Democrats can't solve the issue of Homelessness

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Few Mayors Connect the Dots Between Zoning and Homelessness

Restrictive codes can severely limit housing development, but a new survey of mayors finds that few take them into account in their plans to address homelessness.

Jan 30, 2023 Carl Smith

https://www.governing.com/community/few ... melessness

One last input,

How to increase housing and ease homelessness in Hawaii

By Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
June 1, 2022
Housing, Land Use & Zoning, Presentations & Webin

https://www.grassrootinstitute.org/2022 ... in-hawaii/

Personally, I LIKE the freedom of being able to drive and have only gone without a car in my adult life when I absolutely could not afford it. There are people who live in certain areas like Downtown Vancouver, or the West Side, or The West End, or West Vancouver, (Yes, these are geographically 3 different places entirely!), or North Vancouver, or East Vancouver etc that almost never ever leave their neighbourhood for any reason ever - and never EVER travel over even a single bridge! They don't drive and don't want/need to, or can't afford it due to rent/income etc and Might use some sort of car share car once in a while. I know a woman that moved here from New Brunswick 30 years ago and has never left the West Side neighbourhoods of Kitsilano, Point Grey, and UBC except to go downtown for a concert or something - which isn't far.

But not everyone has the means to operate a vehicle of any kind, never mind multiple. Especially if they are paying market rents and supporting dependants aka have mouths to feed. Even with no car payment, it costs me about $800-900/month to own and operate my little car when I'm driving to town ~daily including insurance, gas, oil, tires, brakes etc. Used to be only $600 or so but gas has gone way up and everything else is a bit more expensive so more like 8+. A LOT of people don't have a TOTAL monthly budget of $800 for e v e r y t h i n g after rent is paid, never mind able to allocate that to driving a paid for car and then can still afford food/clothing/medicine etc. My total cost of driving is likely to average more like $1200-1300/mo I Guess as I also have a motorcycle to insure/maintane/put 94 Octane in, and then my van is sold but I've still been paying the insurance on it and I'm inheriting my father's truck which I'll insure and maintain but only drive it for Truck Things because while it's very capable for a small/mid sized truck (V6, 4x4, extended cab long box 2010 ranger) it's the least fuel efficient of it's year getting a combined 14mpg. (16.8L/100km)

Most people that have always had cars are keeping vehicles on the road, but I see more and more downsizing from big pickup trucks and suv's to smaller cars like me because they LIKE having a truck but can no longer justify the $1000-1200+/month going straight into the gas tank. TONS of young people aren't even bothering with cars or drivers licences at all anymore because they're like hmmm, no insurance discount with the new pricing means $400-500/mo for insurance + gas and this and that on some minimum wage job = more and more young people are only bothering to learn to drive if they're passionate about it. Some will learn basics and only borrow mom and dad's car here and there. etc.

So moving away from the city, which is almost as expensive, and then adding in the cost of a car.. makes many peoples' total expenses higher than if they stayed in the city and walked a lot, took a bus, maybe rode a bicycle or an e-bike. Depends on their work and lifestyle.

But I LIKE driving and I LIKE the idea of hopping in my car and going to the beach 45-50kms away any time I want. Or up into the mountains - where I really should venture, buy some more gear, and get back out on the ocean to do some kiteboarding this Summer. I've been meaning to for a few years and haven't made the time.

And then there's other things.. like this 1983 Honda VFR 750 Interceptor for sale.. 1 owner, 5500 original kms. Tempting at $4500 lol. I could collector plate it and ride it a bit here and there for a couple years then sell it for a similar price if I wanted something different. Or just grow the stable. It's like museum quality original - but I'd take it out riding if I bought it.

