San Francisco has highest lack of plumbing in California, making washing harder during pandemic
(Jacob Barss-Bailey/Flickr)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - San Francisco has the highest rate of substandard plumbing among California's 58 counties, an issue that is made even more pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic when washing hands is one of the most effective ways of warding off disease.
Nearly 2% of houses in San Francisco don't have adequate plumbing, more than four times that in Los Angeles, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California.
The San Francisco-based institute drew its data from The American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The survey found that in more than 6,300 housing units in California, people have no piped hot and cold water, no bathtub or shower, or no flush toilet.
After San Francisco, the three counties with the worst plumbing are: Shasta, Yolo, and Humboldt.
Those three counties lack hot and cold piped water at the highest rates, while housing in urban San Francisco, Alameda, and Los Angeles counties tends to lack a shower or tub, according to the survey.
The California county with the best plumbing is Napa County, where only .11% of the homes don't have the proper plumbing.