11–20 of 376 posts
I am extremely skeptical this is case and for those whom it is true, I expect them to fall into the class of “transient homeless” who experience it for a short period.
Office space cannot get converted into homes overnight. There's a lot of remodeling and rethinking of how to fit an apartment into one, but it's a chance nonetheless. The biggest burden is likely to be the cause of the problem in the first place, zoning. Hopefully we learn from the past and correct this while we can
Before the pandemic this problem really seemed intractable for a lot of metro areas, but now with WFH taking hold we've been given a potential life raft if we jump on it. Office space cannot get converted into homes overnight. There's a lot of remodeling and rethinking of how to fit an apartment into one, but it's a chance nonetheless. The biggest burden is likely to be the cause of the problem in the first place, zo…
Before the pandemic this problem really seemed intractable for a lot of metro areas, but now with WFH taking hold we've been given a potential life raft if we jump on it. Office space cannot get converted into homes overnight. There's a lot of remodeling and rethinking of how to fit an apartment into one, but it's a chance nonetheless. The biggest burden is likely to be the cause of the problem in the first place, zo…
For some reason I doubt that developers will be looking to convert that office space into affordable housing.
Too many ideas seem to be conflated with the umbrella term "homeless"
Is street homelessness really driven by people who couldn't pay their rent? You would think they'd stay away from drug-addled violent tent cities - and sleep in a car or at a friend's house. Too many ideas seem to be conflated with the umbrella term "homeless"
You already own oodles of land. You can build to whatever height you want within reason, because you control the zoning, and you even control many of the ordinances that allow citizens to block development (though certainly not all, like CEQA and NEPA). So you have lots of lands to build on, and what you build is largely in your control.
Construction costs in San Francisco are sky-high, at $440 sq ft. But people will happily pay you $40/sq foot per year for housing, probably for 75 years.
How is this not the easiest decision in the world?
Create a housing development agency, become a permanent developer, and landlord. Never stop building. Put proper incentives in place, so that employees at the agency can partake in the profits, incentivizing them to be efficient. Never stop doing this.
You might not be great at this at first, but fifty years later you will be.
Before the pandemic this problem really seemed intractable for a lot of metro areas, but now with WFH taking hold we've been given a potential life raft if we jump on it. Office space cannot get converted into homes overnight. There's a lot of remodeling and rethinking of how to fit an apartment into one, but it's a chance nonetheless. The biggest burden is likely to be the cause of the problem in the first place, zo…
For some reason I doubt that developers will be looking to convert that office space into affordable housing.