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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

#31

Post by s73ver_ »

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 paid attention to pretty much everywhere. Down in southern California, the homeless problem in LA and Orange County gets covered pretty regularly.

I suspect you hear more about SV homelessness here because this is a pretty SV heavy forum.

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

#32

Post by ryaniscool »

s73ver_ wrote: post #27
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…

But here's the thing: SV still needs 7-11 clerks, still needs fast food workers, still needs coffee baristas, and still needs all of those lower income positions. Automation is nowhere near eliminating all of those positions yet. So if all those people left, where would those businesses hire from?

If more people said "F* this, I don't want to live out of my car" and then drove away to someplace cheaper, business owners would have to raise wages to attract people to either stay or move to the area.

What I'm interested is why has the equilibrium been established where people who aren't making enough to have a decent standard of living choose to stay there.

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

#33

Post by pascalxus »

s73ver_ wrote: post #8
pascalxus wrote: post #4

This nightmare has been building for 4 decades and it's finally reaching a breaking point. Here's my recommendation: - Work with builders to remove all regulations that prevent building. - Zone much more residential areas - Remove all height restrictions - invite builders to build and offer them legal protection from NIMBYs - dezone some of non-residential zoning, if needed: In places where there's limited space, we…

"- Work with builders to remove all regulations that prevent building." This would end disastrously. "All those earthquake safety regulations, those are really preventing me from building." "Those environmental regulations, the ones that stop me from polluting everywhere, those are really preventing me from building." "- declare certain areas as innovation building zones: Remove all building regulations and let start…

We can't simply assume that removing those regulations will result in a disaster. Look at the actual data. Find, the regulations which limit the most building - maybe they're not even safety related. many parts of CEQA for instance does nothing to help the environment but has prevented huge amounts of housing. And for those that are safety related, maybe there's a way to alter them or at least get rid of them just temporarily until the homeless emergency has been mitigated. Anything is better than leaving people out on the street - in any case, that's not a decision you or i should make, but rather the people it affects.

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

#34

Post by Jimmie_Rustle »

> “How about for us people who are serving these tech people?” Saldana said. “We don’t get the same paycheck that they do.”

I don't understand this attitude. You expect the same paycheck as someone who has invested a lot of time and effort to make it in a very competitive field?

She also lives in an RV with her '3 adult sons'... 4 adults should be able to come up with the money to rent at least an apartment even on minimum wage.

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

#35

Post by gt_ »

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…

I’m not very familiar with Prop 13, but can speak for situations in Oregon which seem quite different. Maybe prop 13 is why.

Quickly surging economies create active markets which encourage owners to sell, renovations to happen, and old tenants to be removed for the purpose of raising rent. In Portland in the past 3-4 years, there were quite a few studies done on how this happens and how it is especially risky in places with less families because those left without housing suddenly often have no place to run to.

Going back to your point about Prop 13, the Portland issues I just described seem to be recovering by a lot in the last 6 months. I am pretty sure it wasn’t necessarily because of new building though, because the new building in Portland is nearly all luxury condos.

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

#36

Post by r00fus »

ryaniscool wrote: post #32
s73ver_ wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But here's the thing: SV still needs 7-11 clerks, still needs fast food workers, still needs coffee baristas, and still needs all of those lower income positions. Automation is nowhere near eliminating all of those positions yet. So if all those people left, where would those businesses hire from?

If more people said "F * this, I don't want to live out of my car" and then drove away to someplace cheaper, business owners would have to raise wages to attract people to either stay or move to the area. What I'm interested is why has the equilibrium been established where people who aren't making enough to have a decent standard of living choose to stay there.

Relatives? Kids? Friends?

Essentially people are not really fungible. There are costs associated with migration.

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

#37

Post by Harvey-Specter »

ng12 wrote: post #14
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.

You just have to keep building. At some point there is enough housing to meet demand at reasonable prices.

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

#38

Post by ameister14 »

s73ver_ wrote: post #29
deadmetheny wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cities that aren't on the coasts exist, you know. $15/hr jobs in Midwestern cities aren't outlandish by any stretch.

We're talking about someone who's struggling to get by in SV. Where are they going to get the money to move their family to the Midwest?

Well, if all your possessions are in an RV, moving your family to the midwest costs gas - that's pretty much it.

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

#39

Post by r00fus »

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.

Automobile infrastructure simply does not scale. Roads and parking are a massive waste of space and ongoing maintenance. Gas stations are superfund sites waiting to happen.

The entire car-culture and the industries that profit from that culture would need to be fought to improve transportation along with new buildout, and to the large extent, car culture has won (parking is part of local building codes, and a large part of state/federal funding for roads).

I'd like to hear how transport could be improved without transitions to mass-transit and increased walkability.

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

#40

Post by majormajor »

ameister14 wrote: post #38
s73ver_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about someone who's struggling to get by in SV. Where are they going to get the money to move their family to the Midwest?

Well, if all your possessions are in an RV, moving your family to the midwest costs gas - that's pretty much it.

Several hundred in gas, I'm guessing, and that may not be such an insignificant amount if you're that much on the margin.

Remember: you almost definitely aren't paying for it on credit in this scenario.

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