Outrage as the cheapest one bedroom apartment in woke San Francisco will set you back a jaw-dropping amount… after America’s most powerful banker pumped $200m into Bay Area housing

In San Francisco, even the city’s roughest neighborhoods come with steep rents for one-bedroom apartments, as America’s most powerful banker prepares to pump $200 million into the Bay Area.

San Francisco’s Tenderloin District has a long history of substandard conditions, as retail businesses and residents have fled due to high amounts of homelessness and open drug use has taken over the streets. 

The cheapest one-bedroom apartment in the worn-down district is located at 245 Leavenworth Street, which comes equipped with a narrow bedroom and a very small kitchen, KRON 4 found in a study.

The pet-friendly apartment has laundry down the block and a small grocery store across the street. It’s near three hotels and the Asian Art Museum, and has great walkability for those relying on public transportation. 

However, the new renter will be faced with crowds of homeless people as they dodge drug paraphernalia when they step outside, all for the price of $2,195. 

A studio is also available in the same building for $1,700, and appears to have a much larger kitchen space and has been updated with newer appliances. 

The Tenderloin District has the lowest safety rating in San Francisco, according to Safemap. 

And despite the neighborhood’s high walkability score, Safemap determined pedestrians were at a high risk while perusing the streets. 

Assaults, homicide, and human trafficking are on the up in the Tenderloin District this year, compared to the same time last year, San Francisco Police Department statistics showed.  

And despite the eyewatering cost and risky location, it is half the price of an average one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco, which goes for around $4,300, according to Zillow. 

In a year, one-bedroom apartments have increased by more than $1,000 per year, compared to the same time last year as lofty AI jobs have driven up prices. August 2025, one-bedrooms sat around $3,150. 

San Francisco is also considerably higher priced than Los Angeles, where one-bedrooms typically go for around $2,100. 

JPMorgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, recently announced he would be investing $200 million into Bay Area housing and would be opening a new headquarters there. 

Dimon designated the region as a new corporate center for the bank earlier this month, after pledging to fund hundreds of waterfront units in the city.

The finance exec praised the Golden City’s booming economy and the stunning comeback it has made on public safety since the initiation of Mayor Daniel Lurie in January 2025.

Speaking at the Chase Center earlier this month, Dimon said Lurie has been ‘doing all the right stuff’ as crime rates have plummeted in the downtown retail hub.

Dimon also lauded Lurie’s new zoning plan, but said eyewatering rent prices are still pushing public sector workers like nurses and teachers out of the California city.

‘If you had proper [housing] supply that could be rapidly deployed, you wouldn’t have that problem,’ Dimon said. ‘I think we should raise our hand and do things that fix it.’

America’s biggest bank is helping alleviate this by investing $200million to help fund a 342-unit waterfront housing project less than a mile from Chase Center, he said.

This is part of the bank’s nationwide investment of $750billion through 2035 to help increase housing supply, including building one million affordable units.

Spiraling drug-fueled crime in San Francisco’s downtown area has prompted a mass exodus of retailers from the city in recent years, but it started making a comeback last year as police cracked down on street violence and store break-ins.

Overall, crime in the city dropped 25 percent in 2025 compared with the previous year, with violent crime decreasing by 18 percent and property crime 27 percent.

The trend continued across most crime categories this year, with one notable exception – homicides, with 16 recorded in the first six months of 2026 compared with 12 during the same period last year. 

San Francisco Police pushed back on the narrative that this amounted to a trending rise in murder rates, saying the incidents were isolated and could not have been tackled by violence prevention strategies, which have been increasing public safety on the whole.

Dimon appears to agree by making a major bet on the city with his latest long-term investments.

The Daily Mail has reached out to the listing agent for comment.