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> We need more affordable housing -- nationwide. Problem is job growth is incredibly centralized into a few urban cores. While property values on the west coas
by zanny 9y ago
> We need more affordable housing -- nationwide.
Problem is job growth is incredibly centralized into a few urban cores. While property values on the west coast and the Boston -> DC strip bloat out of control entire counties worth of homes are being abandoned in the Rust Belt and midwest as the recession killed the last sparks of industry and never brought any jobs back there.
That is why housing prices are out of control. We should realize that the centralization of work should come with the centralization of living, where we build much denser housing to accommodate, but we don't do that because of NIMBY city councils and obtuse zoning laws.
Affordable housing is profitable if you let it be built. It isn't a matter of needing the government to throw money at building affordable housing. 50 stories of condos in almost any major metro area at 400-800 sq ft could sell at tens of thousands rather than millions of dollars and still be profitable for the materials and labor that went into building them, even at the current inflated land values. It is simply the case that nobody can build anything like that because every city in the country staunchly opposes such construction for both private NIMBY interests and the desires of businesses operating to attract the rich to the cities and not the poor, even when the jobs they want to fill they only offer poor wages for.
- Mz 9y agoProblem is job growth is incredibly centralized into a few urban cores. That is why housing prices are out of control. We should realize that the centralization of work should come with the centralization of living, where we build much denser housing to accommodate, but we don't do that because of NIMBY city councils and obtuse zoning laws. I just got myself off the street earlier this month after 5 years, 8 months and 1 week. I did it by 1) developing a portable online income and 2) moving out of California to a small town. So, I beg to differ. I think this can be solved. We have the technology. We can rebuild it. We can make it better. ;-)
- ttonkytonk 9y agoI first became homeless about four months after you, and have been homeless off and on ever since. Now I stay in a tent and am fairly satisfied except that it's always possible my spot will be compromised. I wish they would simply normalize campsites for living. I've heard people live in tents in India. Seems more humane than pretending we don't need that here when in reality we're denying people the right to be ANYWHERE.
- Mz 9y agoAt some point while homeless, I talked to someone who traveled. They observed that in some South American country they visited, homelessness did not exist because slums were tolerated. So, people had housing, even though a lot of it was substandard by US standards. American zoning, minimum house sizes, do contribute to the problem. We have created a situation where the Haves live in ever larger houses and can afford two or more places and the Have Nots are increasingly out on the street. I don't know the answer here. I think certain minimum standards for housing matter. But, we should definitely tweak something. Setting the bar for minimum housing standards so high that large numbers of people can't attain housing at all is messed up.
- ttonkytonk 9y ago* anywhere.