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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

#631

Post by momirlan »

staringback wrote: post #277
momirlan wrote: post #91

this is the generation that had it best: jobs for life, good benefits, cheap houses, etc. they also destroyed the planet with their "American dream" style consumption. what's coming for the new generations if these are suffering ?

If houses were so "cheap", why is the home ownership rate higher today? Why wouldn't everybody just buy one of those "cheap" houses? https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N

trust me, when i bought my first house in '97 the prices were 5 times lower than today. my salary was 75% of what I'm making today. so even late boomers (which I am) had their chance.

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

#632

Post by Schiendelman »

ryandrake wrote: post #497
BytesAndGears wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t built a “$2k rental”. You can only build a rental that someone will pay for. Landlords are building luxury housing because it’s the only thing that’s profitable right now due to the immensely ridiculous laws that don’t help people. But if an apartment building popped up in downtown SF charging $800/mo, it’s not like only the low income people would live there. Many people living in $3000/mo apartments also…

> You can’t built a “$2k rental”. You can only build a rental that someone will pay for. Landlords are building luxury housing because it’s the only thing that’s profitable right now due to the immensely ridiculous laws that don’t help people. That's what I'm asking: Exactly which laws? Nobody seems to be specific.

Lots of people are specific, but it's a HUGE set of laws, and they're slightly different in different places. Like if someone says to you "supply restrictions due to single family zoning", someone else will say "Well Houston doesn't have that", but Houston allows you to sue your neighbor if they cast a shadow on your property, so it's a different method that gets to the same result.

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

#633

Post by mym1990 »

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 feel like it should just be "Humans are and have always been characterized by their failure to plan for the future". All of history is just a rise and fall of empires due to unforeseen or unexpected consequences, followed by an advance in technology. Who are you to say that gen X or any other generation will correctly plan for the future(as we currently navigate some of the biggest hurdles to humanity and the Earth in general)?

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

#634

Post by nomel »

cornercasechase wrote: post #610
GenerocUsername wrote: post #600

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Available transit needs to include safe transit. The current bus and light rail situation has turned off swaths of the working class to support the dredges of the drug-addict class by their lack of fare-enforcement and other low-end enabling schemes that sound great on paper, but lead to complicated downstream chilling effects on the entire region.

Public transit is much safer than driving in your car. Someone skipping fare does not compare to even a light fender bender.

> Someone skipping fare

This, obviously, isn't what raises fear in people. "Safer" for some statistics, like a car crash, but also much less safe for things like getting stabbed, spit on, confronted. Sure, it's somewhat rare on public transport, but they're exactly zero in my car, at freeway speeds.

edit: A quick google search shows two stabbings, one slit throat, and a page full of fights, in my area, over the last two years. While the statistics are low, in terms of per person*miles, this real difference, and the 2hr vs 30 minute times, is what keeps people and families in cars. Fundamental changes are needed.

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

#635

Post by vehemenz »

alexb_ wrote: post #262
mcv wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Part of the problem is government regulation. And not just too much regulation, but the wrong kind of regulation, and a lack of regulation in areas that need it. Someone in the article was forced out of her home because her landlord suddenly raised her rent by $500. That shouldn't be legal. Corporations buying up homes in order to drive up prices shouldn't be allowed. Lots of things are allowed that shouldn't be. A…

> Someone in the article was forced out of her home because her landlord suddenly raised her rent by $500. That shouldn't be legal. Rent gets raised by $500 because someone else would actually pay that much. Rent control is the ultimate "I got mine" - it rewards people who got in early while making it impossible for anyone else to have housing. The reason rent could go up that much is because supply is so artificiall…

You didn't answer why that should be legal. We all know how free market dynamics work.

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

#636

Post by gottorf »

denimnerd42 wrote: post #618
cornercasechase wrote: post #610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Public transit is much safer than driving in your car. Someone skipping fare does not compare to even a light fender bender.

I think people mean a more irrational feeling of safety, rather than hard statistics. They don't want to see or be near those antisocial behaviors when they're taking transportation. Old people seem to suffer from this irrational feeling more than younger.

"Irrational" is a strange way to describe it. People don't go around memorizing statistics of how likely someone who is exhibiting one kind of antisocial behavior (being obviously high, defecating in public, etc.) would be to engage in another kind of antisocial behavior (committing physical violence upon another person). And especially when the cost of making the wrong judgment is high, it's entirely rational to want to avoid it entirely.

