Major homelessness crisis on the West Coast

Post Reply New Topic

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/homelessness-soars-on-west-coast-as-cities-struggle-to-cope/ar-AAutZad?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartanntp

The sad part is that the Feds will do everything to rein in the banks for issuing crappy loans, but nothing to address housing affordability in that part of the country, which partially led to the financial meltdown of '08.

Yeah it's insane how much rent has gone up in the Puget Sound area from what I've heard. Not just in traditionally expensive areas like Seattle, but in areas much further out where it used to be affordable.

What solutions could be done to make housing affordable on the West Coast? Or the East Coast for that matter?

I guess the short answer is less greed. These owners / realtors all decide to raise their rent to double what it was because some market system says they can, because Amazon employees get paid a lot. I was listening to something on the radio where this person renting a garage apartment to a sibling insisted on raising the rent some huge amount because of "current market value". It just seems like some ridiculous game. I hope it all collapses like I hear it did in 2008 or whenever, if people can't agree not to bleed other people dry.

The idea is ridiculous.

I go to Beverly Hills and proclaim, "I can't afford a 10 million dollar home, someone needs to do something!".

The solution is simple, drop these people in an area that they can afford to live in. There are plenty, like Detroit.

When I lived in Colorado this is what they would do, Colorado Springs would give free one-way bus trips to Pueblo for homeless people.
http://www.denverpost.com/2010/01/28/co ... kets-home/

That's a start.

I couldn't read the article. Homeless camps have increased here so I see them all the time here in Portland. I know the homeless solution would be to quit raising the rent. I don't care about demand and Calis moving up here and willing to pay more in rent so the landlords jack up their rent prices not caring about their current tenants. I agree this is all greed. Luckily not all landlords are like this and they will only raise their rent if cost of living goes up and maintenance not because of newcomers or because they decide they want more money.

That reminds me of South Park about the homeless people.

The problem is the affordable places aren't affordable anymore. That garage apartment went from 600 to 1200 overnight. Moving to an area like Detroit where rent is lower because Detroit is impoverished, isn't a solution.

I would imgine if you worked 40 hrs a week as a common laborer and lived in a tiny apartment in a low rent zip code and your rent suddenly doubled or trippled, you would be singing a differnt toon.

A lot of people who have to work in Seattle live in towns that are 30 to 50 miles away to have an affordable place. But now those remote places are going for what places in Seattle went for a year ago. And it's just getting worse.

There is affordable housing available that normally had about a year long wait list. But now the line to get in is like 5 times longer than it was a year ago, so basically no one now is going to be able to get into a unit.

And this is supposedly because of Amazon when Microsoft and Boeing etc have been here forever? I don't buy it. It's just pure greed.

Government regulations are a HUGE part of the problem.
It's hard to build affordable alternative housing when such structures are:
A) illegal
B) Permits, inspections, taxes, etc. end up costing more than the price of labor & materials.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got out of the business of financing multifamily construction projects which resulted in the new apartment projects going out to the regular financial markets and were then also forced to cater to a higher income demographic as the interest rates are much higher than Fannie or Freddies government backed bonds. Older apartments were not directly changed by this change, but the indirect impacts of large rent increases elsewhere suddenly allowed for large increases in other housing stock built to cater to a lower income range along with older housing stock in general.

So it's basically be rich or be homeless?

Oh Man!

There's so many homeless in NYC! I would say it's about double what it was five years ago. And many of these people aren't mentally ill, or criminals.

Mayor De Blasio promised to build about 50,000 new apartment units for homeless people. I think he's built maybe 500 in the four years he's been in office.

There are SO MANY contributing factors! Beyond just money and housing. The social stigma that goes along with being perceived as homeless is amazing.
I will go on a crazy long giant rant if I don't restrain myself here, so I'm going to leave this brief, and maybe try to come back and chime in little pieces at a time.
First thing, and one that really gets to me is that they need to be referred to as homeless PEOPLE. And often this segment of society is not represented as such. It's far to common to say "the homeless", and never include the word people in the description. I'm sure there are a huge number of reasons why, but on some level it needs to be addressed and it needs to change. It effectively dehumanizes a population. Doing so makes it gradually become acceptable to increasingly deny these people the same standards of health, safety, dignity as other parts of the population.
And I have to stop now.

More like make a substantial living or become homeless even if you have a job. And even those making lets say 25$+ per hour are getting crappy little rundown places designed for those on a low pay scale, because that's all they can afford, so they're getting screwed too. I wonder if the minimum wage being jacked up to 15$ in Seattle has something to do with it.

Last edited by EzraS on 08 Nov 2017, 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Don't they also turn existing buildings into rent controlled housing? In my town there was a big old abandoned apartment building they renovated and turned into apartments for senior citizens. Rent is still collected, but it's a reasonable amount.

Of course I know they are PEOPLE. I sometimes talk to them on the train. If a person is able to have a rational, decent conversation with me, without yelling and cursing, then I'll talk to anybody.

Many homeless people actually speak very well, and act well. Many have intractable problems: like a criminal record obtained when they were young, and which cannot be expunged in New York State (unlike other states). Many have been thrown out of their apartments because the neighborhood is "gentrifying." Many, in the Great Recession, lost jobs which they had had for years.

I used to live maybe 1 1/2 blocks from a homeless shelter for families. I lived there 20 years--then moved into a larger apartment for my wife and I. There's been no problems in the neighborhood from that homeless shelter.