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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

#61

Post by alexandercrohde »

chrischen wrote: post #57

> Mountain View, a city of 80,000 which also is home to Mozilla and 23andMe, has committed more than $1 million over two years for homeless services, including money for an outreach case manager and a police officer to help people who live in vehicles. Why are local governments treating these people as dysfunctional when the dysfunction is in the government in its ability to provide an environment that is safe, stabl…

I don't get it. Is your premise is that every person making minimum should be able to live anywhere they want in the US, and if they can't the government is responsible?

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

#62

Post by j-walker »

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…

Hard to put down a security deposit on a new place when you're completely broke.

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

#63

Post by s73ver_ »

pascalxus wrote: post #33
s73ver_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"- 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 te…

"We can't simply assume that removing those regulations will result in a disaster. "

Yes, we absolutely can. If business can get around it, they will. And then when an earthquake hits, all that housing is destroyed.

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

#64

Post by s73ver_ »

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.

Again, with what money? And simply driving away to somewhere else doesn't mean there's going to be a job there that will let you afford an apartment.

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

#65

Post by s73ver_ »

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.

Which is very much not cheap. Not to mention, while you're driving from point A to point B, you're not bringing in income. So where are you gonna get the money for gas and food?

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

#66

Post by s73ver_ »

ShabbosGoy wrote: post #58
majormajor wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Why not stop participating altogether? It's not hard to leave this system of slavery[1]: it just requires sacrifice. You don't need to live on the major coasts or in a major city. You can live off the land in the woods, hunting and growing your own clean food, drinking clean water, etc. [1] https://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/n...

I can't imagine someone who has no experience in surviving out in the woods is going to last long.

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

#67

Post by pmoriarty »

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…

Also see the Grenfell Tower fire, and the follow-up investigations which showed that many other buildings are at risk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire

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

#68

Post by peoplewindow »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #61
chrischen wrote: post #57

> Mountain View, a city of 80,000 which also is home to Mozilla and 23andMe, has committed more than $1 million over two years for homeless services, including money for an outreach case manager and a police officer to help people who live in vehicles. Why are local governments treating these people as dysfunctional when the dysfunction is in the government in its ability to provide an environment that is safe, stabl…

I don't get it. Is your premise is that every person making minimum should be able to live anywhere they want in the US, and if they can't the government is responsible?

This isn't really an abstract problem that requires reductio ad absurdum type arguments. I grew up in the UK and I visit the valley sometimes. There are several things you immediately notice:

1) Every building is incredibly short.

2) Every building is spaced very far apart.

3) Every road is incredibly wide.

Even fairly unimportant roads, the sort that have rinky dink little cafes on them, will often have three lanes in each direction or more.

The Valley has a homelessness problem because the people who live there refuse to let anyone build tall, dense housing complexes. There's so much space here you could crush the homelessness and poverty problems instantly by just relaxing zoning rules, it wouldn't even take a social housing programme. But instead all the space is taken up with tiny low rise buildings surrounded by enormous parking lots.

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

#69

Post by peoplewindow »

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…

Mass homelessness in one of the richest parts of the world is already a disaster!

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

#70

Post by peoplewindow »

s73ver_ wrote: post #63
pascalxus wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 te…

"We can't simply assume that removing those regulations will result in a disaster. " Yes, we absolutely can. If business can get around it, they will. And then when an earthquake hits, all that housing is destroyed.

It's not impossible to build taller buildings than what you get in the valley that are still earthquake safe. Even just burying parking lots underground would probably 1.5x the amount of space available for building.
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