Meet San Francisco's 'permanent underclass' — and the ones who think they still have a shot

Getty Images; Tyler Le/BI Halfway through our interview with Kacie Barrett, a 26-year-old project manager in San Francisco, her screen froze. When she came back on 30 seconds later, she apologized for the choppy WiFi, a result of downsizing her Xfinity internet package from $120 to $40 a month, which she splits with her housemate. Though the slower internet package is a challenge when she works from home twice a week, Barrett said she's had to downsize much of her life over the past two years as the cost of living in San Francisco has skyrocketed due to the city's AI boom . She moved from a $2,000 studio apartment in Russian Hill to a $1,850 room in a shared apartment in Nob Hill.