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Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

kcrw.com

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Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is this not the easiest decision in the world? Unfortunately wealthy established homeowners don't want more people to near to them so they vote against any and all change. Welp! This is why higher orders of government need to step in to "force" municipalities to enact some of these sorts of policy changes you describe. This gives the local municipalities cover to enact the good policies that the selfish rich wo…

Unfortunately wealthy established homeowners don't want more people to near to them so they vote against any and all change. Yes, combined with useful idiot "anti-gentrification" activists who have convinced themselves that the concept of supply and demand is a capitalist myth.

I’ve just become negatively polarized into supporting gentrification at this point. Seems like the alternative is crime ridden, blighted cities without amenities.

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the thing I always say about the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco is like, look, if you can't figure out how to gain from an influx of wealthy, highly-educated, low-criminality, nerdy tech workers, then that's really on you. What a gift! Any city would be lucky to have that "problem." You have to actively work to make that a negative (by, say, refusing to a…

Especially for a city that is explicitly progressive, why the "all rapid change is bad, it must take decades or centuries, otherwise it's not natural" approach? Germany's large cities have similar issues where they don't want to start building new districts because it'd be artificial and not naturally grown building by building. And it's better to have rents double every 10 years, apparently. I don't get the "why", b…

Well - to be more clear - SF is socially progressive. It is incredibly fiscally conservative. It is part of Silicon Valley - a neoliberal paradise.

The whole area is incredibly classically liberal and not socialist leaning at all... After all - becoming a tycoon is everyone's wet dream there.

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you signed an agreement to pay a certain amount, for a certain number of months, and then you don't do it, the counterparty should be able to come after you. I understand that some of the people who break leases are experiencing hardship, but others are just breaking their leases because they can -- and a lot more people would do that if it was easier. That would put landlords on the defensive and result in more r…

There's "covering risk", and there's tenant lock-in. I have no problem with requiring a tenant to rent for a year, to prevent quick turnover and the risk and costs associated with that. But multiple landlords now have all had the same policy: the lease will never go month-to-month, basically. You can , but e.g., for my current lease, it costs ~60% more to go month to month. This creates bizarre pay-off points, and gr…

Requiring a full year lease, instead of month-to-month, is the landlords only option under just cause eviction. Otherwise the landlord is essentially a non-party to the lease (the rent board and tenant dictate the future terms).

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the thing I always say about the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco is like, look, if you can't figure out how to gain from an influx of wealthy, highly-educated, low-criminality, nerdy tech workers, then that's really on you. What a gift! Any city would be lucky to have that "problem." You have to actively work to make that a negative (by, say, refusing to a…

> the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco The people who are complaining about this are not the same people who are restricting housing access. A similar dynamic happens in Boston, where people are resentful of gentrifiers, and I can't blame them. They're not the ones voting to block housing, it's the already rich people in the area who do that.

No, it's both. There's an unholy alliance between the two.

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#86
post #85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco The people who are complaining about this are not the same people who are restricting housing access. A similar dynamic happens in Boston, where people are resentful of gentrifiers, and I can't blame them. They're not the ones voting to block housing, it's the already rich people in the area who do that.

No, it's both. There's an unholy alliance between the two.

Why would renters want property values (and therefore rents) to go up due to a lack of supply?

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#87
There's also a good argument that rent/housing affects more of our broader lives than anything else - often called "The Housing Theory of Everything".

https://www.worksinprogress.co/issue/the-housing-theory-of-e...

If you're interested in helping the housing problem across the US, I encourage you to check out: YIMBY Action who does local activism across the US, and particularly active in SF Bay Area and CA.

https://yimbyaction.org/

Full disclosure, I'm on the board, but I joined because the ROI / growth are both crazy. We have a tiny budget / staff but have a huge impact on the discourse, passing various laws and pushing cities to follow the law to approve housing. We're now at an inflection point and need to scale our model out.

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How is this not the easiest decision in the world? Unfortunately wealthy established homeowners don't want more people to near to them so they vote against any and all change. Welp! This is why higher orders of government need to step in to "force" municipalities to enact some of these sorts of policy changes you describe. This gives the local municipalities cover to enact the good policies that the selfish rich wo…

No, just average people, who built the community over time into something desirable, that were promised with zoning laws that it would be the type of community (single family homes, etc) that they wanted, and that then dedicated the majority of their lifetime earning power to purchase a home there. There are how many acres of land in this country? Why do you have a right to overrule the will of people in one comparat…

> No, just average people, who built the community over time into something desirable, that were promised with zoning laws that it would be the type of community (single family homes, etc) that they wanted, and that then dedicated the majority of their lifetime earning power to purchase a home there.

No one was promised that the zoning laws wouldn't someday change.

Maybe what's really needed is a complete repeal of proposition 13. If homeowners want to block local development leading to increasing housing costs, they can at least pay for it in their taxes.

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#89
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the thing I always say about the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco is like, look, if you can't figure out how to gain from an influx of wealthy, highly-educated, low-criminality, nerdy tech workers, then that's really on you. What a gift! Any city would be lucky to have that "problem." You have to actively work to make that a negative (by, say, refusing to a…

> the people who complain about tech workers and gentrification in a place like San Francisco The people who are complaining about this are not the same people who are restricting housing access. A similar dynamic happens in Boston, where people are resentful of gentrifiers, and I can't blame them. They're not the ones voting to block housing, it's the already rich people in the area who do that.

Yes, they are. What do you think "anti-gentrification activism" boils down to, in practice? Build more and drive prices down? Of course not, the activists will conveniently tell you that this makes gentrification worse! Which totally defies economic logic: there's only so much demand in the world for places like Manhattan!

Re: Rising rent, not poverty, is the real driver of homelessness

#90
I don't understand this thesis. In terms of visible homelessness a huge percentage are untreated mentally ill and/or drug addicted to such an extent that they won't be able to afford housing at any price level.

The article offers no data to support the claim, just some anecdotal observations.

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