Yeah, except that you live on a tiny little island nation with 67 Million people.. if someone gets tired and falls down, someone else is right beside to catch them. The solutions that work for a tiny little island nation where people can bicycle across the whole of a few countries in a matter of a few days don't work in North America where the distance between major cities is greater than the longest length of your entire multi-nation kingdom. You can't possibly grasp the scale and scope of things here if you've never been to a place where you can travel highways for 500+ kms and the only thing you come across is the next gas station which you're grateful to have made it to before running out of fuel.

JUST British Columbia is more than 4x the size of the entire UK, and Canada is more than 40x the size of the UK. Our population is 38.25M as of 2021, mostly in the handful of large cities where people are close enough to one another to help each other vs. spread out evenly across the land where people will either thrive if they're healthy, or die if they get sick or injured.

Like I said before, if people are outside of cities with hospitals and various services from government agencies, charities, and non profits then they're almost going to be in some live action version of Survivor Man or some s**t. People who don't have the means to support themselves need to be closer to services that keep them alive and create an opportunity for them to heal and strengthen vs. be tossed to the wolves - almost literally.. but it'd be more likely bears would get 'em than wolves.

Or the cougars, and no, not the ones in spandex and Louboutin heels,

True - there are a few large cat breeds here that'll kill ya just as bears might. Deer are generally harmless, but no one wants to tangle with a Moose - they're absolutely massive and if one decided to charge you you'd probably fair about as good as a pedestrian getting hit by a full size pick up truck.

It's also possible that coyotes might get ya, but generally they'll only go after very small children, cats, dogs etc. But it's possible that if enough of them are hungry they could kill a man. Raccoons are generally just a nuisance buuuuut, if one had rabies and you got it that would kill ya. Large birds or small bats Could kill someone, too, but that's a stretch. More likely to be a bear or a cat than any other animal.. MAYBE a spider if you're in a more desert area of the Province - which a neighbour said they found a black widow recently.. maybe Summers are getting hot enough that they're here now a bit more than before.

Bears would be my number one concern depending on location - they wander through peoples yards in some suburb cities of Vancouver, not even just off up in the mountains.. and large cats would be number 2. Everything else is just wandering around doing whatever they do.. deer grazing, mountain goats doing mountain goat things on rocky cliffs just because they can. But this isn't Australia where every plant and animal is actively trying to kill you! Almost everything here is either food, friend, or both.

[ RANT ]

Do you never get tired of people who go on and on about how "someone" ought to do "something", but who never get around to doing anything themselves?

I have been on three sides of the homeless situation -- as a naive youth who believed the problem lay with the homeless people themselves, as a homeless person who saw The System at fault, and as a recovered homeless person who sees how complex the situation really is.

But homelessness really does begin with one simple fact: People are homeless because they have no homes.  Whatever other reasons they have for becoming homeless can be resolved once they are housed.

But those so-called "advocates" who hound the press, the politicians, and the general public into solving the Homeless Crisis for them seem to have blinded themselves to one other simple fact: They could invite homeless people into their own homes as guests until the guests get back on their own two feet.

Then maybe they would learn how difficult it is to provide a simple solution.  They would also learn that many homeless people have problems too complex for just one household to handle.  Finally, they would learn that once they give a little, a homeless person will want the home-owner to give them everything else, too.

Criminals, drunks, junkies, schizos, thieves . . . the homeless population is full of undesirable people; the advocates are full of naive people who believe their social-science degrees make them experts on everything; and the people who see the Big Picture (especially those of us who have been homeless) know that the homeless will always be with us and there is not one damned thing that can be done about it.

[ END RANT ]

Except that there are tens of thousands of homeless people in Cali now. And growing numbers here. There are reasons there are record numbers of homeless people and it’s not that the population of Criminals, drunks, junkies, schizos, thieves Etc just suddenly exploded over the last decade.

It’s a lack of affordable housing and policies that have created and exacerbated the problem. So, IMO, there is a damned thing we can do about it - collectively, as a society, with government leadership.

I get it, Goldie.  Except for that last sentence.

