My problem is this: Being homeless is not inherently wrong. But I feel when a society makes camping on common ground a crime - like native Americans did, it owes it to them to a) give them land to camp on or b) give them housing. It shouldn’t be a crime to sleep, ever. It horrifies me that the “conservative” Supreme Court could deny the most fundamental right to existence, literally jailing people for sleeping.
Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
471–480 of 660 posts
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
1 house built by grandfather, surrounded by 4 empty houses. No housing crisis, only people looking for something better they already have, preferably free money.
> surrounded by 4 empty houses They'd happily sell but for 1mln PLN. > people looking for something better they already have, preferably free money They'd rent but they are also aggressively sly, dismissing every perfect tenant. In the end they indeed end up renting to another non-paying sly who will tell them exactly what they want to hear. At this point of the real estate the market, it's the owners who want free m…
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#473Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's at best a less-than-complete view of immigration. For immigrants themselves, it is usually an issue of self-determination and freedom. I can't say I'm fully privy to the immigration debate in Canada, but framing it as an issue of "growth" could not be a complete view of the advocates of immigration. Especially with the level of acceptance of refugees in Canada. The not enough housing aspect is completely incid…
Everybody cares about growth. The world will end the minute we finally stop growing. The entire economic system and society will unravel
I guess it depends on your precise definition of "growth" but I am having trouble finding one that can fit with your assertions.
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#474Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not implying that immigration is the only reason for higher housing prices. My opinion is that 0% interest rates and loose credit are the primary reason. However, simple supply/demand would suggest that immigration AND 0% interest rates both affect demand quickly while supply requires securing land, building homes and getting approval to build homes takes significant time. Migrations are happening at a faster rat…
On HN and on tech twitter I often see this statement: “the reason rents are high is because we don’t build enough houses.” But I don’t think that’s really true, I think that’s very simplistic. The missing observation is that housing has become an asset class in a way it wasn’t in the past. Large numbers of people purchase houses to rent seek as landlords, and the only limit to the demand for rent seeking is the abili…
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes this is absolutely the case also in Europe. In Berlin or Munich you're not going to rent anything as a single person. In Warsaw or Prague you'll not afford to rent anything on one local income (assuming you even have a job there currently).
It's not too difficult to rent a room in a shared house/apartment as a single person in these cities, regardless of age.
> It's not too difficult to rent a room in a shared house/apartment as a single person
In Berlin or Munich absolutely not, even shared accommodation have some absurd castings. Some people really smell their advantage and squeeze every drop of humiliation they can.
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I should mention that I've seen fairly convincing cross-sectional evidence that homelessness is more related to the housing market than mental illness This is absolutely the right diagnosis. For instance, SROs used to be very affordable.[1] Placing someone into housing was well within the means of local governments and non-profits. In Coppola's 1974 movie The Conversation, a large portion of the titular dialogue is…
Ooh, as an American involved lightly in real estate who relocated to Suomi a few years ago I always love this topic. Let me ramble. It's worth pointing out that, on a country-wide level, Finnish housing prices have been remarkably stagnant for the last 20-30 years when compared to e.g. the United States or most other European countries. That is not true of the cities, obviously, and cities are where all the work is,…
Housing is one of the areas I do not see any problems with oversupply.
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
this is such a dishonest characterization. the issue people have with free needles is that they end up everywhere but a sharps container. they throw loose needles in every park, walking path, bus stop, etc. in the entire city. my city has had this issue for years now. you should use some of the superhuman empathy you have to explore other perspectives on the issue. even for just a minute.
Is the implication here that needle and syringe programs cause needles to be left everywhere? Because, if so... let's just sit with that for a second and think it through.
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there is a bit of nuance to this. The UK also has about 500 or so homeless people per 100000 inabitants. In the US the number of people in prisons is about that number per 100K. On top of their huge homeless problem. There is the brutal reality that the climate in Finland and being homeless are not a great combination in the winter. And the summers are short. Getting people off the streets saves lives. If it'…
So are they committing people who are drunk? That would explain why the number is so high, but that also seems like overkill.
I'm not personally a fan of that, but it's quite common in post-soviet countries and very normalized (people are actually surprised when I tell them that not every country does that)
[1] Ultimately for their own good, not as a punitive measure. They are watched by medical personnel and don't risk dying of hypothermia. Still it's not something I'd like to experience.
Re: Finland's zero homeless strategy (2021)
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
True, on all points, but it wasn't just him, it's been a decades long process of multiple parts of the economy failing imo. One does wonder though how things would be if we simply cancelled zoning and other needlessly bureaucratic development restrictions in the 80s, and enabled automatically correcting policy that was outside the hands of both property owners and politicians. Every time I see an anti tower sign in e…
We have a natural experiment: Minneapolis vs. Madison. Minneapolis abolished the single-family zoning and parking requirements in 2018. And it worked, developers swarmed the city like vultures attracted to carrion. Madison did no such nonsense. Can you guess the impact of these policies on housing costs? The house price growth in Minneapolis _accelerated_, just like in the nearby Madison. Here are the price growth ch…
https://streets.mn/2023/10/24/mapping-minneapolis-duplexes-a...