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Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

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Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#81

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

ZoomerCretin wrote: post #62
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are of the belief that, if it weren't for the regulations, the suburbs would be full of high density housing?

...yes? If I can buy four adjacent $1,000,000 homes and put up a mid-rise with 25 units at $400,000/each, I've just made $9,000,000 minus construction expenses.

Then why aren't they taking the time and energy to get those areas rezoned? It's possible, and I'm sure it's less expensive than the potential profit, especially if they choose an area far enough out that there are few neighbors to complain.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#82

Post by glitchc »

antiverse wrote: post #66

> “The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the a*," the woman said in a video filmed on February 14th, eight days before her death. HN would be wise to keep in mind that, as a general rule, governments think this about majority of their citizenry (those who are not in power). You might think someone in there is looking out for your best interests because you're an upstanding ci…

This deeply cynical and distrustful view of govt. is very US-centric. Perhaps it's driven by the fact that govt. frankly stopped working for the average US citizen a long time ago. It doesn't hold true elsewhere in the world.

Edited: OP is not the top-voted comment any more, thank goodness.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#83

Post by rescripting »

twblalock wrote: post #39
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with encouraging builders to go hard with few restrictions is you end up with a low-density urban sprawl that introduces a ton of its own issues. You end up with massively long commutes and a ton of infrastructure that now needs to be maintained, and none of that cost falls on the builder so they happily build fields of new homes miles away from work places or services.

> The problem with encouraging builders to go hard with few restrictions is you end up with a low-density urban sprawl that introduces a ton of its own issues. You only end up with that if that is what sells, i.e. that is what homebuyers want. If the average Canadian didn't want that, the developers would build something else. Your real problem here is with the preferences of the people who buy new homes, and you are…

People hold those preferences because when you live in the burbs you bear less of the cost of the externalities of urban sprawl. Basically, you get more bang for your buck.

The property tax rate is the same for a whole municipality whether you are downtown in high density housing or in the burbs.

You need more roads/public transportation/water mains/gas mains/buried cables etc to serve fewer people in the suburbs.

Make property taxes proportional to the infrastructure required to support a neighbourhood.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#84

Post by olivermarks »

The western world seems to be gripped by a death cult - drug overdoses, assisted suicide, suicide, victim culture - despite having 'the highest standard of living on the planet.

What's happened, is it the incredible pressure to perform and get ahead? Very rich school kids are topping themselves in the heart of silicon valley despite having probably some of the best prospects of anyone anywhere. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/12/the-sil...

We have vast transient encampments across north America, particularly the west that are riddled with violent and petty crimes, substance abuse and serious mental illness.

It is really hard to know what remedies are possible or workable.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#85

Post by srcreigh »

nostromo wrote: post #24
thinkingkong wrote: post #4

Whats wild about affordable housing in Canada is that for every newly built unit we lose 15. Yet almost nobody is talking about that part. You cant build your way out of the problem before you plug the leak. But there are obvious misaligned incentives to do that. The value system of our economy and culture seems to be obsessed with making basic needs a profit center, at all costs, regardless of the consequence.

I’m not attacking you, your heart is in the right place, but your comment illustrates the problem. Housing absolutely should be a profit center. Home and multifamily builders should be unleashed to build as much housing as they can. Let them be greedy; let them get rich. It’ll make housing more affordable for everyone. High housing costs aren’t a failure of the free market - they’re a failure of central planning at e…

Wouldn't this drop housing prices for existing home owners?

As much as I agree with you, I don't think people who are left with expensive mortgage payments for a house worth 1/2 the original purchase price are gonna consider that policy to be the affordable option.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#87

Post by antiverse »

glitchc wrote: post #82
antiverse wrote: post #66

> “The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the a*," the woman said in a video filmed on February 14th, eight days before her death. HN would be wise to keep in mind that, as a general rule, governments think this about majority of their citizenry (those who are not in power). You might think someone in there is looking out for your best interests because you're an upstanding ci…

This deeply cynical and distrustful view of govt. is very US-centric. Perhaps it's driven by the fact that govt. frankly stopped working for the average US citizen a long time ago. It doesn't hold true elsewhere in the world. Edited: OP is not the top-voted comment any more, thank goodness.

I've lived in Canada and abroad; I've vacationed a few times in the US so I'm amused my commentary is US-centric. The US and Canadian governments are far, far better in terms of hiding corruption than a lot of other ones. But corruption still exists.

There's way more cynicism out there than my commentary. And it would be close to the truth of things.

Edit: you probably haven't heard about the bodies they recently exhumed of native school children that the government poisoned, after they took them away from their parents, abused them, and ultimately killed them, so you might be under the impression that we're all sherry and giggles up here with Trudeau.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#88

Post by ZoomerCretin »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #81
ZoomerCretin wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...yes? If I can buy four adjacent $1,000,000 homes and put up a mid-rise with 25 units at $400,000/each, I've just made $9,000,000 minus construction expenses.

Then why aren't they taking the time and energy to get those areas rezoned? It's possible, and I'm sure it's less expensive than the potential profit, especially if they choose an area far enough out that there are few neighbors to complain.

>Then why aren't they taking the time and energy to get those areas rezoned?

Because of well-organized opposition from busy body homeowners. City governments aren't captured by business-interests the way state governments and the federal government are.

>especially if they choose an area far enough out that there are few neighbors to complain.

There are always enough people to complain about anything to kill it. A lot of people oppose anything new in their city entirely- not just in their neighborhood.

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#89

Post by jeromegv »

SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #56
twblalock wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem with encouraging builders to go hard with few restrictions is you end up with a low-density urban sprawl that introduces a ton of its own issues. You only end up with that if that is what sells, i.e. that is what homebuyers want. If the average Canadian didn't want that, the developers would build something else. Your real problem here is with the preferences of the people who buy new homes, and you are…

In that case it seems like the developers having more or less rules doesn't actually matter, no?

It does matter because most of the city of Toronto is zoned to prevent apartment buildings, low-rises, duplex, etc. Only a single family home is permitted.

The only things being built in Toronto are either single family homes, or giant 50 floors condos. It takes YEARS of consultations to build anything in Toronto so developers only bother going through that process for very very high buildings. It's not worth it for the type of higher density apartment of 3-4 stories.

It's called the missing middle, there's a good podcast/article here: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-missing-middle/

Re: Canadians Unable to Afford Safe Housing Are Turning to Medically-Assisted Death

#90

Post by twblalock »

db48x wrote: post #73
twblalock wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem with encouraging builders to go hard with few restrictions is you end up with a low-density urban sprawl that introduces a ton of its own issues. You only end up with that if that is what sells, i.e. that is what homebuyers want. If the average Canadian didn't want that, the developers would build something else. Your real problem here is with the preferences of the people who buy new homes, and you are…

That’s true, but take a look at the zoning laws as well. Some places have better zoning laws than the US and Canada. I think that Japan is frequently mentioned here, because there are only a dozen types of zones and all of the ones that allow housing allow the property owner to rebuild at a higher density. (There are several types of industrial–only zones that give them a way to prevent homes from being built too nea…

That's true, but it's also the case that most Canadians (and Americans) would be very dissatisfied with the quality of Japanese housing. Frankly it's crap -- thin walls, single-pane windows even today, no garages, tiny kitchens with two burners and no ovens...

In Japan people are far more reliant on the conscientiousness of their neighbors to maintain a peaceful and quiet environment than people in Canada and the United States are. They also have a low crime rate and safer, cleaner inner cities.

Obviously an entire population lives this way, and it works well for them, but that kind of housing situation would be a hard sell in North America.

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