I have been face-to-face with too many people for whom the words "We should do X" really mean "Everyone else should do X" for it to inspire me to action -- everyone seems to expect everyone else to handle the "Homeless Problem" (as I pointed out earlier).  Even when I took in homeless people, getting help from the churches, government, and secular NGOs just put me in a run-around.

"Well, if they're staying with you, they're no longer homeless, are they?  So they no longer qualify for our services."

"Say that again?"

Homelessness is always someone else's problems, even if it is your own.

This hasn't always been the case. When I was younger, there was lots of cheap housing here in NYC, and in other major cities.

What has made prices skyrocket? (1) Ever-increasing numbers of rich people wanting to live in cities, or at least to own property in cities. (2) Zoning laws, which artificially restrict the supply of housing.


Cities are where most of the jobs are, and where most of the government services are, etc.

Some people, including myself, are unable to drive, and therefore need to live in a city with good public transportation. For some of us, this is not an option.

The US life expectancy actually dropped because of the huge numbers of junkies and drunks.

Homeless people monged off their face on smack have increased to levels I thought wouldn't have been possible only 10 years ago and they make up the entirety of my conflicts with people.

These people can't even hold down jobs, yet alone buy and maintain houses even if they were sold at 1980s prices.

House price increases are a huge problem, but to only fixate on them, and only concentrate on city prices as the sole problem is strange.

Several SouCal cities tried an experiment: Under-performing hotels were rented out by the cities to house the homeless on an interim basis.  I visited 3 in Anaheim, both before the people took up residence, and after they had been there for 30 days.

The units were in near-pristine condition before -- fresh paint, new fixtures and appliances, basic furniture, et cetera.

30 days later, and the rooms had been wrecked.  Appliances were either damaged beyond repair or missing entirely.  Same for plumbing fixtures.  Copper pipe and wiring had been ripped out of the walls and ceilings.  Drug paraphernalia was in practically every room.  Feces were everywhere -- walls and ceilings, too.  The units and hallways reeked of urine and rot.

(Goldfish21, I am sure you have seen your share of trashed-out apartments.  Now imagine that scene repeated 60+ times in just one building.)

We were not allowed to take pictures, and the program -- now labelled an 'Experiment' -- was quietly shut down.

No wonder Nimby-itis takes over whenever home- and business-owners hear of similar 'Experiments' being proposed for their neighborhoods.

Yes, it sucks to be homeless; I can certainly vouch for that.  It sucks even more for the property owners whose businesses, parking lots, yards, and homes are practically demolished in exchange for the mercy they show others less fortunate than they.

I witnessed this first hand myself. Horrific behaviour towards other homeless people from them too.

One woman I know let two homeless people in and then they started inviting more without her consent. Her money was stolen and her flat was picked clean of anything valuable.

I think one of the big problems with homeless in cities is the corrupt homeless charities that are wasting donations that could be helping the poor but they are paying executives 6 figures instead. Thats just one factor out of many.

Let's not forget my old thread in random forum ages ago about my own experience with someone who turned out was homeless after some investigation.

He trashed one of my houses. 10k.....full gutting. Even s**t over the light switches which was encrusted and needed changing, rats in the kitchen, abusing neighbours and he just shoved his trash in a plastic bags and threw them against the wall. Bin juice leaked into the flooring and that had to be changed too.

He's being hounded for unpaid local government taxes too and I was about to team up with them (of all agencies) to take his trust fund off him.

You seem to also not really have a grasp on the opiod epidemic in the USA and Canada. Not every addict is visibly homeless and "monged off their face on smack." There are countless housed working people doing these drugs now as well. Regular working class white people in the USA are beginning to care about the drug problem because people are dying in their communities.. in their homes, at parties, in the community, at work etc because so many people are addicted to these drugs now - not just disturbed homeless people who can't manage to hold a job.

What England did to Hong Kong and India with opium a hundred years or so ago China has done back to the USA and Canada at least 10 fold.