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Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

thestranger.com

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Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#21

Post by enraged_camel »

UnpossibleJim wrote: post #16
whoisjuan wrote: post #11

This is a bullshit story for sure. Anyone who lives in Seattle knows this is simply not true. If you move south to Kent or Tacoma you will find a lot of places with a decent rent. Same if you start moving north to Shoreline and above. Those places are not far from Seattle. If you live in a freaking RV in downtown that's definitely your choice.

I don't make 250k, my wife's income included, and we own a home just north of Seattle. I bus it in and she drives to her job in Ballard. That must be some new hipster trend, 'cause that ain't forced =[

What does “just North of Seattle” mean? What city/neighborhood? And more importantly when did you buy it?

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#24

Post by NotSammyHagar »

Barjak wrote: post #17

I don't have many data points on Seattle, but I'm reminded of this article from a couple years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12459698 Seattle was also one of those cities hostile to jitneys. http://mynorthwest.com/152499/political-promise-personal-veh... ? So my impression is that Seattle often jumps the gun regulating things away--banning things that actually increase quality of life/spending power. We a…

what does it matter whether seattle is hostile to jitneys? (a word whose definition I just learned). I see lots of private small buses around seattle. buses for google, tmobile, i think facebook, and many unsigned buses.

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#25

Post by gregatragenet3 »

GauntletWizard wrote: post #2

In a lot of ways I envy these people; there's a lot of hardship they face with the lack of permanent address, and I can't imagine that RV living is incredibly pleasant nor cheap compared to more conventional housing, but they're also untethered in ways that make living "normally" seem like the crazy proposition. Job stability is basically out the window in the modern economy, so why tether yourself to a lease? With t…

Sorry you are getting downvoted into oblivion. From the descriptions in this article it does sound like a solidly middle-class couple who are _choosing_ to live this lifestyle. Money is not tight if they are Lyft'ing to the grocery store etc. There are a lot of people who just assume if you are in a boat or RV you are destitute or mentally ill. If this describes you, check your assumptions. Maybe they are just not bought into the 'work yourself to death to buy/rent a house as big as you can afford and then fill it with junk you dont want or need'

I and my wife lived in our RV in silicon valley (thanks San Jose elks lodge) for a period of time. We chose a lifestyle where I would do consulting for six months a year in SV and then travel for 6 months. After several years of renting, furnishing, establishing utilities in a place only to unwind that all a few months later, we thought just getting an RV and staying in it was a better solution. So for several years we'd spend six months in the RV in San Jose, and then the other six months doing things like road tripping through Alaska, hanging out in Key West, sailing the Mexican riviera etc.

There's definitely some downsides to living in a small space, with a low level of stability - but in that phase of our life the trade-off to be able to travel for months at a time was well worth it.

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#26

Post by NotSammyHagar »

tytytytytytytyt wrote: post #18
toomuchtodo wrote: post #12

This is why cities should be turning away Amazon's HQ2.

One couple choosing to live in an RV doesn't make a good argument for that.

In seattle there are tons of people living in vans. at the grocery store near my house on the east side, i see rvs in the parking lot of the grocery. they go somewhere in the night. in seattle, south of the stadiums there are rvs on side streets, just like this story. even in kirkland there was an rv on the street with a suspicious looking bucket behind it. I think living in your rv is more common than you might expect.

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#27

Post by dmcdm »

jerkstate wrote: post #10

I've heard a lot lately about people who avoid many expenses, including rent, in order to save a lot from decent jobs and retire early. If the author of this blog post had talked to them, maybe conclusions could have been drawn.

Yeah, it seems likely the author is just in that majority class of people who cannot conceive of any living arrangement outside the conventional stick-and-mortar dwelling bound to property or rent. That is, after all, what the ``American Dream'' of the past 100 years-or-so was built upon.

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#28

Post by seanmcdirmid »

somethingsimple wrote: post #19
whoisjuan wrote: post #11

This is a bullshit story for sure. Anyone who lives in Seattle knows this is simply not true. If you move south to Kent or Tacoma you will find a lot of places with a decent rent. Same if you start moving north to Shoreline and above. Those places are not far from Seattle. If you live in a freaking RV in downtown that's definitely your choice.

Bus commute from Shoreline is 1h each way. Manageable but quite far. Tacoma is really freaking far though. I’d be in a world of misery if I had to commute from there every day.

When I started college, I commuted from Bothell to UW, it was totally doable if not very nice. But back then, I could rent a room for $215/month two blocks north of UW and tuition was only $800/quarter. Kind of stupid to do that given living in Seattle was much more reasonable.

Tacoma at least has a commuter train these days, though I guess that would add to your commute costs. I have a relative who reverse commutes from West Seattle to Tacoma and it’s decent enough (because traffic goes the other way).

Tukwila or SeaTac should have decent rents and are accessible to downtown by light rail.

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#29

Post by [deleted] »

gregatragenet3 wrote: post #25
GauntletWizard wrote: post #2

In a lot of ways I envy these people; there's a lot of hardship they face with the lack of permanent address, and I can't imagine that RV living is incredibly pleasant nor cheap compared to more conventional housing, but they're also untethered in ways that make living "normally" seem like the crazy proposition. Job stability is basically out the window in the modern economy, so why tether yourself to a lease? With t…

Sorry you are getting downvoted into oblivion. From the descriptions in this article it does sound like a solidly middle-class couple who are _choosing_ to live this lifestyle. Money is not tight if they are Lyft'ing to the grocery store etc. There are a lot of people who just assume if you are in a boat or RV you are destitute or mentally ill. If this describes you, check your assumptions. Maybe they are just not bo…

[deleted]

Re: Seattle's New Normal: Homelessness Is Now Middle Class

#30

Post by seanmcdirmid »

scurvy wrote: post #13
nitwit005 wrote: post #9

I wouldn't classify living in an RV as "homeless". Lots of people do that and just pick up mail in a post office box. There are people near me living on boats, because the monthly slip fees are cheaper than rent. That doesn't make them homeless or poor.

Sleepless in Seattle anyone?

House boats on lake union are pretty expensive these days and definitely not a way to save on rent.
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