Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness • Hacker News Board

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#51

Post by davidw » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:30 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #7

KOMO TV in Seattle recently (last Sunday) did a big report on this called "Seattle is Dying." Down south in Portland, it's the same thing. Down in San Francisco...same thing. Down further, same thing. This is spreading quite quickly, all over in the big cities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b53uiRFq4Ds

For a different point of view:

https://www.realchangenews.org/2019/03/20/komo-asserts-seatt...

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#52

Post by davidw » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:32 PM UTC

angel_j wrote: post #38

The US has an annualized growth rate [0] of ~.7%, or ~2M/yr, and this an historically low rate (probably b/c of economic problems) Annualized "new housing starts" is 1.28M/yr [1] And we already have a housing deficit, proven not only in homelessness, but in adults sharing rentals, the high cost of rent, new grads completely besides themselves in lack-of-prospects, student debt, etc... In other words, it's getting wor…

The market is constrained by rampant, rabid NIMBYism, among other things.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#53

Post by yonran » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

FartyMcFarter wrote: post #44

i_am_proteus wrote: post #28

These are my personal observations: When I first moved to the SF Bay area, I was surprised by the amount of visible homelessness and by the number of service economy workers who drove nearly two hours to and from work. I also had my first experiences with the "campuses" of major technology companies, where money was made hand-over-fist. I think the recent widening income gap is a natural consequence of the technology…

> A relatively small number of people are able to generate a relatively large amount of profit; this is the nature of the software industry. This makes sense, but does it explain the issues? You mentioned yourself that people working in software are a "relatively small number of people". Can they have such a big impact on everyone else?

It’s not the inequality of capital ownership that is the problem. It’s the inequality of land ownership (specifically zoned housing capacity). A few thousand hundred-millionaires hardly hurt people any more than a few thousand millionaires. But a few million middle-class homeowners hurts when they are not allowed to share their land with the landless. So the most worrysome inequality is the numbers of landed vs. landless, not millionaires vs. ten millionaires or hundred millionaires.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#54

Post by davidw » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

If you want to get involved with housing politics in that area, these are some good places to start:

* https://www.sfyimby.org/

* https://cayimby.org/

Look at the crazy tweet quoted by a Palo Alto city councilor for instance:

https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1109500565971763202

"Why there's a housing crisis, exhibit #29393911". People who don't believe in supply and demand.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#55

Post by rambojazz » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:36 PM UTC

Is there a non-paywalled mirror of this article?

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#56

Post by diogenescynic » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC

cronix wrote: post #7

KOMO TV in Seattle recently (last Sunday) did a big report on this called "Seattle is Dying." Down south in Portland, it's the same thing. Down in San Francisco...same thing. Down further, same thing. This is spreading quite quickly, all over in the big cities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b53uiRFq4Ds

Just watched this. As someone from SF, this is EXACTLY how the situation is here, just worse. I completely understand how Seattle residents feel. I really don't understand how this is allowed to continue year after year with so much money thrown at it clearly not doing anything.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#57

Post by diogenescynic » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:42 PM UTC

egypturnash wrote: post #15

cronix wrote: post #7

KOMO TV in Seattle recently (last Sunday) did a big report on this called "Seattle is Dying." Down south in Portland, it's the same thing. Down in San Francisco...same thing. Down further, same thing. This is spreading quite quickly, all over in the big cities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b53uiRFq4Ds

FWIW KOMO is now owned by Sinclair, and is increasingly rabidly right-wing. What to do about the homeless situation in Seattle is a big topic of discussion currently; we had an attempt to tax big companies to get some money to deal with this get shouted down by all the folks in Amazon's pockets.

Just watched the documentary and it is entirely fact based. I hate Sinclair, but this was quality work.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#58

Post by erik_seaberg » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:43 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #27

ng12 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, of course. We sold out the last vestiges of small-town America but are not socially prepared for a world where the entire economy is focused around a select few cities.

In 1930 5.9% of all Americans where living in NYC. The importance of cities has seen minimal changes, the issue is we stopped building enough housing and transportation infrastructure. Many US issues come from where we place the borders of our local governments. Local was more meaningful before the car, but with increased mobility that’s no longer the case.

This. My commute crosses five incorporated cities in three counties, all barely distinguishable, but I can only vote in the one where I sleep.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#59

Post by ams6110 » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:46 PM UTC

i_am_proteus wrote: post #28

These are my personal observations: When I first moved to the SF Bay area, I was surprised by the amount of visible homelessness and by the number of service economy workers who drove nearly two hours to and from work. I also had my first experiences with the "campuses" of major technology companies, where money was made hand-over-fist. I think the recent widening income gap is a natural consequence of the technology…

Firefighters live in the station when they are on duty. So they'll commute in from wherever they can afford to live. If there aren't enough who will do that, we'll pay them more.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#60

Post by closeparen » Sat, Mar 23, 2019, 7:47 PM UTC

baq wrote: post #45

koolba wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What will happen when the people we rely on to extinguish our flames cannot afford to live in our cities? We’ll pay them more. Ditto for teachers, janitors, waiters and gas station attendants.

Or we don’t and the rich suddenly notice that dollar notes can’t provide nourishment and don’t do laundry.

The rich got by for thousands of years without cooking, doing laundry, or running affordable housing programs. The service sector lived on its customers’ estates, often as part of their households.

I expect this is where we’re headed. Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry here pay their room and board in elder- or child-care for a homeowner.

We often hear that terms like “feudalism” and “landed gentry” applied to Bay Area housing policy are over dramatic. I think they’re dead on.