. Between 2010 and 2025, San Francisco\u2019s under-18 population decreased numerically but stayed relatively flat as a percentage of the overall population<\/a>. The portion of children under 5 had hovered around 4.5% between 2010 and 2020, but since the pandemic, it\u2019s dropped to just under 4%.<\/p>\n

In speeches, Lurie and other city leaders echoed concerns about people delaying having children, if at all, or moving out of San Francisco after they have kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the greatest city in the world, but it can\u2019t be great if the people that are living here today can\u2019t afford to stay here tomorrow,\u201d Lurie told KQED in a recent interview. \u201cWe know how expensive this city is to raise a family, and so we\u2019re doing everything in our power to build more affordable housing, to make early childhood care and education accessible to every family.\u201d<\/p>\n

City leaders are focusing on the early years because Census surveys show that\u2019s when families are most likely to leave. It\u2019s also the most expensive phase of life, when childcare prices can consume a big chunk of a family\u2019s income.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that\u2019s been true in San Francisco is that if you have a child [under] 5, you\u2019re more likely to leave,\u201d said Ted Egan, the city\u2019s chief economist.\u00a0\u201cBut if you have a child who\u2019s over 5, you\u2019re not \u2014 which basically means once people are settled in school, they\u2019re less mobile.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Francisco first began using city funds to offer free preschool for 4-year-olds in 2004 and two decades later broadened that program by using revenue from a voter-approved tax to offer free or discounted early education and care for families, based on their income. Lurie stops short of calling it universal childcare, but said he wants San Francisco to become the first major city in the country to provide \u201caccess to childcare\u201d for every family with a child under 5.<\/p>\n

The city was also a leader in offering fully paid parental leave, becoming the first in the nation to do so in 2017. The ordinance built on California\u2019s paid family leave program<\/a>, which offers new parents between 60 and 70 percent of their wages for eight weeks, by requiring employers to cover the rest of workers\u2019 paychecks.<\/p>\n

\"\"Angelica Torres holds her 5-month-old son Angel as her daughter Valentina works on a project for school in the kitchen of Torres\u2019 mother\u2019s home in San Francisco on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026. Torres\u2019 mother helps out with childcare for her and her family.\u00a0(Juliana Yamada for KQED)<\/p>\n

Studies have shown<\/a> that workers in industries with high turnover, like restaurants and hospitality, were least likely to opt in. A new update to the law makes employees who are starting a new job eligible for the benefit sooner \u2014 at 90 days, up from 180.<\/p>\n

Torres said this change didn\u2019t directly affect her, but she was glad to see her partner take time off his job as a restaurant cook to take care of their baby after she went back to work as a site supervisor at a preschool. It was a benefit he could have taken after their daughter was born, but didn\u2019t, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was like, \u2018I cannot miss a lot of days of work. What is my boss going to say?\u2019\u201d Torres said. \u201cThis time around, I explained to him [he] could take some time off. It\u2019s a law. He would go on walks with the baby and take care of our daughter. I feel like he was more connected to his children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The subsidized childcare program, Early Learning For All, saves her more than $2,000 per month for her daughter\u2019s full-time care, she said, and helps offset other rising costs. The program also boosts the pay of early childhood educators at its participating programs, including the preschool where Torres works, and that has increased her hourly wage from $28 to $36 per hour in the last few years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While she\u2019s grateful for the help, Torres said her biggest expense is still the rent. The couple shares a four-bedroom apartment with Torres\u2019 parents and brother in the Excelsior District, a working-class neighborhood in the southeastern part of the city. Since the pandemic, the rent stayed at $4,000 until a couple of months ago, when Torres said the landlord bumped it up by 10%.<\/p>\n

She said she hopes that city leaders \u201ccan target the bigger issues that people in San Francisco face like the rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRent is really expensive. Super expensive,\u201d she said. \u201cI really love this city. I love the diversity, and I want my children to grow here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u2018Hard to live here\u2019\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

In several interviews, parents of young children echoed Torres\u2019 concern, praising the family-friendly policies but citing the high cost of housing, limited availability of family-sized apartments and an unpopular school lottery as reasons they may eventually leave.<\/p>\n

\"\"Angelica Torres holds her 5-month-old son Angel in her mother\u2019s kitchen in San Francisco on Friday, Aug. 21, 2026.\u00a0(Juliana Yamada for KQED)<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who locked in their [mortgage or rental] rates during the pandemic are happy to stay, but those that want to move or want to expand out of their one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments really do find it hard to live here,\u201d said Vai Sundaresan, a tech worker who was laid off when she was pregnant with her 1-year-old daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said one reason she and her husband, who also works in tech, can afford to live in San Francisco is that they bought their house four years ago. \u201cBut if we were to move now, it would be hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sauter is keenly aware of this trend: In the 15 years he\u2019s lived in San Francisco, he said he\u2019s seen friends leave after they start a family. He became a dad himself more than a year ago and said he\u2019s now getting a closer glimpse into the challenges of parenting in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt almost feels destined when you have a first child, or certainly a second child, that you just expect someone to move away,\u201d Sauter said. \u201cThat\u2019s not healthy for a city.\u201d<\/p>\n

To encourage developers to build larger, family-sized apartments, Sauter co-authored an incentive to allow developers to add another floor if they build apartments with two or more bedrooms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The incentive is part of a state-mandated effort to address California\u2019s housing shortage. The city\u2019s proposal, which Lurie branded the \u201cFamily Zoning Plan,\u201d was approved in December 2025 and allows for the construction of some 36,000 additional homes and apartments, largely in neighborhoods with access to public transit, parks, retail, and community facilities.<\/p>\n

In addition to championing the rezoning amendment and expanded paid parental leave, Sauter is also looking to add more diaper-changing tables and lactation rooms in public spaces and improve transit access for families with young kids.<\/p>\n

But for some families, a bigger issue is the public school system.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s only 15 months old, but we\u2019re already thinking, \u2018What is our strategy for navigating that portion?\u2019 and trying to figure out what best fits us,\u201d Wada said.<\/p>\n

Lurie\u2019s hands are tied when it comes to resolving this problem: By law, an elected school board governs the district, which is funded by the state.<\/p>\n

He said the city does set aside around $100 million annually from its general fund to support public school libraries and the district\u2019s arts, sports and college readiness programs. The city also increased access to free or discounted after-school care \u201cto help bridge the gap between the time that school ends and parents are done with their job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have more work to do, but we\u2019ve made some progress, especially on this early childhood [initiative],\u201d Lurie said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to lean in on transit; we\u2019re going to lean in on building more affordable housing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wada and Macayan said their heart is in San Francisco, but they\u2019re not sure how long they can sustain their life in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do want to stay,\u201d Wada said. \u201cWe want to make it work for as long as possible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as they look into the future, Wada said they\u2019re already bracing themselves for what comes next: \u201cWhen we do have to leave, where do we want to go?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-486846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}