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‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

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Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#11

Post by chk_ur_autism »

acheron9383 wrote: post #6

This is mostly the result of the severe underdevelopment of new housing in the last 20 or 30 years, due to neighborhoods preventing any sort of development to stymy gentrification. The situation is made worse by the disincentivisaiton of selling any property because of Prop 13. Why would you ever move if your property taxes would increase by an order of magnitude? All the market distortion has led to predictable outc…

The lack of new building is not to stymy gentrification, it's rent seeking/protectionism of existing assets. Nearly everyone in the Bay who owns a home has sunk a significant portion (likely greater than 75% of their wealth) into their wood-and-drywall tickytack shack. They'll protect it by rejecting new housing at all costs.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#12

Post by chk_ur_autism »

angmarsbane wrote: post #10

In my town, not Silicon Valley, the biggest complaint about new buildings is the increase in traffic. Traffic in my area is already horrendous. I do think some NIMBYs would be less NIMBY if improvements in transportation took place at the same time as new buildings.

Would you vote on raising your property taxes to support better infrastructure?

What if that went to better public transportation?

These things largely get voted down, particularly on the most NIMBY area of the Peninsula: Mountain View, Palo Alto, Atherton (particularly egregious), Menlo Park, Redwood City.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#13

Post by santaclaus »

angmarsbane wrote: post #10

In my town, not Silicon Valley, the biggest complaint about new buildings is the increase in traffic. Traffic in my area is already horrendous. I do think some NIMBYs would be less NIMBY if improvements in transportation took place at the same time as new buildings.

> I do think some NIMBYs would be less NIMBY if improvements in transportation took place at the same time as new buildings.

There is opposition in San Francisco [1] (and Oakland) to development directly on top of BART stations... I don't think parking is the primary concern for those opposing new construction in the bay.

[1] https://sf.curbed.com/2017/8/21/16178682/monster-on-mission-...

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#14

Post by ng12 »

PatientTrades wrote: post #9

The main problem is population growth. Even if housing is built specifically for poorer and lower income individuals, middle class families looking for hosuing will inevitable trickle in causing demand and prices to rise naturally. Once again poor individuals will be on the street. The same cycle keeps occurring in cities across America. Properties designed for the poor end up getting bought by middle and upper class…

That's why low-income housing is an oxymoron and any project for "below market rate" housing is a political stunt.

You can't cheat supply and demand.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#15

Post by ryaniscool »

There are easier locations to live on $15/hr in California and the USA than Silicon Valley. Some of the people featured in the article have vehicles which implies mobility. I wish the article focused more on the reasons people choose to stay in a place with a ridiculous cost of living that they can't afford. That seems like the real story to me. I'm sure there are valid reasons like family or other things but it's not mentioned at all.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#16

Post by TheAdamAndChe »

drwicked wrote: post #2

Adding to the problem, the NIMBYs everywhere mean that no one builds new RV parks anywhere and the extant RV parks ramp up rents and regulations (your RV has to less than 10 years old) to push out the lower income people. This exact thing happened to me in Austin.

I hear the same argument on this site every time poverty and homelessness in Silicon Valley is brought up, but I really don't understand it. Massive capital concentration is leading to only a few cities in the country experiencing economic growth, and your solution is to just build more housing in those few areas?

Why not do something about the capital concentration? Why not do something to push some of those jobs into the Midwest? That would sure lower housing demand in those few cities, and would lead to a more equal country overall.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#17

Post by tw1010 »

Part of me is empathetic with this whole story, obviously. But another part of me finds it strange that there is such a huge emphasis on the homelessness situation in SF. It's as if we're only paying attention to this because of the huge inequality density in the city. But the truth is, homelessness is a problem everywhere. It just doesn't feel like an efficient (from a utilitarian perspective) use of resources to focus efforts here instead of where the money can act as the biggest lever. It's as if we mostly care about reducing the visual appearance of the problem, than care about most effectively minimizing the problem in aggregate.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#18

Post by gt_ »

ryaniscool wrote: post #15

There are easier locations to live on $15/hr in California and the USA than Silicon Valley. Some of the people featured in the article have vehicles which implies mobility. I wish the article focused more on the reasons people choose to stay in a place with a ridiculous cost of living that they can't afford. That seems like the real story to me. I'm sure there are valid reasons like family or other things but it's no…

Those locations don’t pay $15/hr. if you can find a job, and you probably can’t. Employment is rising in densely populated areas and not so much in rural areas. This is a little different on the east coast, but that’s a more significant moving investment.

Other services like healthcare in rural areas has eroded to barely existent. I can speak from experience in Oregon.

Moving costs money, something they don’t have.

Finding a new job costs time and money. They’ve got neither.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#19

Post by santaclaus »

tw1010 wrote: post #17

Part of me is empathetic with this whole story, obviously. But another part of me finds it strange that there is such a huge emphasis on the homelessness situation in SF. It's as if we're only paying attention to this because of the huge inequality density in the city. But the truth is, homelessness is a problem everywhere. It just doesn't feel like an efficient (from a utilitarian perspective) use of resources to fo…

> It's as if we mostly care about reducing the visual appearance of the problem

There are real public health consequences to high concentrations of people living without proper sanitation -- see the ongoing, major hepatitis outbreak in San Diego, for instance.

Re: ‘I lost everything:’ Homelessness surges in Silicon Valley

#20

Post by davidw »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #16
drwicked wrote: post #2

Adding to the problem, the NIMBYs everywhere mean that no one builds new RV parks anywhere and the extant RV parks ramp up rents and regulations (your RV has to less than 10 years old) to push out the lower income people. This exact thing happened to me in Austin.

I hear the same argument on this site every time poverty and homelessness in Silicon Valley is brought up, but I really don't understand it. Massive capital concentration is leading to only a few cities in the country experiencing economic growth, and your solution is to just build more housing in those few areas? Why not do something about the capital concentration? Why not do something to push some of those jobs in…

> your solution is to just build more housing in those few areas

Yes:

http://www.sightline.org/2017/09/21/yes-you-can-build-your-w...

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