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The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

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Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#311

Post by ddingus »

ddingus wrote: post #90
DanHulton wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I think you're missing a key factor here: politicians require money to be elected. The poor (the folks most affected by these issues) don't have the money to donate. The rich (the ones you propose taxing) do. Thus, the only ones who can get elected are catering to an audience that does not want this problems solved in this way (and indeed, one could argue, does not care to have it solved at all). Until the pr…

We may well find it possible to compete with big money in politics. Some campaigns were successful on small donations and people power.

A lot more of those will be running between now and 2020.

We should have more good data once we see elected people perform in Congress.

The big question is whether they can maintain agency longer term.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#312

Post by omegaworks »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #141
omegaworks wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>These studies always sound dubious, just like the misrepresentations that you are pointing out. So are you suggesting we base our understanding of this problem on anecdotes? The problem I have with that is that the anecdotes that you present are constructed to support the idea that there is nothing to be done, that we must simply accept that homelessness is too big a problem to be solved or even quantified. I refuse…

I get it, dodgy surveys trump anecdotes. However, these surveys turn in a reality that is so far divorced to what people are experiencing that they are hard to take seriously, check out: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/king-coun... > The records show that more than 8,000 clients listed their last ZIP code as 98104, which covers Pioneer Square and downtown. That’s about 25 percent of all clients who…

>And do you really think the big cities can solve this problem on their own without regional support?

Absolutely agree with you here. I think regional, even national initiatives are the real way to tackle this. Cities, as you correctly point out, bear the brunt of homelessness' impact. I don't think they can solve this alone.

There is hope that states can act. California just passed a $4 billion bond for housing veterans[1]. I hope the political will can be carried nationally, but have little faith in the current administration. They've already acted negligently, putting people using the GI housing benefit at risk[2]. I hope they face real blowback from this, but it's only one in a litany of scandals and failures at that level.

1. https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_1,_Housing_Pr...

2. https://www.npr.org/2018/11/17/668953517/computer-glitch-lea...

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#313

Post by fjsolwmv »

all2 wrote: post #303
CryptoPunk wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People of Scandinavian descent in the US have much lower levels of homelessness as well, so I think it's far more likely a socio-cultural cause, rather than political.

You work hard, your family works hard, and you help people out. Its sort of unspoken, but I've seen it in action a few times.

In no sense is that a "Scandinavian"-specific trait.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#314

Post by jahaja »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #308
jahaja wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. But as I suggested above, the same is happening in other countries, including mine, without these restrictions. And just as here, the report speaks of various tax and cash incentives etc, basically profit guarantees, needed to get private companies to build affordable housing. So to suggest that zoning restrictions are the core issue doesn't seem to hold water, even though I won't deny that it may increase th…

Stockholm has a severe housing shortage due to government restrictions like rent control: https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/19/why-stockholm-... Zoning seems to be the biggest problem in the US. I don't know how much it contributes to housing shortages in other countries.

Sigh, so you googled up an interview with a representative from Fastighetsägarna (literally translated "The property owners") and conclude with confidence that government restrictions is the reason. These were in place during the time of my anecdote as well.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#316

Post by fjsolwmv »

masonic wrote: post #284
RoboTeddy wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any attempt to solve the problem locally in a "humane" way has a high risk of just attracting more folks in the same circumstance to the area. I thought this too, but it turns out that despite San Francisco's relatively high expenditures on homeless, only 10% of the homeless population was living out of state at the time they became homeless. ( http://hsh.sfgov.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-SF-Poin... )

only 10% of the homeless population was living out of state at the time they became homeles That's purely from uncorroborated survey data with neither details nor verification. A greater percentage of present-day homeless claim to have been housed in SF 10 years ago than the general non-homeless population!

Why does that surprise you? Non homeless include immigrants and exclude emigrants. People tend to immigrate to the city in their 20s and leave in their 30s.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#317

Post by fjsolwmv »

CryptoPunk wrote: post #274
tuesdayrain wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So that means if we want to solve homelessness, we need to start taxing homeless people.

Or just stop subsidizing them. In the short term, it's more suffering for the poor, but in the long run, it's fewer people born into multi-generational poverty traps and into communities where they learn to become dependent and game government programs, because the dominant source of income is unconditional social assistance programs provided at the taxpayer's expense.

You think homeless people were predominantly born on the street to homeless parents?

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#318

Post by fjsolwmv »

gdix wrote: post #148
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it a problem when poor people want to move in but not rich people? Does some homeless dude from Boise degrade Austin any more or less than some programmer from SF? Both are seeking what they think is a going to be a better life. Both are ever so slightly changing the character of their destination by showing up.

Why is it a problem when a stranger breaks into your house and raids your fridge but not when you invite a close friend over for a meal? Both are seeking what they think is a going to be a meal. Both are ever so slightly changing the character of their destination by showing up.

The programmers are raiding the housing supply. The homeless aren't.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#319

Post by gdix »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #318
gdix wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it a problem when a stranger breaks into your house and raids your fridge but not when you invite a close friend over for a meal? Both are seeking what they think is a going to be a meal. Both are ever so slightly changing the character of their destination by showing up.

The programmers are raiding the housing supply. The homeless aren't.

Ok yeah you're right then. That makes it a fair comparison. I'll remember that when I see someone passed out in the subway with a needle in their arm as I walk by with my kids.

Re: The Homeless Crisis Is Getting Worse in America’s Richest Cities

#320

Post by CryptoPunk »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #317
CryptoPunk wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just stop subsidizing them. In the short term, it's more suffering for the poor, but in the long run, it's fewer people born into multi-generational poverty traps and into communities where they learn to become dependent and game government programs, because the dominant source of income is unconditional social assistance programs provided at the taxpayer's expense.

You think homeless people were predominantly born on the street to homeless parents?

No but they come from predominantly poor families, and are disproportionately represented by those raised in single parent households.

So you can provide early childhood nutrition to kids, welfare to their mom, free education for the mom, free childcare, etc, to try to improve the outcomes for children raised in these households, but one of the adverse effects of that is that the economic disincentive for having a child as a single mother is massively reduced, resulting in more children being born into single-parent families. The conservatives were absolutely right about the long term effects of welfarism, as shown by 50 years of rapidly rising rates of single parenthood.

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