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

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

#841

Post by nomel »

dkarl wrote: post #704
nomel wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 stabbings, one slit throat, and a page full of fights, in my area, over the last two years That's basically nothing next to car accidents. Car accident injuries can be pretty gruesome. Maybe the fundamental change that is needed is awareness of the risks of driving and the yearly death/mutilation toll in each community. (And the awareness that bigger and bigger SUVs with higher and higher bumpers is a zero-sum…

Sure, but when family is in the car, I drive in the slow lane, to help protect them. When family is on the metro, wtf am I supposed to do, beyond maybe a pocket knife on my belt? I took my family on the metro exactly once, and never again, after a younger one almost stepped on a syringe, and a homeless guy was rambling about hiding in a dumpster.

If you're a guy taking a ride, sure. Otherwise, get real.

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

#842

Post by somewhereoutth »

anthonypasq wrote: post #293
IKantRead wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Shenzhen grew from 100,000 people in the 1980s to 13M now with no housing affordability crisis...by building. I wouldn't use China as an example of solving the housing problem by simply building. There's currently a large oversupply problem [0] and, not entirely unlike the US (but more extreme), excess supply of housing has lead to people simply owning more than one property as an investment strategy. 0. https://ww…

yeah thats because the building was centrally planned, which is always a worse choice than just allowing the market to work itself out. It doesnt detract from the mind numbingly obvious statement that increasing supply decreases prices.

> mind numbingly obvious statement that increasing supply decreases prices

Only in idealised markets. Housing markets are often not like that.

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

#843

Post by justin66 »

jeffbee wrote: post #548
maxwell wrote: post #538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intriguing maybe, but not surprising. It seems like they all grew up watching the same TV shows/news, eating the same food, and reading/watching/listening to mostly the same books/movies/music.

I think they were being sarcastic, and their point is taken.

Thanks for that. And for getting it...

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

#844

Post by RIMR »

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 really is the perfect example. I love living here, but I can only afford to own real estate in the suburbs. But, the moment I buy something in the suburbs, I'll either have to buy a car, or take 3+ busses to get anywhere I want to go in my off-time, which just drives the cost of my decision to move up, or it harms my quality of life.

For now I rent and hope that the cost of living doesn't screw me.

If I could just bike to the nearest train station, and zip around everywhere I needed to go, the radius in which I would want to live would be much wider. Hopefully some of the light rail expansions will make things nicer, but a high speed rail would be a complete game-changer.

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

#845

Post by rendang »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #318
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…

You say this like every developer would be rushing out to build low-income housing if only they could. Developers build expensive luxury units because they can rent them for $2k a month by scalping tenants from nearby buildings who are currently paying $2.1k per month, because the buildings really don't cost that much more to build, the higher forecasted income from said renting makes it easier to sell to banks and g…

I grew up in Tucson, a city full of garden apt complexes that in the 2000s charged $300-$600 for a one-bedroom apartment. All of them were built by private developers, owned by private mgmt companies, there were no rent control laws, and rents stayed pretty low there all the way up until the COVID demand shock.

You aren't going to ever have cheap housing in a desirable urban core, but the vast land area of inner ring suburbs can house many more people if upzoned.

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

#846

Post by mym1990 »

rcarr wrote: post #656
mym1990 wrote: post #644

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just taking OPs situation and putting your loved ones into it, that is not empathy. Family dynamics can be incredibly complex, and more so when drugs, lack of resources, or abuse is involved(that is just a few examples, and often the situation has many points of strain).

Most of the time, but not all the time. If you're an only child and your grandparents are dead, your parents are dead, and they too didn't have any brothers or sisters, or they were on bad terms with them, then you've probably got no social net whatsoever. And some people are orphans. People with large families don't often realise how difficult life can be for people with small families or no family.

I should have added in my example that I was talking about a breakdown in relationships or ability to help between 2 living family members. Of course orphans or people with no living family is very difficult situation.

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

#847

Post by dkarl »

nomel wrote: post #841
dkarl wrote: post #704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> two stabbings, one slit throat, and a page full of fights, in my area, over the last two years That's basically nothing next to car accidents. Car accident injuries can be pretty gruesome. Maybe the fundamental change that is needed is awareness of the risks of driving and the yearly death/mutilation toll in each community. (And the awareness that bigger and bigger SUVs with higher and higher bumpers is a zero-sum…

Sure, but when family is in the car, I drive in the slow lane, to help protect them. When family is on the metro, wtf am I supposed to do, beyond maybe a pocket knife on my belt? I took my family on the metro exactly once, and never again, after a younger one almost stepped on a syringe, and a homeless guy was rambling about hiding in a dumpster. If you're a guy taking a ride, sure. Otherwise, get real.

Surely you can do something to give yourself an illusion of control on the metro just like you do on the freeway.

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

#848

Post by rendang »

adra wrote: post #353
J_Shelby_J wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building any housing is building affordable housing. Adding one home at the top of the price range, increases the number of affordable homes for someone, somewhere, by at least one.

Come tell that to the residents of Vancouver. We've had countless luxury condos made year after year for two decades and we're at around 3k/mo for a 1br.. tell us more about how building units that "regular" people can never afford that it's always helping them.

Canada also has one of the highest immigration rates in the world

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

#849

Post by Kretinsky »

epistasis wrote: post #78
Kretinsky wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that there aren't infinite ressources, shouldn't we prioritize housing families, that prepare the future, rather than the elderly?

With housing, the problem isn't so much that we can't afford to build it easily, the problem is that we have made it illegal to provide housing. We have a shortage not because it is expensive, but because we regulated a shortage into existence. We do need some subsidy programs to help those with the lowest incomes or no incomes. But those will become easier to provide once we allow enough housing to be built and less…

Housing is expensive, especially in the american, low density suburbian way. You need to build a large infrastructure around housing for it to be viable, and if the housed can't pay taxes, everyone will end up paying for it.

Also, I don't understand: why not move to a place without zoning? Not all homeless have to live in SF right?

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

#850

Post by Kretinsky »

phyrex wrote: post #84
Kretinsky wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the richest country because everyone is in survival mode and has a strobg pressure to get their head above the water. In socialist euro countries you can go with the flow created by the welfare state.

It’s the richest country because it has tons of natural resources and wasn’t bombed to pieces in WW2

South America is ressource rich, hasn't had a major war for more than a century, and yet isn't so rich. Why?
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