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The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

moneywise.com

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Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#31

Post by TapWaterBandit »

epistasis wrote: post #25
jongjong wrote: post #16

Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…

It's not only the regulations, but that regulations put Boomers in control of allowing housing locally. The combination of a generation that pulls up the ladder as soon as they have something, plus a government that caters to local homeowners has created a catastrophe for all but the wealthiest. Housing austerity benefits the wealthy (by which I include all homeowners) by extracting economic rent from everyone less w…

It really isn't just the boomers. It is landowners/homeowners of many different generations. The whole "blame the boomers" thing plays into the hands of the landowners shaking down the rest of us. Don't fall for it and focus on the actual problems not attacking a group.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#32

Post by epistasis »

cyanydeez wrote: post #15
wtcactus wrote: post #12

"In a 2020 journal article for the American Society on Aging, Kushel wrote that of all the homeless single adults in the early 1990s, 11% were aged 50 and older. By 2003, she says that percentage grew to 37%." Society has been built for couples. With the major societal changes in the last 2 decades, we had an explosion of single people wanting to live alone, and the infrastructure is simply not prepared for it. My pa…

In America, it looks like real estate is becoming a victim of capitalism: companies buy properties, convert them to rentals, the collude with each other to "maximize" the value of those rentals. Then they claim the real problem is zoning codes so they can buy up more property just to expand their monopoly. Homelessness is the a low water effect caused by inflation.

This is not caused by companies. This is caused by individual homeowners exerting local control over the amount of housing in their small local area.

The few companies making money off this are just piggy-backing on the homeowners who drive the political process. Private equity saw what homeowners have done in the US and thought "hey we can benefit from this regulatory capture without even having to do any of the work of capture," and even with that they are a tiny minority of housing.

Let's correctly place the blame so that we can fix the problem. Even banning all corporate ownership of homes does nothing to house these homeless folks, only building more home will get people into them and break the sell-side power.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#33

Post by koolba »

version_five wrote: post #6
0dayz wrote: post #5

That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.

They're not all identical and they don't share with each other. The article didn't mention it but I'd also suspect lack of strong family ties is a big contributor. It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up.

> It's going to be people who didn't have kids or have estranged kids and are widowed or unmarried that are most exposed, and that demographic will only keep going up.

For millennia that was the standard retirement plan. It covered housing, food, medical care, and even entertainment.

And portfolio diversification (ie have lots of kids) was just as important.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#34

Post by epistasis »

m000 wrote: post #23
0dayz wrote: post #5

That's very surprising, given that you typically hear about how it's the baby boomers who reaped the rewards and screwed over everyone else.

And they want to screw everyone else again. "We have the means to end homelessness in older adults. By increasing affordable housing for older adults, engaging in targeted prevention efforts, and building off the success of permanent supportive housing, we can make homelessness for older adults rare and brief." Why are homeless baby boomers any more of a problem than entire generations that have been condemned to per…

It's difficult to lump together home-owning yet anti-home-building wealthy boomers with the working boomers who are now becoming homeless.

Generational abstractions are unbelievably leaky.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#35

Post by somewhereoutth »

jongjong wrote: post #16

Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…

The issue is not supply and demand for houses - there are plenty enough to go around (though often in the wrong place).

The issue is that a sizeable underclass is being created that have no wealth, not least because what wealth they did have has been funnelled to the very wealthy. For example, medical bills. For example student loans. For example zero interest rates with zero wage inflation meaning accommodation costs don't fall as a proportion of income.

The solution is to address wealth inequality. This means taking wealth away from those who have amassed too much, and returning it to those who had it stolen from them.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#36

Post by TapWaterBandit »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #21
jongjong wrote: post #16

Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…

I wouldn’t attribute this to immigration. Generally (eta: in my understanding in the usa where this study also is) immigrants are job creators and entrepreneurs, and take less from the system than native born people do. I otherwise agree the homeowning NIMBY class who want to retain neighborhood character or whatever suck, because as a consequence they are restricting housing. I also want to point the finger at corpo…

Immigration is clearly an undeniable part of the problem. I am in Australia and when immigration was halted during covid rents declined in many places, often substantially. Now we are full-tilt on immigration again and rents are soaring. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that putting more people in a given area with the same amount of housing will cause the rents to rise.

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#37

Post by lm28469 »

jongjong wrote: post #16

Part of the problem is government regulation. In some places, it's almost impossible to build new houses due to regulations. Some portion of the population wants to see house prices continue to increase and they will vote for politicians who will implement policies which will support that agenda. Of course this happens at the expense of another, also large portion of the population who do not own a house and have to…

It's more about real estate being seen as an investment vessel than "government regulations". Most building regulations have sounds basis, they exist because without them people were building very shady and dangerous housing

Also people aren't homeless because there are no "homes", it usually runs much deeper than that

Re: The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression

#40

Post by mensetmanusman »

There are five workers supporting every retiree, and this is still happening.

If you are approaching 40, there will be about two workers supporting you when you retire.

I’m thinking this is the start of something much bigger.

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