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I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

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Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#191

Post by Gareth321 »

watwut wrote: post #143
jvanderbot wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mentally ill and drug abusers are also the ones who need to be dealt with in a way totally separate from those who are struggling but trying to get back on their feet and need a place to shower and sleep safely. They cause disproportionate damage to cities and the cause of aiding homeless itself. It's asinine to conflate the two issues and waffle back and forth between "more houses" and nimby name-calling. Neithe…

You think mentally ill do not need a place to shower and sleep safely? And what do you think the lack of place to shower and sleep safely does with already mentally ill person? Like common, this does not passes the smell test. When housing is cheap, mentally ill can pay housing and have easier time getting support to get that housing. Their mental health issue do not escalate so quickly due to lack of sleep and const…

> You think mentally ill do not need a place to shower and sleep safely?

Giving a locking door to an addict is a death sentence. As countless experiments have proven, unsupervised shelters all over California have been literally destroyed by addicts and the mentally unwell. I'm talking faeces on the walls, blood and urine everywhere, horrific attacks in the units, and eventually the place just gets burnt down. So these people need supervised shelter. In a facility. Where they're prevented from harming others and themselves. De-institutionalisation was a huge mistake. There were abuses and they needed reform, but throwing schizophrenics and addicts into the street was not kind or humane, and leaving them there is just as immoral.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#192

Post by 18172828286177 »

aqme28 wrote: post #184
18172828286177 wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Often, the reason they are unstable is because they are homeless I think a more common situation is that they are on the street because they are unstable, but being on the street makes it much worse.

Yeah I buy that to some extent. But according to the studies I've read, the primary driver of homelessness is rising rent, not mental health issues. See e.g. https://www.statista.com/chart/32585/change-in-median-rent-a...

I mean, I hate to be cliched, but correlation does not imply causation. There are many possible confounding factors that could be at play here.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#193

Post by Gareth321 »

huhkerrf wrote: post #154
comrade1234 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that has more to do with the summer gypsies than an endemic homeless problem.

I find it fascinating that Europeans will look down on Americans for their race problems, but mention the Roma/travelers and they respond in a way that would make Archie Bunker say calm down.

> I find it fascinating that Europeans will look down on Americans for their race problems

I don't know why Americans keep saying we look down on you for your "race problems," but we do not. Generally speaking, we look down on you for manufacturing race problems for politics as a team sport. We have our own race problems.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#194

Post by thrance »

gugagore wrote: post #151
thrance wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I very much agree. This is how I feel too in regards to this "abundance liberalism": some people think they can fix the whole country by deregulating zoning laws and tweaking a few numbers. It seems foolish to me. Whatever the solution is, I am convinced it requires (re)building actual social nets and welfare.

The post is from 2018, but it's very topical because of "abundance", as you point out. You might be interested in this podcast Bad Faith: Episode 478 - The Abundance Conspiracy (w/ Sandeep Vaheesan, Isabella Weber, & Aaron Regunberg) Episode webpage: https://www.patreon.com/posts/130189560

Thanks, I'll take a look!

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#195

Post by diet_jerome »

Ccecil wrote: post #8

From what I have seen there isn't a housing shortage as much as an "affordable housing" shortage. Just my observation. Tons of overpriced apartments being built at 2x the price of the average renter. Housing subsidies will be next. Another attempt to prop up the rampant capitalism by means of socialism.

I share your frustration with only overpriced, luxury housing being built. However, I think you are misattributing the blame here. The reason why only expensive luxury housing gets built in so many areas is almost always because the local government only allows developers to build luxury apartments. If housing construction was deregulated, then actual rampant capitalism would see profit in building affordable housing and then build affordable housing. Take a look at things like ibuprofen. Ibuprofen is a pretty awesome medicine, but it isn't only for rich people now. It is very cheap and affordable. Same with cell phones.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#197

Post by jccalhoun »

diet_jerome wrote: post #171
donatj wrote: post #136

I live just outside Minneapolis. There's an absolute glut right now of largely unoccupied apartments that have sprung up in the last couple years anywhere there was an open lot and many places there wasn't - tearing down a number of historic buildings in the name of cheaply built wooden framed apartments. Well over 100 new buildings in the last five years within a 10 mile radius. Most of them cost more per month to l…

I feel you there with only luxury housing being the only kind of housing being built in many areas. Honestly, a lot of it is damn ugly too. Allowing developers to construct non-luxury housing would help much more than only allowing them to build luxury housing.

Same here. I am in a small midwestern USA city of less than 100k people. Someone got a grant to build some housing. Instead of building affordable housing they tried to build a huge "luxury" apartment complex with rent way above average for the city.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#200

Post by Hilift »

edude03 wrote: post #137

I think anyone who has actually been hands on trying to improve the lives of the unhomed know that 1) it’s a gradient between “I get kicked out of x everyday and go back at night” and “I’m sleeping under a bridge” and 2) rarely is it the actual cost of the home that’s the problem. Often it’s mental health / substance abuse / lack of a support system. Heck I think there is enough movies/shows about how people fall thr…

> rarely is it the actual cost of the home that’s the problem.

It used to be rare. But LA managed to make $700,000 the minimum cost for housing someone. That is a studio or one bedroom, without laundry. That is why LA City and LA County terminated the current housing organization (LAHSA). LA and San Francisco spent billions and accomplished very little. They probably housed two or three people/households per day. Now they get to stop the easy way, due to they are out of money. LA has a $1 billion budget deficit.

Two years ago, a small part of San Francisco with camps was so bad, two people were dying per day from overdose, and that was with handing out hundreds of doses of free narcan daily.

https://southpasadenan.com/l-a-county-moves-to-strip-funding...

As an added bonus, 33% of fires in LA were started by homeless. When asked about this, the fire chief pointed out that the city budgeted more funds for the homeless ($961 million) than the fire department ($837 million).

https://abc7.com/post/third-las-fires-last-years-involved-ho...

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