> Old people seem to suffer from this irrational feeling more than younger.

Old people generally have more to lose. Young people, especially young males, are well known to think of themselves as invincible.

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

#637

Post by lambdasquirrel »

gavin_gee wrote: post #594

Some good commentary in this thread, however one topic thats never raised in the topic of affordable housing is fast cheap public transit. I could never imagine being able to buy a house in London. but the train network makes it possible to live in a more affordable neighbourhood and commute as needed. In the US we seem to think that cities can continue to have affordable housing in the most desireable areas. this is…

I don’t know about that. There’s a whole lot of people in Bellingham who’ve been saying it’s unaffordable for them now.

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

#638

Post by ZoomerCretin »

r3trohack3r wrote: post #418
spir wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You only perceive corporate landlords as the greater problem because we're not living in the counterfactual reality where there are millions of new apartments that are inexpensive, tiny, safe, quiet, modern, clean, dignified, and well-located. In pretty much every major city in North America, it is illegal or there is too much red tape to build the affordable housing people actually want. Why is it that living in a t…

I think I agree with you in principle. I don’t understand how the consolidation of the housing market doesn’t create a feedback loop that prevents that counterfactual reality? A few asset management companies have been purchasing the entire supply chain. From land to homes, from builders to agents. These companies have a large amount of capital to deploy to make sure their assets go up and to the right. It also seems…

There is no evidence that the housing market has reached a level of consolidation needed for cartel-like activity (i.e. withholding supply to increase total rent revenue) to be feasible. No one is withholding supply.

Asset management companies don't buy houses and leave them vacant. They rent them out. There is no net-loss in supply. There is no effect on rents, only purchase price.

> These companies have a large amount of capital to deploy to make sure their assets go up and to the right.

These companies are required by law to share their investment strategies. They explicitly state that they are only interested in buying housing in areas with strong job markets and _restrictive supply policies_. It makes no sense to buy housing in an area where the bottom can fall out on rents because other people with money can just build more housing.

Blackstone et al. are a convenient boogeyman, but they are merely taking advantage of our housing crisis, not creating it.

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

#639

Post by bad_user »

jimt1234 wrote: post #611
gavin_gee wrote: post #594

Some good commentary in this thread, however one topic thats never raised in the topic of affordable housing is fast cheap public transit. I could never imagine being able to buy a house in London. but the train network makes it possible to live in a more affordable neighbourhood and commute as needed. In the US we seem to think that cities can continue to have affordable housing in the most desireable areas. this is…

I've been told since childhood that the main obstacle to inexpensive public transit in the the majority of US is racism - keep those people in their neighborhood . I've never done any sort of research or anything, and even though it's depressing, it sounds plausible.

I'm not a US citizen, and racism may be the issue.

OTOH, given US's geography and culture of wide streets, suburbs, and driving around, it's pretty obvious that public transit is pricier than it is in Europe, similarly to broadband connection. As a European, I could also complain about terrible traffic congestion due to narrow streets in constant need of repair, or lacking parking space, which makes every car ride a source of stress. Your Uber is also dirt cheap compared to where I live.

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

#640

Post by fnimick »

jimt1234 wrote: post #611
gavin_gee wrote: post #594

Some good commentary in this thread, however one topic thats never raised in the topic of affordable housing is fast cheap public transit. I could never imagine being able to buy a house in London. but the train network makes it possible to live in a more affordable neighbourhood and commute as needed. In the US we seem to think that cities can continue to have affordable housing in the most desireable areas. this is…

I've been told since childhood that the main obstacle to inexpensive public transit in the the majority of US is racism - keep those people in their neighborhood . I've never done any sort of research or anything, and even though it's depressing, it sounds plausible.

It's very true. Look at the way "urban" is used as a dog whistle for certain groups of people.

A bit of local history from where I live: Boston rapid transit was intended to extend to the northwest a considerable distance, putting more communities on the system and allowing easy, car-free commutes. It saw vociferous neighborhood opposition from groups who "didn't like the idea of increased traffic and certain urban elements entering their quiet suburban town." Sound familiar? https://boston.curbed.com/2014/2/13/10144086/the-red-line-st...

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