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People need to live in houses. You think all these people should just be living on the street? The bigger problem is that California has so little supply of ho

People need to live in houses. You think all these people should just be living on the street? The bigger problem is that California has so little supply of housing relative to demand that prices are just astronomical.

CyberDildonics 11y ago
> People need to live in houses. You think all these people should just be living on the street? I think it's obvious that there are serious problems with supply and demand but to say a person's options are 'live in one of the most expensive areas in the world' or 'live on the street' is more than a little ridiculous. There is pretty clearly the option of not living in an expensive place. Yes it might make a commute to the same job crazy, yes it's far from ideal, yes it's not necessary when looking at the system as a whole, but this idea that people are entitled to stay wherever they are just doesn't work out. If someone was living in a hollywood mansion and couldn't afford it, people would say 'move somewhere cheaper'.
- panglott 11y ago
  People who live in trailer parks are vulnerable to homelessness. Homelessness is something that the people in that article actually express worry about. The problem is not that people are entitled to housing that they can't afford. The problem is that humans need decent housing, and the housing price situation where they live is created by policy choices. Housing policy has generated this high-price dynamic that is leading to the removal of poor, low-income, and other vulnerable people, after changing the rules on them about where they can live. Now, it's true that a trailer park is never going to be consistent with any policy that can effectively bring the supply/demand curve into line enough to supply decent and affordable housing.
  - CyberDildonics 11y ago
    > People who live in trailer parks are vulnerable to homelessness. This is another generalization that doesn't hold up in this particular situation. This trailer park cost $830 a month 5 years ago. Don't paint this as 'being cruel to humans' and 'human beings need a place to live'. Yes there are a lot of rough edges, but this idea that rising housing costs due to market pressures are some sort of inhuman dynamic in this extreme outlier situation isn't reasonable. People might have to move and ideally they would get some sort of money to help them do it as a deal with the developers. To think that the way something was is the way it needs to be in the future is irrational.
    - panglott 11y ago
      Note that this is an article in which the people actually talk about their struggles with homelessness and their fears of becoming homeless. I don't actually disagree that the trailer park should probably be torn down and be replaced with a denser condo development. And the property owner certainly has a right to sell the property to developers (gentrification would not be so problematic if renters had property rights in their home). Rising housing costs is not at all due to some inhuman market pressure: it is a policy choice against densification. And surely to think that the way something was is the way it needs to be in the future is irrational. But shouldn't that be true for people who live in single-story houses also?
      - CyberDildonics 11y ago
        > But shouldn't that be true for people who live in single-story houses also? That isn't what the article is about.

CyberDildonics 11y ago

> People need to live in houses. You think all these people should just be living on the street? I think it's obvious that there are serious problems with supply and demand but to say a person's options are 'live in one of the most expensive areas in the world' or 'live on the street' is more than a little ridiculous. There is pretty clearly the option of not living in an expensive place. Yes it might make a commute to the same job crazy, yes it's far from ideal, yes it's not necessary when looking at the system as a whole, but this idea that people are entitled to stay wherever they are just doesn't work out. If someone was living in a hollywood mansion and couldn't afford it, people would say 'move somewhere cheaper'.

panglott 11y ago
People who live in trailer parks are vulnerable to homelessness. Homelessness is something that the people in that article actually express worry about. The problem is not that people are entitled to housing that they can't afford. The problem is that humans need decent housing, and the housing price situation where they live is created by policy choices. Housing policy has generated this high-price dynamic that is leading to the removal of poor, low-income, and other vulnerable people, after changing the rules on them about where they can live. Now, it's true that a trailer park is never going to be consistent with any policy that can effectively bring the supply/demand curve into line enough to supply decent and affordable housing.
- CyberDildonics 11y ago
  > People who live in trailer parks are vulnerable to homelessness. This is another generalization that doesn't hold up in this particular situation. This trailer park cost $830 a month 5 years ago. Don't paint this as 'being cruel to humans' and 'human beings need a place to live'. Yes there are a lot of rough edges, but this idea that rising housing costs due to market pressures are some sort of inhuman dynamic in this extreme outlier situation isn't reasonable. People might have to move and ideally they would get some sort of money to help them do it as a deal with the developers. To think that the way something was is the way it needs to be in the future is irrational.
  - panglott 11y ago
    Note that this is an article in which the people actually talk about their struggles with homelessness and their fears of becoming homeless. I don't actually disagree that the trailer park should probably be torn down and be replaced with a denser condo development. And the property owner certainly has a right to sell the property to developers (gentrification would not be so problematic if renters had property rights in their home). Rising housing costs is not at all due to some inhuman market pressure: it is a policy choice against densification. And surely to think that the way something was is the way it needs to be in the future is irrational. But shouldn't that be true for people who live in single-story houses also?
    - CyberDildonics 11y ago
      > But shouldn't that be true for people who live in single-story houses also? That isn't what the article is about.