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Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

theguardian.com

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Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#21

Post by Tiktaalik »

Der_Einzige wrote: post #13
luckylion wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's probably also much better to be homeless in California than somewhere that experiences harsh winters.

Than why the frick is the whole PNW experiencing this problem. Seattle and Portland and Vancouver CA are all overran by the homeless. None of these cities are fun to be in during the winter. Hell, SF bay area most likely has fewer visibly homeless per capita than the other listed cities.

I know less about Portland, but both Seattle and Vancouver have extremely good local economies and expensive housing and housing shortages.

It's likely that there's a relationship here between people moving to these cities for better economic opportunities, then combinations of misfortune, rising rents and housing scarcity resulting in people becoming at risk of homelessness or being on the street.

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#22

Post by black_13 »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #16
bergenty wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The homeless “migrate” to California on their own accord. I know this from back in 2008 when thousands of homeless would migrate from colder parts of the country into Southern California for the winter.

A bus ticket from coast to coast can be as low as ~200 (NYC to Los Angeles in Jan on Greyhound) if you book in advance (apparently tickets can be purchased with cash from multiple vendors). In California (and maybe other states?) homeless people are able to make a little bit of money taking recyclable items to the refund processing center, they aren't always entirely disconnected from money. And of course they'll sta…

No post body was provided.

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#23

Post by adamredwoods »

We need a new way to buy-build-rent housing. The current one is not sustainable.

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the...

Interesting, though, the lessons learned from mobile homes (trailer parks), which in theory offer cheaper housing but end up being swindled. We need to avoid these mistakes:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-...

We also need to stop building in flood plains, as tax dollars are wasted bailing out wealthy developers:

https://progressive.org/op-eds/stop-building-in-floodplains-...

https://theconversation.com/to-stop-risky-developments-in-fl...

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#25

Post by gamblor956 »

hunglee2 wrote: post #2

how prevalent is the phenomena of states 'offloading' the homeless to California? With free movement between states, I can understand the rationale of unscrupulous political leaders to encourage relocation rather than solve the problem locally. Is this considered an acceptable theory?

Of the 6 homeless guys on the block around my building, none of them are actually from California. All of them are from the South/Southeast. All of them came for the drugs; 2 of them were bussed here on taxpayer dime by their hometown politicians and the rest came here on their own.

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#26

Post by cjtrowbridge »

adamredwoods wrote: post #23

We need a new way to buy-build-rent housing. The current one is not sustainable. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the... Interesting, though, the lessons learned from mobile homes (trailer parks), which in theory offer cheaper housing but end up being swindled. We need to avoid these mistakes: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-... We also need to stop building in floo…

The answer is nonprofit Community Development Corporations. They get lots of special funding sources which allow them to buy or develop housing and rent it out affordably.

I recently finished a degree focused on this model at SFSU. There are a few really good examples like CCDC and TNDC in SF. Both of these have acquired about 4,500 units of housing so far, all of which are affordable. Many of the other districts have or want something similar.

This is the only general-purpose solution I've found to nonprofit affordable community development of not just housing but also many other types of infrastructure projects.

It's just not possible to build for-profit inventory that's affordable; the cost per unit is too high. But there are lots of exciting ways to fund nonprofit affordable housing, and the CDC model

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#27

Post by wcfields »

RC_ITR wrote: post #15
hunglee2 wrote: post #2

how prevalent is the phenomena of states 'offloading' the homeless to California? With free movement between states, I can understand the rationale of unscrupulous political leaders to encourage relocation rather than solve the problem locally. Is this considered an acceptable theory?

What actually tends to happen is the following: -California is a desirable place to live, with the main limiting factor being cost of real estate -People who are already in tenuous living situations move to California because "Its not meaningfully more expensive to couch surf/share an apartment with 10 people near a beach than what I'm doing here in X current location" (this is why surveys asking people if they were…

> more SRO-style housing

Which has been evaporating more and more. There used to be tons of them in SF and LA and now it's been severely reduced. This style of housing at least housed the "upper" level of destitute/poverty and without it that entire population is on the street.

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#28

Post by throwaway313313 »

adamredwoods wrote: post #23

We need a new way to buy-build-rent housing. The current one is not sustainable. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the... Interesting, though, the lessons learned from mobile homes (trailer parks), which in theory offer cheaper housing but end up being swindled. We need to avoid these mistakes: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-... We also need to stop building in floo…

The term homeless in California is mostly a politically expedient mislabeling.

Most of the homeless are drug addicts that are not able to maintain a job or pay for car insurance. They aren't going to be able to pay rent.

Recognizing this ends up turning this into a way harder problem, with extremely divergent suggested solutions.

Instead people work on the easier problem of housing people, that at least is solvable, and that most people can agree on, even if it absolutely doesn't solve the actual problems of the drug addicts (that are being called homeless because that's nicer to think about and easier to work on).

(Agreed about tax dollars should not be spent building in flood plains.)

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#29

Post by actually_a_dog »

throwaway313313 wrote: post #28
adamredwoods wrote: post #23

We need a new way to buy-build-rent housing. The current one is not sustainable. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the... Interesting, though, the lessons learned from mobile homes (trailer parks), which in theory offer cheaper housing but end up being swindled. We need to avoid these mistakes: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-... We also need to stop building in floo…

The term homeless in California is mostly a politically expedient mislabeling. Most of the homeless are drug addicts that are not able to maintain a job or pay for car insurance. They aren't going to be able to pay rent. Recognizing this ends up turning this into a way harder problem, with extremely divergent suggested solutions. Instead people work on the easier problem of housing people, that at least is solvable,…

> The term homeless in California is mostly a politically expedient mislabeling.

> Most of the homeless are drug addicts that are not able to maintain a job or pay for car insurance. They aren't going to be able to pay rent.

I'm going to say this straight up, without the passive aggressive "citation needed" business: I do not believe you, but you have the opportunity to convince me by providing sources.

Re: Homelessness has risen 70% in California’s capital.Inside the staggering emerg

#30

Post by redanddead »

throwaway313313 wrote: post #28
adamredwoods wrote: post #23

We need a new way to buy-build-rent housing. The current one is not sustainable. https://ssir.org/articles/entry/innovative_solutions_for_the... Interesting, though, the lessons learned from mobile homes (trailer parks), which in theory offer cheaper housing but end up being swindled. We need to avoid these mistakes: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/03/owning-... We also need to stop building in floo…

The term homeless in California is mostly a politically expedient mislabeling. Most of the homeless are drug addicts that are not able to maintain a job or pay for car insurance. They aren't going to be able to pay rent. Recognizing this ends up turning this into a way harder problem, with extremely divergent suggested solutions. Instead people work on the easier problem of housing people, that at least is solvable,…

Alright so you've provided your analysis, give your take of a solution that you would be proud of.
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