Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

businessinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 113 posts

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#21

Post by mxuribe »

The fact that this type of firm even exists - if they in fact are behaving as reported (not just cleaning out vacated places, but in fact acting as enforcers) - is why i dislike American style capitalism. I'm not saying this firm can't exist elsewhere in the world, mind you. It just feels like awful things are allowed to happen here with justification being something along the lines of "hey, the market presented an opportunity, and someone filled it, yay America!"

To clarify: I am a proud American, but am frustrated with how distorted life has become to allow business to supersede seemingly almost everything.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#22

Post by CPLX »

coldcode wrote: post #6

Who in their right mind would work this type of job? I suppose if you were going to get kicked out of your apartment, you might do this. Evicting people can be very dangerous, not to mention depressing.

There is a long and storied tradition of members of lower classes being employed in jobs enforcing the will of the powerful against members of other lower classes.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#23

Post by cwhiz »

An eviction moratorium that does not include help for the landlords is one of the dumbest ideas of 2020. What do people expect to happen? This is going to be an absolute bloodbath.

Edit: I'd really like to hear what people think will happen when landlords don't have income for 9+ months. Or what they expect to happen when the moratorium ends and people have 9 months back rent. Just what, exactly, do people expect the outcome here to be?

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#24

Post by mercurysmessage »

scarface74 wrote: post #20
wegs wrote: post #11

Untrained gig workers. Angry tenants. I can't imagine what could go wrong here.

As I said below, when you do it legally, someone from the sheriffs department is involved. A clean out crew is often made up of day laborers anyway. You also don’t have to be gentle with the tenants stuff. You just throw it out on the curb. Edit: I usually don’t comment on downvotes. But why is a factually correct comment being downvoted? I was a landlord, this is exactly the process in my state.

That's awful, and you should be careful with tenants stuff.

A lot of people on this site are cruel and callous.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#25

Post by raxxorrax »

scarface74 wrote: post #17
raxxorrax wrote: post #3

And people say that startups often operate not in line with market trends. In Europe such debt collectors are notorious for very direct intimidation. But people at least still call them gangs instead of startups.

You don’t just knock on people’s door and start putting their things out. There is a legal process and you have to get approval from the court. I’m assuming they are doing it legally.

They do mostly. They also like to remind you of their intend with batons and knifes on their belt. Violence is implied, not enacted. They stay within the confines of the law.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#27

Post by wegs »

CPLX wrote: post #22
coldcode wrote: post #6

Who in their right mind would work this type of job? I suppose if you were going to get kicked out of your apartment, you might do this. Evicting people can be very dangerous, not to mention depressing.

There is a long and storied tradition of members of lower classes being employed in jobs enforcing the will of the powerful against members of other lower classes.

Hey, it puts food on the table, and my kids are hungry. And it keeps the debt collector at bay.

The implied expectation of class / race / ethnic / ... loyalty is fundamentally flawed, though. I'm friends with people of many groups who are unlike me, and conversely, there are many people in my demographic whom I dislike. Not all [insert race][insert socioeconomic class][insert religion][insert ethnicity][insert career] people are the same, and we don't want segregation.

This is a particularly nasty cross-class alliance, but at the core, we WANT cross-class alliances.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#28

Post by barnabask »

coldcode wrote: post #6

Who in their right mind would work this type of job? I suppose if you were going to get kicked out of your apartment, you might do this. Evicting people can be very dangerous, not to mention depressing.

Leading to the ironic scenario where your final gig is to evict yourself.

Re: Eviction startup gets gig workers to help landlords kick people out

#30

Post by bserge »

scarface74 wrote: post #20
wegs wrote: post #11

Untrained gig workers. Angry tenants. I can't imagine what could go wrong here.

As I said below, when you do it legally, someone from the sheriffs department is involved. A clean out crew is often made up of day laborers anyway. You also don’t have to be gentle with the tenants stuff. You just throw it out on the curb. Edit: I usually don’t comment on downvotes. But why is a factually correct comment being downvoted? I was a landlord, this is exactly the process in my state.

[Sorry, I decided to not get involved in this discussion]
Post reply on HN