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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

#401

Post by jpadkins »

pierat wrote: post #337
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…

Ive seen your Reaganite "the government and regulations are the enemy" comments since Ive been born, and it was crap then and it's crap now. In fact, dereg is how we've gotten to this point. Housing has been turned from "a place to live" to a "place we can extract rents to make bank". And with the nature of landlording, the rents are priced to "mortgage+profit", so they get their mortgage paid on our backs and grow t…

> Time to de-profit-ize housing.

Can you cite an example of where this policy has worked out well? It seems counter intuitive because removing the profit incentive seems like it would remove investments + labor and therefore reduce housing construction.

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

#402

Post by breakyerself »

klodolph wrote: post #336
breakyerself wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's comforting to think homelessness is caused by people making bad decisions, but it's almost entirely a result of bad public policy. West Virginia has a much higher rate of drug addiction than Portland, but much less homelessness. Because drug addicts in West Virginia can afford housing. Other places have worse access to mental healthcare but less homelessness for the same reason. Demand in metropolitan areas has…

I think it’s hard to compare West Virginia to Portland, and conclude that the differences are a result of policy decisions.

No West Virginia didn't make housing affordable through policy, but the fact that housing is affordable and homelessness is low despite high levels of drug addiction highlights that housing costs are a powerful control knob for homelessness and blaming drug addiction is a red herring.

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

#403

Post by BytesAndGears »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #239
BytesAndGears wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s totally relevant because someone in their 20s might be able to live with their parents, or has multiple roommates etc. The amount of money that they need is much less than that of someone more established. It is a really interesting contrast though, that in Amsterdam where I now live (and many other parts of Europe), this divide doesn’t exist as strongly. We have a perfectly happy and healthy ~40 year old woman…

> someone in their 20s might be able to live with their parents They also might not? Why are we structuring access to fundamental needs around this assumption?

I replied above to someone else about this same thing — you might be interested in that reply!

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

#404

Post by seanmcdirmid »

zemvpferreira wrote: post #116
somewhereoutth wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take SF as an example. If a significant number of new units were built (somehow without detracting from the character of the city), would it really lower prices much? Likely not - instead prices would dip just enough to make it viable for large numbers of high income people from outside SF to come to the city (which by massing effect may make SF even more desirable, so actually higher prices!) Wealth taxes are…

This is a bizarre idea contrary to how many housing affordability crisis were actually solved in the past. Would SF's housing prices go down if you were to build 10,000 new units? You're right, probably not that much. Would SF's housing prices go down if you were to build 1M new units? No doubt. Shenzhen grew from 100,000 people in the 1980s to 13M now with no housing affordability crisis...by building. The whole pea…

Shenzhen and Guangzhou are some of the least affordable cities in the world when it comes to housing prices. Yes, rents are actually not that bad and many units are vacant being just used as investments, but the cost to buy is astronomical given the Chinese housing bubble.

Tokyo is an example where houses are torn down every 39 years so a new one can be built. Also, given the lack of population growth in Japan as a whole, the growth rate in Tokyo is anemic. Tokyo metro area has even been losing a small amount of population in the last three years: https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/21671/tokyo/population

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

#405

Post by kuchenbecker »

trident5000 wrote: post #255
pc86 wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A house in Omaha doesn't help someone living in NY, so saying there are plenty of houses but they're just in the wrong place is so wildly wrong I have to think it's intentionally done just to score cheap political points.

Imagine thinking where you want to live is more important than physics.

I'm going to positively interpret your comment and respond anyway.

Instead of moving away people move further into the suburbs and commute so they can arbitrage the higher pay of the urban area with the lower cost of living.

We have a term for this, its called suburban sprawl.

The number of jobs in low cost of living areas can't support the cities, and lack of housing leads to folks moving just far enough away to make the math work.

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

#406

Post by toomuchtodo »

jeffbee wrote: post #379
incahoots wrote: post #365

Ah yes, apathy my old friend. We can recognize the various problems that got us here, but when it comes to resolving them, well that’s simply a bridge too far. Take note: we absolutely have the resources to defeat homelessness and hunger, it’s just not a profitable model.

[flagged]

I think Boomers share a lot of blame for where we're at, policy wise, but also not everyone who is a Boomer had a say in poor housing policy (ie NIMBYs keeping us short millions of housing units over decades), the deprecation of pensions for 401ks that no one could afford to fund (due to globalization and stagnant incomes), an employment environment where you could become unemployed in your 50s or early 60s with no chance of finding another job, desperately hoping to make it to Social Security, unchecked medical costs due to no meaningful national healthcare system reform, etc.

Like a parent caring for a child with a limited world view and not yet emotionally mature, instead of being resentful about the situation [1] (which would be totally fair, there is a lot of history and metaphorical debt to resent), we can work towards fixing it with policy that benefits the Boomers who are left (~2M of 55+ cohort dies every year, and only a fraction of seniors are unhoused) but will provide benefit for the next cohort to pass through that age bracket. It'll be costly, but it always is because we're irresponsible collectively more often than not and kick the can economically into the future. We might as well spend on durable infrastructure if we're going to spend.

TLDR Build affordable non market senior housing in locations that won't cause auto dependency, build with a 100 year lifetime for structures, put Boomers there until they die, wash and repeat with the next wave of destitute or near poverty seniors.

[1] "I can't afford to hate people. I don't have that kind of time." -- Bob Ross

(have several extended family members in senior housing across various states)

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

#407

Post by mcv »

klodolph wrote: post #319
wyager wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> her landlord suddenly raised her rent by $500. That shouldn't be legal. GP: "Government regulation is preventing the construction of more housing" You: "So true. For example, we need more regulation that make housing a legally encumbered asset with uniquely constrained and inflexible financial properties" What is your thought process here? Do you think this kind of thing will encourage the provision of more houses?…

The logic here is that there are two different competing concerns—the use of housing as an investment (money in, money out) and the use of housing as a place to live. There’s a lot of legislation that shifts the balance one way or the other. Things like property tax caps and zoning regulations shift the balance towards house-as-investment, and things like rent increase caps shift it the other way. If you don’t buy in…

Exactly. I see houses primarily as a roof over your head, not as an investment. And I think the investment attitude has done a lot of harm to the housing market, leading to extortionate practices and artificial scarcity.

I wouldn't even complain if all houses halved in value, despite being a homeowner. That my home would be worth less is irrelevant, because I'm not selling it, and if I was, I'd have to buy a new house anyway. People who see houses as investment would hate it, of course.

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

#408

Post by tzs »

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…

Older people generally are more likely to vote for the anti-immigration party.

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

#409

Post by seanmcdirmid »

sokoloff wrote: post #109
somewhereoutth wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take SF as an example. If a significant number of new units were built (somehow without detracting from the character of the city), would it really lower prices much? Likely not - instead prices would dip just enough to make it viable for large numbers of high income people from outside SF to come to the city (which by massing effect may make SF even more desirable, so actually higher prices!) Wealth taxes are…

If it works temporarily, but gets consumed by induced demand, then do it again. And then again. And then again. This is a good thing. If SF is so great, many more people will be able to go there.

So you are claiming that if SF becomes as dense as Manhattan, it will be as cheap as Manhattan? Or maybe Hong Kong’s density and housing affordability is the target here?

The ideal situation is Tokyo, where a lack of culture in speculating on housing coupled with population decreases leads (going down in the metro area for the last three years) to housing affordability.

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

#410

Post by FrustratedMonky »

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…

Everyone says its regulations. But nobody wants leaky pipes, and faulty electrical wiring. Which is what happens when you start cutting back regulations, because construction contractors will cut corners, to a really shocking degree.
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