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Why one of America’s richest states is also its poorest
- romwell 8y agoTL;DR: because rent. What a surprise: in a state where working full-time for minimum wage doesn't even cover rent for a 1b apartment in the suburbs of one of its largest metro areas, there are a lot of people who struggle.
- alecco 8y agoCalifornia has fast growing tent cities. Even if you live in a gated community it's a pressure cooker that will get to you. On a blue state. And instead of stepping back and analyzing what's causing this disaster they double down on their existing agendas.
- seibelj 8y agoSurely raising taxes and throwing more money at it will solve the problem!
- mpclark 8y agoOn a related point, I visited Sunnyvale from the UK last week and was surprised to see legions of battered RVs parked on the backstreets in the area. What's going on there? Is it workers who can't afford to rent in the area?
- bvxvbxbxb 8y agoRead the news articles on the subject. There's a vast number of gainfully-employed people whom don't wish to fritter their relatively meager earnings away on techie-inflated rent. Most people in the area cannot legitimately afford to live there as they would be spending more than a sensible amount on housing because they can't ever hope to earn enough to be considered middle-class. Still, the area needs janitors, cooks, teachers, bus drivers, human resources and more non-techies whom rarely make much in a normal American city. Instead, they make some sacrifices to keep more of what they earn and opt-out of following the other lemming off the cliff into perpetual debt peonage.
- cjmcqueen 8y agoYes. And many of these people work at some of the biggest companies like Google, Facebook, Apple, and other tech companies. And, it's not just the support labor for janitorial, kitchen staff, etc. Many of these RVs are used by entry level and new in career salary employees. Unless you have a dual income family making very solid pay or have a director-level plus salary in a home, it is often not possible to own or at times even rent a home.
- codezero 8y agoI’ve lived in Sunnyvale for six years now and one thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of the rv/mobile home parks have shut down and been turned into luxury apartments.
- DoreenMichele 8y agoCalifornia currently has about 25% of America's homeless. Some additional stats on homelessness and California: https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/california-statistics-on-homelessness.html https://streetlifesolutions.blogspot.com/2018/05/california-...
- chaostheory 8y agoimo chronic homelessness is a separate problem that mainly involves the lack of funding for mental health institutions at a federal level. If I remember correctly, 80% of homeless people are no longer homeless after 6 months. The remaining 20% either suffer from mental health issues, drugs, or both. It's a federal problem since all the states just want to play hot potato with the chronically homeless, instead of actually trying to solve it https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/20/bussed-out-america-moves-homeless-people-country-study https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...
- DoreenMichele 8y agoAnd this explains the California statistics how? California just churns out ridiculous numbers of crazy people? Is that the suggestion?
- chaostheory 8y agoOther states also ship them here enmass. Notably places like Nevada and Arizona. It both helps and exacerbates the issue for CA, when CA has better infrastructure for the homeless compared to our neighboring states. As noted in the article, CA does the same thing but it’s just not as skilled as places like NY at playing hot potato with the mentally ill homeless
- DoreenMichele 8y agoCalifornia is the most populous state in the US. With 39.5 million people, it has quite a lead on the number two state of Texas at 28 million. [1] Surveys typically suggest that only about 10 percent of the homeless in California come from elsewhere. This leaves 90 percent of them as Californians who had a home there at one time. Thanks in part to the lovely weather, California has the most unsheltered homeless. IIRC, it also has the most chronic homeless. I spent nearly six years homeless, most of it in California. I left the state to get back into housing someplace cheaper. I strongly suspect that the insane California housing prices are a major factor here, much more so than mental health issues or addiction. For every 100 poor families on the West Coast, there are only 30 affordable homes. [2] California has about 8.5% of the US population. There is something very wrong that it has 25% of the homeless population. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories_of_the_United_States_by_population https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territori... [2] https://www.geekwire.com/2018/every-100-families-living-poverty-west-coast-no-30-affordable-homes/ https://www.geekwire.com/2018/every-100-families-living-pove...
