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> Is there any evidence for people becoming homeless because of skyrocketing rents? Plenty of it, it is one of the primary causes. But just to put it in concre

> Is there any evidence for people becoming homeless because of skyrocketing rents? Plenty of it, it is one of the primary causes. But just to put it in concrete terms that should scare anyone, the average rent in San Francisco in 1994 was about $1000. By 2001 the average rent was $2300. [1] Consider that other living costs go up along with rent. > Are there no renter protections in the USA, anyway? Sometimes. But what happens when you lose your job, and then lose your apartment as a result? How are you going to afford the much higher rents now at a new apartment even if you can find a new job? At minimum wage? If you ever decide to work with homeless people (you should) you'll hear two types of stories over and over: 1. Diseases such as mental illness and addiction. 2. People who are pretty much just like you and me. And then something unexpected happened. These stories are humbling, because after hearing enough of them you realize that a lot of what's keeping a roof over your own head is luck. Add medical bankruptcy to the mix and you've got the USA. > The theory is simple that where the area is rich, there are more jobs - catering to the rich people. So your theory is that rich people hire homeless people off the street to cater to them? NYC has loads of rich people - the most in the world [2]. NYC also has a huge homelessness problem. Maybe that will get solved when and if NYC gets just a few more billionaires? NY state itself has the highest per capita homelessness rate in the USA [3]. Trickle down doesn't work. > but also the jobs that make the rich people rich. This is along the lines of saying "stop being poor, just get one of those jobs that the rich people have". I would encourage you just read up on the subject instead of inventing theories that sound good to you. Homelessness is a well researched topic, and there is no lack of studies and data around it. [1] https://johnmacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Rents_Avg-SF_by-year.jpg https://johnmacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Rents_Avg-S... [2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/04/07/worlds-richest-cities-the-top-10-cities-where-most-billionaires-call-home-2020/?sh=7f17c8ef3101 https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/04/07/world... [3] https://psydprograms.org/the-places-with-the-most-and-least-homelessness-in-america/ https://psydprograms.org/the-places-with-the-most-and-least-...

timeeater 6y ago
Rising rents are not evidence that rising rents are a major cause of homelessness. "what happens when you lose your job, and then lose your apartment as a result?" Then losing your job is the cause, not the rising rents. "So your theory is that rich people hire homeless people off the street to cater to them?" I could imagine many people migrate to those places to try to make their luck, because there are many opportunities. Many people trying their luck means also many people failing. Pretty sure that a couple of dozen Billionaires do NOT cause homelessness. "Trickle down doesn't work." People living in New York are probably quite well off in general. A bunch of homeless people don't contradict the trickle down effect. You yourself mentioned mental illness, addiction, and unforeseen events as major causes of homelessness. Notice how rising rents and high paying jobs are not on the list. "> but also the jobs that make the rich people rich. This is along the lines of saying "stop being poor, just get one of those jobs that the rich people have"." Not at all, and this is becoming silly. All I said is that there are presumably the jobs that made the rich people rich, which will usually be a lot of jobs, because rich people will usually have sold a lot of things. Building lots of things requires many workers. "I would encourage you just read up on the subject instead of inventing theories that sound good to you." If you are so well read, then provide some convincing evidence for your claims. None of the three links you provided tell us anything about the cause of homelessness. I noticed in the last one that California has very low youth homelessness, though. Frankly, your "well researched" theories about homeless sound mostly like leftist anti capitalist propaganda to me.
- tchaffee 6y ago
  > I could imagine many people... Yes, that's the entire problem I've been encouraging you to stop doing. You don't need to imagine. It's an extremely well researched subject. I was sincerely hoping you'd put a little work into the research yourself (like I asked you to) instead of continuing to create mental fantasies about why homelessness might happen. We already know why it happens. Without any cherry picking on my part, here are the top five search results from "causes of homelessness". Is it really going to surprise you that "lack of affordable housing" shows up over and over? When average rents goes from $1000 to $2300 in a few years, that's a specific example of "lack of affordable housing" isn't it? It's plain common sense that skyrocketing rents are going to put some people on the street. If you don't believe the articles, talk to some real homeless people, like I have during my volunteer work to help them. https://atlantamission.org/7-major-causes-homelessness/ https://atlantamission.org/7-major-causes-homelessness/ https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-101/causes-homelessness https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-1... https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-causes-homelessness/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-cau... https://www.solutionsfdl.com/resources/what-causes-homelessness/ https://www.solutionsfdl.com/resources/what-causes-homelessn... https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/root-causes-of-homelessness/ https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/root-causes-of-hom...
  - timeeater 6y ago
    On the contrary, YOU should start thinking for yourself. All the articles you quoted merely repeat the same correlation of high housing prices and unemployment that started all the speculation. They don't give any insights at all, and they don't even mention rising rents as a cause (which was what we are actually discussing). Only the solutionsdfl site mentions "foreclosures" as a reason for more homelessness, without giving any numbers (like what percentage of homelessness is caused by it). And it doesn't say what caused the foreclosures. Does economic success in a region increase the number of foreclosures? Of course on a simple level, saying "lack of affordable housing" causes homelessness is true. If you could give everybody a free house, there would probably be less homeless people. However, that is also in itself a completely useless realization, as housing is not free and space is limited. And, more specifically, it was not what we were discussing. We were discussing the claim that rising economic success of a region caused rising homelessness there, by driving existing renters out of their homes. None of your articles provide any information regarding that claim.

