The elderly are becoming homeless at a rate not seen since the Great Depression • Hacker News Board

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

#711

Post by bobthepanda » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

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…

Seattle is actually quite sprawly already for how small it is, by European standards. Bellingham is 140km away, just not a commutable distance in general.

Seattle has quite a lot of room to densify. Density could double, and it would still be less dense than Queens, NY, which still has plenty of homes with garages and yards.

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

#712

Post by hparadiz » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

ta1243 wrote: post #673

rg111 wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don't ever mind public transport. I have used public transport in multiple areas of the planet. There are two quips: 1. You have to be there in someone else's time. You can't have 5 or 10 or 30 minutes if something comes up. 2. What you say. I don't want to rub my body with people who are wearing dirty clothes, smell, and has god-knows-what liquid on their clothes who might choose to cough without using th…

Do you avoid elevators?

Maybe not explicitly when traveling but when picking a place to live, sure.

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

#713

Post by ericjmorey » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

c_crank wrote: post #346

unethical_ban wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their parents, society, etc. I won't convince you because you've got your anecdotes. Though I'd say if a public school counselor, parents and teachers all tell a 17 year old it's "college or bust", it's laughable to argue "ah, those teenagers should have been rational, informed consumers of professional training and eschewed the advice of every trusted adult in their life".

It does not take professional training to see the price tag of a student loan and to question if one can reasonably pay it off in the future. Certainly, someone equipped with the skills needed to be accepted into a college that costs so much should be able to do the math required on that calculation.

The point is that the majority did question it. It's a very uncertain proposition which is why they sought after the advice of people they trust with more life experiences and knowledge.

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

#714

Post by anshorei » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

ta1243 wrote: post #673

rg111 wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don't ever mind public transport. I have used public transport in multiple areas of the planet. There are two quips: 1. You have to be there in someone else's time. You can't have 5 or 10 or 30 minutes if something comes up. 2. What you say. I don't want to rub my body with people who are wearing dirty clothes, smell, and has god-knows-what liquid on their clothes who might choose to cough without using th…

Do you avoid elevators?

Elevators tend to be restricted to a specific group of people (inhabitants, customers, employees, etc.) in a way that public transport is not. If an elevator smells like urine, has suspicious stains or trash, chances are I'd look for an alternative. But it just so happens that the elevators I come across tend to be clean, unlike the public transport.

And I say this as someone who still takes public transport a lot, but it's increasingly less comfortable.

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

#715

Post by HEmanZ » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

ta1243 wrote: post #673

rg111 wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don't ever mind public transport. I have used public transport in multiple areas of the planet. There are two quips: 1. You have to be there in someone else's time. You can't have 5 or 10 or 30 minutes if something comes up. 2. What you say. I don't want to rub my body with people who are wearing dirty clothes, smell, and has god-knows-what liquid on their clothes who might choose to cough without using th…

Do you avoid elevators?

This isn’t a fair comparison, and you have to be arguing in bad faith to say this.

I have never seen someone pull out a gun, tweak out and rip out the hair of the girl sitting in front of them, or shit themselves, on an elevator. I have seen all of these on public transport in Seattle.

From another city, my younger brother was on the L in Chicago when a gun went off. Someone shot into the ceiling, no one got hurt, but holy hell idk if I could ride after that.

I still like the light rail in Seattle and am a massive supporter of public transport, but I understand people who won’t take it because of the psychological threats.

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

#716

Post by blairbeckwith » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:13 PM UTC

ta1243 wrote: post #673

rg111 wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I don't ever mind public transport. I have used public transport in multiple areas of the planet. There are two quips: 1. You have to be there in someone else's time. You can't have 5 or 10 or 30 minutes if something comes up. 2. What you say. I don't want to rub my body with people who are wearing dirty clothes, smell, and has god-knows-what liquid on their clothes who might choose to cough without using th…

Do you avoid elevators?

Not GP, but I certainly don't look forward to them. They are also much shorter duration experiences, and I can probably count one one hand the number of times I have shared an elevator with someone tweaking or shitting themselves, vs. the every day experience of seeing that on the bus.

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

#717

Post by rajman187 » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

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…

While I agree the public transit in the US is abysmal at best, I'm not sure the UK is a good measure anymore.

Rail strikes and engineering work are happening with such frequency that getting around seems to take longer and longer. A 1+ hour commute to just travel 10 miles is pretty absurd.

Insane cost overages and years of delays aside, the Elizabeth line has suffered from nearly 10% of all services being canceled in August.

At one point I was needing to take the Northern line from Clapham and would have to wait 3-4 trains before I could squeeze on. The max I waited was 10. Then I moved away.

Add to that infrastructure issues like Hammersmith and Wandsworth bridge closures and commuting becomes a soul crushing prospect.

I don't know what the solution is but with such a high tax rate in the country you'd expect much better. Other European countries seem to have it figured out.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66754481

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

#718

Post by kpw94 » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:14 PM UTC

nomel wrote: post #634

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.

> 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…

> things like getting stabbed, spit on, confronted

Also how much fentanyl and methamphetamine smoke do you inhale/touch everyday in your car? Compared to public transit

https://www.washington.edu/news/2023/09/07/uw-assessment-fin...

>> Researchers detected methamphetamine in 98% of surface samples and 100% of air samples, while fentanyl was detected in 46% of surface and 25% of air samples.

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

#719

Post by bobthepanda » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

raisedrased wrote: post #703

jimt1234 wrote: post #611

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

I think the most baffling thing is that in the Bay a school district proposed building housing restricted to its teachers (because a teacher’s salary is already tight before considering Bay area housing costs.)

The residents complained that their kids’ teachers would ruin the character of the area.

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

#720

Post by blastro » Mon, Sep 25, 2023, 5:15 PM UTC

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…

Not that I disagree with the direction of your post, but:

> The government should not allow itself to be weaponized against part of the population for the benefit of another.

That is literally the point of the government.