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

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

#231

Post by imtringued »

betwixthewires wrote: post #40

I agree with the premise of the article, that a large proportion of California's homeless move there because it's easier to he homeless for all the reasons listed, but that's about the substance of the article. It blames the problem on detached housing and demands solutions without an inkling of a hint at any. Our homeless problem is the result of 2 things: a mental health problem and to a much lesser extent the perv…

Land speculators want lower property taxes because it makes expensive land more affordable.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28335986 + my response

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

#232

Post by ransom1538 »

michaelmrose wrote: post #170
ransom1538 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

^ This! The California population is 39 million. The bay area population is 7.7 million. With the 7,000 new apartments coming online we should see a sharp housing price decrease. Problem solved. lol.

This could be rewritten without any loss of impact. >^ This! The California population is 39 million. The bay area population is 7.7 million. With the 7,000 new apartments coming online we should see a sharp housing price decrease. Problem solved! The sarcasm is implied and doesn't need a "lol" which just looks immature. Insulting the poster decreases the quality of discourse and encourages indecency. It increases th…

"I lazily Googled and disproved you in five seconds"

Are you kidding? That was their opening sentence to me. I am insulting? What a joke. I have never been treated like that on HN in 8 years. Spare me the lecture.

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

#233

Post by LurkingPenguin »

archibaldJ wrote: post #229

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 homelessn…

The US has a history of sending waste to other countries[1].

Obviously, homeless people are not "trash", but there is a similarity in your thinking: take something that is seen as a scourge and send it to other countries so that it's out of sight and the largest costs of dealing with it are borne by others (usually poor people).

Why should countries like Indonesia, which has a per capita GDP of under $5,000 USD and no shortage of its own problems, take in homeless Americans, a good number of whom have severe mental illness and/or substance abuse issues? What's the benefit to the Indonesian people?

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/17/recycled-pla...

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

#234

Post by postalrat »

pydry wrote: post #213
j8hn wrote: post #139

I don't have any experience with the housing issue in California, but got involved a while back trying to find pragmatic solutions in Seattle. The situation is a mess and there is an entire "homeless industrial complex" complicating matters here, rife with fraud, misspending and cronyism. Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. At first I was…

>Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. Because home prices and rents keep going up. Homelessness is an inevitable side effect of that. Funneling money on rehab rather than providing places to actually live cant fix that. It's attacking a symptom not the cause. However, attacking the cause (property prices/rents) would make a lot of very rich…

Why do you favor blaming rent for homelessness instead of lack of jobs that pay well enough? Why can some people afford the rent while others can't?

If you are after a single root cause of homelessness you will be disappointed. Unless you only care to push an agenda.

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

#235

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

archibaldJ wrote: post #229

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 homelessn…

Have you ever been approached by someone in a city saying they need money to get back to their town? Moving even temporarily is a great barrier to entry for a lot.

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

#236

Post by bitxbitxbitcoin »

postalrat wrote: post #234
pydry wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. Because home prices and rents keep going up. Homelessness is an inevitable side effect of that. Funneling money on rehab rather than providing places to actually live cant fix that. It's attacking a symptom not the cause. However, attacking the cause (property prices/rents) would make a lot of very rich…

Why do you favor blaming rent for homelessness instead of lack of jobs that pay well enough? Why can some people afford the rent while others can't? If you are after a single root cause of homelessness you will be disappointed. Unless you only care to push an agenda.

The thought that there can be enough jobs that pay “well enough” is a myth. There are only so many jobs that can provide the wages needed for rent in a given city, and there are always more people that want it than have it. Of course there is no single root cause but if I had to point one out I would finger the stagnation of real wages.

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

#237

Post by Robotbeat »

postalrat wrote: post #234
pydry wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. Because home prices and rents keep going up. Homelessness is an inevitable side effect of that. Funneling money on rehab rather than providing places to actually live cant fix that. It's attacking a symptom not the cause. However, attacking the cause (property prices/rents) would make a lot of very rich…

Why do you favor blaming rent for homelessness instead of lack of jobs that pay well enough? Why can some people afford the rent while others can't? If you are after a single root cause of homelessness you will be disappointed. Unless you only care to push an agenda.

Link local minimum wage to three times median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment, then. Solve both problems! :)

(EDIT: assuming you have policy to maintain full employment…)

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

#238

Post by Robotbeat »

pydry wrote: post #213
j8hn wrote: post #139

I don't have any experience with the housing issue in California, but got involved a while back trying to find pragmatic solutions in Seattle. The situation is a mess and there is an entire "homeless industrial complex" complicating matters here, rife with fraud, misspending and cronyism. Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. At first I was…

>Every year it seems like many millions of dollars more are spent on this issue but it keeps getting visibly worse. Because home prices and rents keep going up. Homelessness is an inevitable side effect of that. Funneling money on rehab rather than providing places to actually live cant fix that. It's attacking a symptom not the cause. However, attacking the cause (property prices/rents) would make a lot of very rich…

Yup, and the problem with inadequate housing affordability means pumping money into rehab just further increases the price of housing as you need to house people in rehab, after all!

Get rid of height limits, parking minimums, single-family-only zoning, and make most housing projects zoned by-right without public comment required.

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

#239

Post by fortran77 »

colinmhayes wrote: post #154
fortran77 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the only people I see really arguing for Prop 13 are in the dying our demographics of newspaper comment sections and NextDoor, and nearly no one I meet in person. I like Prop 13. I'd be more than happy to meet you in person. California has the highest sales tax and income tax in the nation. The amount of revenue it gets from property tax is near the median for the U.S. I think they get enough money and don't need m…

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.

Do you really think CA will lower income taxes?

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

#240

Post by beanjuice »

sershe wrote: post #185

The only reason I don't laugh quite out loud is that I have a misfortune of living in Seattle and my wife refuses to move until something "actually happens" to us, as opposed to stuff going on 15 blocks away. California is not suffering from others' "broken" policy, but only from its own. It's an unpopular opinion, but I think it's great that there are people out there who concentrate the entire problem around themse…

Would you mind elaborating on what you are afraid of happening, and what you think the cause is?
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