- chaostheory 8y agoThe problem is a lack of inventory. When you have limited supply and a ton of demand, that's how you get high prices. Why is there a lack of housing? While Prop 13 is an issue, imo it's not the core problem. This is the problem: "High rents reflect the success of California’s businesses—but also decades of low investment and over-regulation. The California Environmental Quality Act, passed in 1970, aimed to ensure that environmental concerns got a proper hearing in planning and development. In practice, the act has become a NIMBYs’ charter. Four-fifths of all suits filed under it have sought to stop infill development in cities (ie, on land already zoned for building) even though this usually has a smaller environmental impact than building on green fields. California’s development and impact fees are about three times higher than the national average. Zoning laws and parking requirements are onerous, too." SF isn't even the worst offender compared to cities like Belmont and Palo Alto. While there are real safety concerns that limit development since 1. we're in earthquake country, and also because of 2. some Superfund sites in parts of the Bay Area; most of the problems just stem from current homeowners of single family homes (NIMBYs), who do not want high-density housing near their house. Until this changes, no reasonable amount of income assistance will solve this problem for the poor or the middle class. There's just too little usable land here to be exclusively used for traditional single-family homes. This has more detail about the problem in SF: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/How-powerful-is-Bay-Area-s-pro-housing-13352047.php https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/How-powerful-is...
- i_am_nomad 8y agoWe should tear down whatever cruel fences and checkpoints exist that prevent people from leaving the Bay Area for more affordable places.
- chaostheory 8y agoA lot of Californians have already done this and continue to do this, which is why the natives of places like Portland, Austin, Boulder, and Boise complain about former CA residents causing housing prices to spike
- 8y ago
- NTDF9 8y agoProp 13, Prop 13, Prop 13! American economic woes are solely a consequence of enormous debts and unwillingness to let prices go down. We are precariously similar to Japan in 1989
- coldtea 8y agoDon't worry, free trade will short all of this out for the best, if only they make it even freer. Some tax cuts for big businesses will help too. Sure, a lot of those people might be dead by then, but who keeps score when you're in the 10% that has no problem whatsoever?
- bvxvbxbxb 8y agoThere's homeless people living on the sides of highway on-ramps in the Bay Area. 30 years ago, this wasn't a thing, but it's gone too far: not that the people need to be busted up and bus-ticketed elsewhere, but rather civil society has broken down and failed to provide for people.
- stevenwoo 8y agoIn San Diego last year I saw evidence of habitation in most downtown ramps where there was shade, no matter the ambient noise level. Friends who moved away from the Bay Area only 10 years ago came back and were shocked at the homeless encampments off of 101 in south San Jose.
- bsvalley 8y agoIs it me or the article linked presents zero relevant content?
- DoreenMichele 8y agoThis is why poor people are coming en masse to california. California exports poor people and imports rich ones. https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article136478098.html https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article13647809...
- gnusci 8y agoThis is just how capitalism works. Poor must exist in order to create wealth, but only an small percent of rich population share the majority of the wealth. I would recommend to any one the film Zeitgeist: Addendum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist_(film_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist_(film_series)
- Gregory_Vines 8y agoThe article is about how California is different from the rest of the capitalist states. Your argument makes no sense.
- Gregory_Vines 8y agoNo mosquitoes, no snow, little rain, constant 60-70 degree weather. Homeless is easier in California. I imagine a lot of New York homeless people die in the winter. Not true in a place like LA. There's definitely a selection effect completely separate from any political/economic factors (though of course those have an effect too).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- jefurii 8y agoThis reads like anti-Prop-10 propaganda piece.
- JDiculous 8y agoI'm glad to see all this attention being given to this absurd housing crisis and everyone can agree that a huge part of the problems comes down to NIMBYism, but is anything being done about it? Or are we just going to continue having the same conversation over and over again.
- drobert 8y agoI guess London has a similar problem but not this serious. Living Wage Foundation calculates yearly the living wage for London and there are around 4k companies that pay it voluntarily. Maybe a similar solution would be useful. I'm struggling to understand why the these people living below the poverty line don't just move to a place where rent doesn't eat all their salary. They must be trapped in one way or another.