timeeater 6y ago

Rising rents are not evidence that rising rents are a major cause of homelessness. "what happens when you lose your job, and then lose your apartment as a result?" Then losing your job is the cause, not the rising rents. "So your theory is that rich people hire homeless people off the street to cater to them?" I could imagine many people migrate to those places to try to make their luck, because there are many opportunities. Many people trying their luck means also many people failing. Pretty sure that a couple of dozen Billionaires do NOT cause homelessness. "Trickle down doesn't work." People living in New York are probably quite well off in general. A bunch of homeless people don't contradict the trickle down effect. You yourself mentioned mental illness, addiction, and unforeseen events as major causes of homelessness. Notice how rising rents and high paying jobs are not on the list. "> but also the jobs that make the rich people rich. This is along the lines of saying "stop being poor, just get one of those jobs that the rich people have"." Not at all, and this is becoming silly. All I said is that there are presumably the jobs that made the rich people rich, which will usually be a lot of jobs, because rich people will usually have sold a lot of things. Building lots of things requires many workers. "I would encourage you just read up on the subject instead of inventing theories that sound good to you." If you are so well read, then provide some convincing evidence for your claims. None of the three links you provided tell us anything about the cause of homelessness. I noticed in the last one that California has very low youth homelessness, though. Frankly, your "well researched" theories about homeless sound mostly like leftist anti capitalist propaganda to me.

tchaffee 6y ago
> I could imagine many people... Yes, that's the entire problem I've been encouraging you to stop doing. You don't need to imagine. It's an extremely well researched subject. I was sincerely hoping you'd put a little work into the research yourself (like I asked you to) instead of continuing to create mental fantasies about why homelessness might happen. We already know why it happens. Without any cherry picking on my part, here are the top five search results from "causes of homelessness". Is it really going to surprise you that "lack of affordable housing" shows up over and over? When average rents goes from $1000 to $2300 in a few years, that's a specific example of "lack of affordable housing" isn't it? It's plain common sense that skyrocketing rents are going to put some people on the street. If you don't believe the articles, talk to some real homeless people, like I have during my volunteer work to help them. https://atlantamission.org/7-major-causes-homelessness/ https://atlantamission.org/7-major-causes-homelessness/ https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-101/causes-homelessness https://www.homelesshub.ca/about-homelessness/homelessness-1... https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-causes-homelessness/ https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/what-cau... https://www.solutionsfdl.com/resources/what-causes-homelessness/ https://www.solutionsfdl.com/resources/what-causes-homelessn... https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/root-causes-of-homelessness/ https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/root-causes-of-hom...
- timeeater 6y ago
  On the contrary, YOU should start thinking for yourself. All the articles you quoted merely repeat the same correlation of high housing prices and unemployment that started all the speculation. They don't give any insights at all, and they don't even mention rising rents as a cause (which was what we are actually discussing). Only the solutionsdfl site mentions "foreclosures" as a reason for more homelessness, without giving any numbers (like what percentage of homelessness is caused by it). And it doesn't say what caused the foreclosures. Does economic success in a region increase the number of foreclosures? Of course on a simple level, saying "lack of affordable housing" causes homelessness is true. If you could give everybody a free house, there would probably be less homeless people. However, that is also in itself a completely useless realization, as housing is not free and space is limited. And, more specifically, it was not what we were discussing. We were discussing the claim that rising economic success of a region caused rising homelessness there, by driving existing renters out of their homes. None of your articles provide any information regarding that claim.