I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem • Hacker News Board

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#221

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC

jjav wrote: post #201

ransom1538 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have described why the housing "crisis" will never be solved in CA. The homeowners will vote down every new apartment complex, every new developer plan, every rezone. It will never end, ever. Current home owners will never vote for less money, ever. The only way CA can fix this is by a state wide vote - demanding housing to be allowed. Home owners in CA love new Panera Breads and new Chipotles - tie any new comme…

> The homeowners will vote down every new apartment complex, every new developer plan, every rezone. Homeowners don't get to vote or have any say on such things. The city planning commission will approve, or not, whatever they will. In the rare case where a vote is relevant, every resident gets one vote regardless of housing owner or renter status.

Bonus points if those politicians own land. That's how you get corruption. Each home owner is basically a tiny bit corrupt.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#222

Post by addicted » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:11 PM UTC

bb88 wrote: post #108

jazzyjackson wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what good is your house doubling in value if all the other houses have also doubled in value?

If your house you purchased for $200,000 20 years ago is now worth $1.4M, say, that's $1.2M in profit. You could live in a smaller house worth $1M and still get $400k of profit you didn't have before.

Or what happens in reality. You sell your $1.4mm house and move to a bigger house that costs about $400k in one of the sunbelt states.

That’s why the sunbelt states are seeing population growth. Cheap housing.

Never mind that it’s states like California, New York and Connecticut that are paying for those states’s ability to attract people with cheap housing.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#223

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:12 PM UTC

austinheap wrote: post #57

sombremesa wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lazily Googled and disproved you in five seconds: > San Francisco and the East Bay should see 7,872 new apartments open in 2021, an increase of 36% from the previous year. It's the highest number of apartments — 13,497 units — added to the region in the last five years. Surprised?

We can’t solve mental illness with more quarter million dollar condos. I don’t know why this is still being peddled.

No but you can prevent people from being evicted and forced onto the street. If the faucet of mental illness is closed then the burden of those who are still there is greatly diminished.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#224

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC

austinheap wrote: post #79

jdavis703 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of folks enter into mental health crisis from the stress, sleep deprivation and other issues caused by being homeless. Certainly not all. But having gone through a time period dealing with stress and sleep deprivation from the comfort of my home, I can empathize.

“Unhoused” — esp families — are rapidly rehoused in SF. Those experiencing “chronic homelessness” (the ‘visible’ humans, who deserve the same amount of love and respect) are more often tied to mental health…just different things are helpful for the different groups.

You are assuming they were born homeless.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#225

Post by addicted » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC

devoutsalsa wrote: post #180

iJohnDoe wrote: post #56

Of course it is. Does no one remember when other states were paying for bus fares to California to get the homeless out of their state? Does no one remember states paying to fly the homeless to Hawaii? The above might sound ridiculous, but what sounds cheaper? Solving California’s massive homeless problem or simply getting the homeless out of the state on the next plane or bus?

Every place does this. I was homeless in San Francisco & applied for assistance. They made sure to let everyone know they'd buy you a one way ticket to pretty much any place you wanted to go.

The difference is that they will return to places like SF, LA and NYC, because they are treated much worse in other places.

Basically, take your one way bus ride to Dallas, where you then take a 1 way ride back to SF, from where you’re unlikely to go back to Dallas.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#226

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:16 PM UTC

omgwtfbyobbq wrote: post #184

colinmhayes wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Repealing prop 13 doesn't have to mean taxes go up. Housing can be kept in check by adequate property taxes while lowering income taxes at the same time.

It can. To me, this is the usual debate between taxing income and taxing wealth. They each have their positives and negatives.

There aren't any meaningful negatives to taxing land because it doesn't disappear when you tax it. Sure, if you tax factories and housing those will "move" to a different location.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#227

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC

eplanit wrote: post #6

mullingitover wrote: post #3

This is a thinly sourced blog post that seems like pure flamebait and not really relevant for HN.

The government website stats support the claim: ~29% of the entire US homeless population is in California, which is disproportional when compared to other state population densities.[1] That said, the piece doesn't offer much constructive advice on how to fix it. Californians have been witnessing the very real, large increase in tent cities, addicts, feces, ... for years now, but so far they still vote for the same…

The solution is very simple, tax the land.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#228

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC

settrans wrote: post #27

rubicon33 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really not convinced that high housing costs accurately depict the source of the homelessness problem in CA. If it does, it certainly isn't describing the homeless people I see. Most of the homeless people I see, the ones who are literally pitching tents on the side walks, sleeping on boxes, defecating anywhere and everywhere, passed out on park benches at 3 in the afternoon, are almost certainly not going to be…

California already has a 1% income tax allocated just to mental health, and has collected $7.4 billion so far just from this tax[0]. How is that working? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Mental_Health_Servi...

They should get rid of that income tax and tax land more.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#229

Post by archibaldJ » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC

I've spent my life mostly in the East (in places where housing is expensive (e.g. Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai), as well as places with low cost of living in Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia ). I have not been to CA so this may be a silly question:

What if there are joint initiatives/collaborations between US and its Eastnern allies to sponsor and help people who are struggling on the street due to homelessness to start afresh with a job and a house in say, Canggu, Bali (where things are quite chill & they'll enjoy a much higher quality of life), etc, work there a few years, save up and do some rehab, etc, and then they can decide to come back to the States or continue their life there?

I'm a school drop-out. In my early twenties there were times when I was really broke. So I would move to places with a low cost of living, charge up, and go back to the (relatively high-burn-rate) city life again when it makes sense.

Re: I believe California is the dumping ground for America's homeless problem

#230

Post by imtringued » Sat, Aug 28, 2021, 12:25 PM UTC

holler wrote: post #146

DoreenMichele wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was homeless for nearly six years. I hated it. It wasn't actually anything I wanted. Most people on the street don't want to be there. The research points to housing as the primary root cause.

Directly next to where I live there are multiple people living in the hillside. Each day for the past year+ they park their BMW, Honda Accord, and Toyota Camry on our street, and then walk off into the park, hop a fence, and down to wherever it is their tents are. It's really perplexing to see someone driving a ~2010 clean BMW while choosing to live in the hillside. My determination is that they're simply choosing th…

You have a limited budget that isn't enough to pay rent. Do you choose paying the unaffordable rent or setting up the tent while maintaining your mobility?