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The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

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Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#81

Post by ddingus »

Retric wrote: post #77
crooked-v wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suddenly we get very "every person for themselves" the second homelessness has a price tag. A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn't feel like nothing was actually happening from it.

Actually spending targeting homelessness is fairly minimal. So, IMO it’s hard to call it a money pit.

Is that not due to simply not spending?

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#82

Post by jessedhillon »

PeterisP wrote: post #56
jessedhillon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd estimate the majority of active contributors to HN earn $150k+, putting them squarely in the upper percentiles of income-earners -- and definitely in the would-be-taxed bucket. Yet the sentiment expressed in the original comment is still the dominant mood here and elsewhere. The issue is not as clear-cut as "the poors want redistribution but the rich don't," Mark Benioff publicly threw his support behind the just…

$150-300k puts you squarely in the upper percentiles of income-earners, but it does not put you into the range of meaningful campaign donors that get the ear of electable politicians. From the perspective where we're talking about the influence of money on politics, $150-300k is still on the side where your opinion gets ignored because of your lack of money that you're going to spend on political influence.

If you think that only donors matter, or even that they matter most, I would wonder how you explain both local (SF) results and the current national electoral mood. Donor-emphasis has poor predictive power as a political theory, which was my point.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#84

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

crooked-v wrote: post #71
sharkweek wrote: post #9

Long-time Seattle resident here who volunteered for several years in the homeless community. Homelessness has always been a thing in Seattle, but has definitely become a much larger issue in the past five years. I'll spare my thoughts on any number of reasons as to why we got here as a city, but will say I think we are doing a terrible disservice to actually finding a solution by lumping "anyone who doesn't have a ho…

> suddenly we get very "every person for themselves" the second homelessness has a price tag. A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn't feel like nothing was actually happening from it.

I think the other problem is that the more one city spends to "fix" its homeless problems, the more other areas ship their homeless to these cities with more resources. It's certainly the case in Texas, where many smaller cities and rural areas give homeless people a one-way bus ticket to Austin, Dallas or San Antonio.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#85

Post by xienze »

Retric wrote: post #77
crooked-v wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> suddenly we get very "every person for themselves" the second homelessness has a price tag. A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn't feel like nothing was actually happening from it.

Actually spending targeting homelessness is fairly minimal. So, IMO it’s hard to call it a money pit.

Well in SF and Seattle the spending continually increases and the homelessness problem manages to get worse every year. Sounds like a money pit.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#86

Post by gre »

I stayed a night in LA a few weeks ago at an AirBNB in a condo in a prime location near Little Tokyo and can't stop thinking that society would be better off if this condo were owned and occupied by a family instead of being basically a for-profit hotel.

I don't know how to stop this de facto rezoning except by imposing huge taxes on housing that is not the owner's primary residence and closing all the loopholes that come along with that. This would free up more properties for people to own as a primary residence, and AirBNB users et al could still rent out rooms in their primary residence.

It doesn't solve actual homelessness, the solution for that seems to be build more housing.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#87

Post by AngryData »

exogeny wrote: post #2

I will go to my grave not understanding why this is so complex and difficult for people to understand and politicians to fix. Wages are stagnant, save for a handful of sectors, in which they're growing quickly. Housing prices are rising due to limited supply and backward policies towards new construction. Inequality therefore expands exponentially, creating a city of haves-and-have nots. Either reduce inequality thro…

Because then people would have to confront challenges to their highly propagandized views of economics and political standards. People would have to admit that the 'free market' isn't some catch-all solution to problems and that sometimes it is the cause of problems. They would have to admit capitalism itself isn't some naturally occurring and self-maintaining phenomenon and realize how easily it can be, and is, arbitrarily manipulated by people either good or bad. They would have to confront the idea that much of what they are told is highly influenced advertising and propaganda purposefully created to mislead them into one action or another. They would need to recognize the full extent that the concentration of power and wealth has contributed to political corruption.

Nobody wants to admit that their preconceived notions might be a bunch of bullshit they were purposefully fed, and not something they thought up and devised themselves.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#88

Post by coryrc »

crooked-v wrote: post #71
sharkweek wrote: post #9

Long-time Seattle resident here who volunteered for several years in the homeless community. Homelessness has always been a thing in Seattle, but has definitely become a much larger issue in the past five years. I'll spare my thoughts on any number of reasons as to why we got here as a city, but will say I think we are doing a terrible disservice to actually finding a solution by lumping "anyone who doesn't have a ho…

> suddenly we get very "every person for themselves" the second homelessness has a price tag. A confounding factor involved here is that many government strategies for dealing with the homeless are endless money pits without noticeable results. I think a lot of people would be more comfortable with their tax dollars going to that purpose if they didn't feel like nothing was actually happening from it.

Like documented here:

https://roominate.com/blog/2016/anatomy-of-a-swindle/

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#89

Post by ddingus »

noobermin wrote: post #60
sharkweek wrote: post #9

Long-time Seattle resident here who volunteered for several years in the homeless community. Homelessness has always been a thing in Seattle, but has definitely become a much larger issue in the past five years. I'll spare my thoughts on any number of reasons as to why we got here as a city, but will say I think we are doing a terrible disservice to actually finding a solution by lumping "anyone who doesn't have a ho…

>Unfortunately, a lot of the solutions are expensive and frankly politically toxic. At the end of the day, everything is political. Instead of shying away from it engage with it because it is the only way you'll change society.

Truth.

In fact, the more harsh way to frame this is people need to understand whether they have an interest in politics does not change the fact others do.

And we all live with the product of those of us who do get involved politically.

Speak or be spoken for has real teeth when viewed through this lens.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#90

Post by ddingus »

DanHulton wrote: post #10
exogeny wrote: post #2

I will go to my grave not understanding why this is so complex and difficult for people to understand and politicians to fix. Wages are stagnant, save for a handful of sectors, in which they're growing quickly. Housing prices are rising due to limited supply and backward policies towards new construction. Inequality therefore expands exponentially, creating a city of haves-and-have nots. Either reduce inequality thro…

I mean, I think you're missing a key factor here: politicians require money to be elected. The poor (the folks most affected by these issues) don't have the money to donate. The rich (the ones you propose taxing) do. Thus, the only ones who can get elected are catering to an audience that does not want this problems solved in this way (and indeed, one could argue, does not care to have it solved at all). Until the pr…

We may well find it possible to compete with big money in politics.

Some campaigns were successful on small donations and people power.

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