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I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

mcsweeneys.net

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Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#411

Post by lmm »

Ccecil wrote: post #323
lmm wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> From what I have seen there isn't a housing shortage as much as an "affordable housing" shortage. It's generally much more illegal to build cheap housing, both in the direct sense that building codes require all new housing to be built to extremely high standards, and the indirect sense that in places without by-right development (which is most desirable cities sadly) your neighbours are going to fight a lot more a…

Not really talking about new builds. Where I live the majority of affordable housing has been bought up and turned into investment rentals or vacation rentals. They will leave the houses empty instead of lowering rent. Current average rental cost is 3x what the average renter makes. More apartments are being built (very cheap, inefficient designs) but the cost is still above what the average renter makes. Collusion i…

Prices only keep going up as long as there's an expectation of future profits. Everyone loves to hate investors (especially foreign ones), but cornering the market only works if it's impossible for other people to build new houses.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#412

Post by bitlax »

UncleMeat wrote: post #280
bitlax wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> rather remarkable claim. Mundane actually. I want my children to play outdoors without interacting with drug users. Your perspective is skewed. > Is your plan simply to imprison all poor people? No, and this doesn't follow.

I do not know any other mechanism to ensure that your child never interacts with a poor person except to imprison them all.

This is silly. You don't really believe this. My status quo is potless. We're discussing a policy change.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#413

Post by armada651 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #407
CrossVR wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I take it seriously and I also agree that in the US there's a large population that's sent to prison for no good reason, with almost no attention paid to rehabilitation and treatment. However I have doubts that, when people who hold that position come to power, El Chapo will be walking free with no restrictions the next morning. Some form of restriction of movement will be required for frequent violent offenders.…

> However I have doubts that, when people who hold that position come to power, El Chapo will be walking free with no restrictions the next morning. "Prison" (carceral punishment) does not encompass all possible restrictions on personal freedom and movement. Even in systems with carceral punishment, other restrictions on freedom and movement are used for some situations, that do not involve incarceration.

And this is exactly why calling for "prison abolishment" is so counter-productive, because when most people hear that the assumption is that everyone who's in prison right now is free to go.

It does not help your cause to adopt a motto that espouses a more extreme position than you actually hold and both your supporters and detractors will feel betrayed when they learn your position is actually more moderate.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#414

Post by derelicta »

danaris wrote: post #261
derelicta wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are no leftists in the US. The people you are refering to a liberals, who are defacto identical to conservatives

Hi there! I live in the US. I am a leftist. I am in favor of prison abolition, universal basic income, massively increased taxation of the rich, and voting reform. Care to explain why I either don't count or don't really exist?

Because you very likely still defend capitalism and US hegemony

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#415

Post by throwaway290 »

JodieBenitez wrote: post #114
throwaway290 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How did that happen? People buy houses and then not live there like Canada? Or there is not enough people? Can I move to france and live for free pls

You won't "live for free" as France has quite a high tax rate. But if you have any valuable skill and are open to the culture you can certainly live a good life there.

I just meant rent free obviously.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#416

Post by rstuart4133 »

sir0010010 wrote: post #399
gamblor956 wrote: post #393

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Private water works well until the well dries up. It's hitting a lot of homesteaders in the Coachella Valley (CA) and in Arizona right now. And people discover why CA's building codes are so onerous after the first earthquake knocks over their self-built house. Homes and offices built to current codes are designed to survive a Ritcher 7.0 earthquake with minimal to no damage. People don't even get out of bed for anyt…

Have you done research and found that the majority of the excess cost of constructing California homes is due to the specific regulations dealing with earthquakes? Are you sure there aren't other regulations and/or building codes there that have nothing to do with earthquakes or health/safety, yet massively impact the cost of homes in California?

People love to blame regulations. I live in a bushfire, cyclone and flood prone part of Australia. We have lots of regulations. For example a category 5 cyclone recent hit us, but no one overly concerned because it is a new area, and if you live in a cyclone area your house must be able to withstand 300 km/h winds. If you live in a bushfire area, you are required to have 20,000 litres of water on hand at all times. If you live in near a freeway, you are required to have 14mm glass to dampen the sound.

As it happens, I am building a house now, and an subject to all those regulations. It added maybe 10% to the total. But in real terms housing price has gone up far that that more since the 1970's.

Why? The reason is fairly mundane really: https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/new-us-homes-today-are-1000-s... Combine that with modern houses being air-conditioned, need to garage 2 cars, have stone benches and multiple TV's (none of which are mandated by regulation), and you get to the real reason.

It has nothing to do with the regulations, yet people blame it anyway.

We just need to build affordable housing. You would think given there is a demand for it, capitalism would make it happen. Yet it isn't happening. If you want to blame the government for something, not putting the regulations in place to create a market place to ensure it does happen would where I'd be looking. I doubt they would have much to do with reducing building safety, or opening up unsuitable land, and more to do with somehow arranging the financing so that it becomes attractive to build smaller, plain, boring looking cookie cutter houses.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#417

Post by Oanid »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #390
toast0 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building new, isolated, towns is hard for that reason. But if you build a town on a train or bus line that connects to places people work you don't need to bootstrap self sufficiency. Building near a highway works too.

Near a highway there is so much noise for homes though, I'm always shocked people find that acceptable. I checked a home near a highway and I couldn't even open the window due to the noise

There are apartments along Highway 427 in Toronto that are like that.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#418

Post by selfmodruntime »

UncleMeat wrote: post #170
selfmodruntime wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Different sources say 40 to 50% of homeless have substance abuse problems. A lot of people don't want addicts as neighbours.

A substantial reason why these people have substance addictions is because they are homeless and use substances to cope. Reducing the price of rent can prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.

> A substantial reason why these people have substance addictions is because they are homeless and use substances to cope

My experience is the opposite, I have family who do streetworking.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#419

Post by int_19h »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #402
toast0 wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what you count as 'near'. Adjacent to, yeah, it's noisy. Highway noise travels, but not that far. Textured walls and trees and bushes help reduce the distance that noise travels as well.

Oh sure, the places I'm talking about were maybe 100m from two highways. It was insane. I can't even imagine the amount of dust and air pollution you get in your home by opening the window

It depends. I live ~100m from a highway (I-90), and I have an air quality sensor that measures particulate pollution. AQI is usually in single digits.

Re: I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes (2018)

#420

Post by int_19h »

danaris wrote: post #248
foldr wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of humanizing homelessness fascinates me. It really does seem that the cultural default in the US is to view homeless people as subhumans who deserve to lead miserable lives. I’m not saying that this is what you yourself consciously believe(d), but it seems to be the implicit belief underlying much of the discourse around homelessness on HN and in the US more broadly. Normally when we talk about “humanizi…

The US has a very strong thread of Calvinist/Puritan/Protestant theology and thought running through its cultural foundations. One of the effects of this is a cultural predisposition to believe in something approximating the Just World theory—that is, that if someone is rich, it is because they are a better person (or blessed by God, or destined to be rich), while if they are poor it is because they are inferior peop…

It's not just a US thing, though.

I believe that some form of this is pretty common in general simply because that's how people cope with the very fact that homelessness exists in the first place. Like, it's either a massive injustice that pretty much demands that you, personally do something significant about it... or it's "just the way it is", and you can look away. But this latter outlook requires some amount of dehumanization, so people rationalize that the best they can.

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