91–100 of 136 posts
Articles like this miss the fact that having a shelter is one thing, but homes are also an important investment for the people that live in them. So much so that they are the default strategy of most financial planners and are only rivaled by complicated financial tools that involve insurance savings programs. I welcome the talk about more housing, but people need to remember: most of what we need aren't rentals. We…
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Vacant != abandoned. Right from the article you linked, 2nd parg: "But this doesn’t mean millions of abandoned and dilapidated homes are withering away in the suburbs. Vacant homes can be unoccupied for many reasons beyond being uninhabitable. For example, a house can be vacant because it’s still on the market to be sold or rented or it’s a vacation home not currently in use."
If vacation homes are lying around unused while homeless people huddle in the streets, it means not enough expropriation from the rich is going on.
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How do y'all reconcile the air and noise pollution living in cities? I see studies posted on HN about how important sleep is and I've been way more sensitive to noise as I age.
White noise generators work great.
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There are approx 5.7M vacation homes in the US. There are also approx 550,000 homeless people in the US. A system which allows such misallocation is fundamentally broken. If this is what effecient resource allocation looks like, then I want something else.
Broken compared to what? Homelessness is an ancient problem, noone was able to solve that yet. We need to look and take lessons from systems that at least somewhat helped the problem. Of course, adjusting for the US situation, which might be just different. Compared, to, say Eastern Europe, I feel like US can just afford having so many homeless (e.g. free food and medicine for homeless in California). In many other c…
No, it's a fairly recent and entirely cultural phenomenon. For one thing, there was no homelessness at all in North America before the Seventeenth century or so.
UN studies assume global population will peak around the 2080s [0]. Western countries rely on immigration induced population growth to keep their economies healthy. Would it not makes sense to prepare for a future where that well has run dry? [0] https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.deve...
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How do y'all reconcile the air and noise pollution living in cities? I see studies posted on HN about how important sleep is and I've been way more sensitive to noise as I age.
Years and years ago I measured sleep disturbances with a fitbit and found sleeping in foam earplugs reduced my wakings by something like 300%. No answer for air quality. Except is indoor air quality any better in a new suburban house than a new apt in a walkable area?
That being said, SF is famous for their moldy condos. I've had apt neighbors that smoked cigars, cigs, and weed that crept into my room.
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> Homelessness is an ancient problem, noone was able to solve that yet. Out of curiosity, you do realize there are lots of countries without homelessness, right?
Interesting, I can only think of three cases: 1. Homeless were killed (e.g. nazi germany). 2. It's a family honor matter, like in Caucasus countries. There are no retirement homes as well, as every family takes the burden of taking care of their elder, because it would be very unhonorable. Although I still doubt they have 0.0% homelessness. 3. Official numbers don't reflect reality. Really curious to learn other ways…
But Japan, for instance, has very, very nearly no homeless.
ITT >but, but, apartments are bad. Or >nuke the suburbs Both these takes are wrong. We need diversified development that meets peoples needs at all levels of society. From soviet style concrete apartment blocks to 3 acre single lot McMansions and everything in between. F unbridled YIMBYISM, but especially F “BUT it will ruin neighbor character” NIMBYISM. Fill in the gaps, be empathetic, and welcome new people to the…
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There are approx 5.7M vacation homes in the US. There are also approx 550,000 homeless people in the US. A system which allows such misallocation is fundamentally broken. If this is what effecient resource allocation looks like, then I want something else.
As an owner of a vacation home and a large donor to homeless charities: this is completely divorced from the reality on the ground. It's a false dichotomy proposed as a way to block solving the problem of limited housing where it's acutely needed. My ski house in Vermont does absolutely nothing for the homeless people in my neighborhood in New York. If you put someone in that ski house what would it do? Sure it would…
I'm interested in modifying the system which allows for such outcomes, not managing the outcomes themselves. Please take a systems-level approach that seeks root-cause adjustment and not simply an amelioration of symptoms.
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Interesting, I can only think of three cases: 1. Homeless were killed (e.g. nazi germany). 2. It's a family honor matter, like in Caucasus countries. There are no retirement homes as well, as every family takes the burden of taking care of their elder, because it would be very unhonorable. Although I still doubt they have 0.0% homelessness. 3. Official numbers don't reflect reality. Really curious to learn other ways…
Note that when I say no homelessness, I don't mean literally zero. But Japan, for instance, has very, very nearly no homeless.