4 ms·
The issue isn't solely lack of housing.
by Fellshard 5y ago
The issue isn't solely lack of housing.
- jeffbee 5y agoAbundant housing is a necessary condition for solving homelessness.
- thepasswordis 5y agoHave you spent much time working with the homeless?
- jeffbee 5y agoYes, I worked to create the most recent census of homelessness in my county. That's why I am aware of the fact that an overwhelming supermajority of current homeless express a wish to live in independent, affordable rental homes, like the rest of us. But you don't have to personally conduct the census to know this; you can just go read the results.
- rtkwe 5y agoIt'd help with the working homeless but you need way more than just cheap housing to help all types of homeless people.
- coding123 5y agoThere is also an abundant number of second houses that people own that are not rented that could house every single homeless person 25 to 40 times over.
- jeffbee 5y agoThis is fallacious thinking. It would be a huge effort, practically and legally, to increase the occupancy rate of existing dwellings from its already extremely high level of over 97% to something like 99%. It is way easier, cheaper, and more practical to attack the denominator instead.
- knownjorbist 5y agoLack of housing is perhaps the most important piece of the puzzle. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/7/13/housing-scarcity-is-a-force-multiplier-for-other-problems#:~:text=Basically%2C%20housing%20scarcity%20is%20a,puts%20more%20stress%20on%20them https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/7/13/housing-scarci....
- mdorazio 5y agoIt’s by far the #1 cause. People lose their job or get priced out of their home and then either can’t afford to move elsewhere or don’t want to leave their support network, so they just… stay. LAHSA tends to provide good data via their annual surveys: https://www.lahsa.org/news?article=726-2020-greater-los-angeles-homeless-count-results https://www.lahsa.org/news?article=726-2020-greater-los-ange...