Homelessness is primarily a housing problem • Hacker News Board

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#51

Post by proc0 » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 7:22 PM UTC

gremlinsinc wrote: post #37

proc0 wrote: post #34

If the problem is housing, and some cities don't have homelessness problems because they have cheap housing... then why don't the homeless people in places with expensive housing go to the places with cheap housing? Is it maybe because they prefer living in the more expensive area even if it means sleeping outside? is there maybe some individual-level incentive playing a factor here? Something is not adding up. Some…

If your SO or child got sick, and drove up multiple 6-figures, and you had to mortgage everything, and when they finally died, and the bank took your house, you hit despairing times, regardless of if it drives you to depression, drink, drugs, etc -- you couldn't cope, executive function went out the window and you ended up on the street. Would you A. stick around, or B. Go some place foreign, say you already live in…

If you can't afford even the cheapest housing in America, then housing isn't the problem, right? And if someone can't afford a bus ticket (or even come up with the money) chances are they need a lot more help and it's also not about housing. The point is how can it be housing when the rational thing to do is to relocate, and if you can't even do that, then you need way more help and it's not just housing.

The real solutions are different for each individual, since it has to do with keeping a job and being able to pay rent. Affordable housing is only a tangential problem at best.

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#52

Post by freddref » Sun, Mar 05, 2023, 9:49 PM UTC

notjulianjaynes wrote: post #22

readthenotes1 wrote: post #8

I wonder how much mental illness and drug abuse contribute to staying in a place you can't afford a roof?

20 million Americans have a substance use disorder. About half a million people in the United States are currently experiencing homelessness. So the overlap in those populations is like 2%. Source: couple lazy google searches.

What percentage of homeless have mental illness or drug abuse issues?

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#53

Post by Incipient » Mon, Mar 06, 2023, 1:23 AM UTC

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #5

Homelessness is primarily a problem created by the requirement to continuously upkeep your shelter financially or risk losing it. The ability to perform this upkeep can be wrecked by any number of things, which there is not enough space to list here. The overwhelming majority of people who fail at this upkeep are saved by their support network, so the actual problem is several orders of magnitude larger than any offi…

But what would be the effect on the amount of dilapidated housing, or "slum areas" without this maintenance requirement?

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#54

Post by Incipient » Mon, Mar 06, 2023, 1:27 AM UTC

Aloha wrote: post #20

legitster wrote: post #11

This seems pretty cut and dry to me. Single Resident Occupancy units used to be incredibly common - from shared adult dorms to chicken-wire hotels. Now they are non-existent. In 50 years this represented a loss of over a million housing units ! Today there are 500k people living on the streets. I don't think it's a coincidence.

Urban Renewal/Beautification and NIMBYism to an extent killed both trailer parks and single occupancy units. I'd also note the death of the boarding house between 1920 and 1970 as another issue contributing to things.

In the 50-100 years since then, you think we don't have the tech or capacity to have been able to "upgrade" trailer parks into even studio apartments?

Feels like a huge oversimplification to just say "all would be fine if we had trailer parks".

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#55

Post by forgotmypw17 » Mon, Mar 06, 2023, 1:53 AM UTC

Incipient wrote: post #53

forgotmypw17 wrote: post #5

Homelessness is primarily a problem created by the requirement to continuously upkeep your shelter financially or risk losing it. The ability to perform this upkeep can be wrecked by any number of things, which there is not enough space to list here. The overwhelming majority of people who fail at this upkeep are saved by their support network, so the actual problem is several orders of magnitude larger than any offi…

But what would be the effect on the amount of dilapidated housing, or "slum areas" without this maintenance requirement?

I think there would be more people living in poorly maintained buildings instead of not having any building to live in.

Re: Homelessness is primarily a housing problem

#56

Post by manicdee » Mon, Mar 06, 2023, 2:34 PM UTC

Incipient wrote: post #54

Aloha wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Urban Renewal/Beautification and NIMBYism to an extent killed both trailer parks and single occupancy units. I'd also note the death of the boarding house between 1920 and 1970 as another issue contributing to things.

In the 50-100 years since then, you think we don't have the tech or capacity to have been able to "upgrade" trailer parks into even studio apartments? Feels like a huge oversimplification to just say "all would be fine if we had trailer parks".

You say “trailer parks” I say “affordable housing”. Affordable housing solutions like dorms and bedsit apartment blocks aren’t feasible in many places like the USA where it’s literally illegal to build anything other than high rise apartments or standalone homes.