5 ms·

Governments want affordable housing to be built but the number one enemy to affordable housing is the government.

alexklark 5y ago
Governments only want other people money (so called taxes/donations), and, sometimes, be elected. Thinking that governments can not provide themselves affordable and usually free housing is somehow contradict reality.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
KerrAvon 5y ago
With statements like this, it’s important to define “government” — for example, the specifics in the Twitter thread are hugely helpful in identifying the actual bottlenecks.
- crate_barre 5y ago
  Landlords despise tenant protection laws. They’d rather just treat the place as an investment than deal with tenants that have rights.
  - ceeplusplus 5y ago
    Tenant protection laws seem like failures to me. They don't prevent landlords from being bad actors (by neglecting maintenance and not giving a shit about the quality of the property) and they don't protect landlords from bad tenants. All they do is allow a few people to get evicted 6 months and thousands of dollars in legal fees later instead of in a week.
    - AussieWog93 5y ago
      I'm guessing you've never had a bad landlord! Our previous landlord was an absolute nutjob (we found out later he'd been doing all sorts of strange/illegal things and had a ridiculously high tenant turnover; shame since it was a nice unit). Eventually, his wife came on one of the inspections and decided we weren't fit to grace her property, so we were given 120 days to vacate. This is the minimum in Victoria for "without cause" eviction. While incredibly stressful (and I still don't think the laws are strict enough; "without cause" eviction should be as difficult as "without cause" firing), it was long enough to find another suitable property to move to. I couldn't imagine how terrible it would be to only be given, say, a week's notice until we were homeless.
      - ceeplusplus 5y ago
        I've lived in the East Bay for years (this is _the_ worst housing market period) and being evicted is hardly the worst outcome: Apartment which we applied to but didn't rent: - owner insisted that we follow her rules about living habits (e.g. get up/sleep times) or we wouldn't be allowed to rent (this was a large building of 20+ apartments) - subtle hints during our tour that she profiled everyone and only rented to those people she considered to be "responsible" people - threw a tantrum at us and returned our rental application when we asked for a few days to sort out the contract signing and then proceeded to lecture us on responsibility - heating was controlled by her for the entire building (imagine what it would be like to live there) Apartment 1: - mouse/rat infestation which the landlord addressed by saying they put up traps instead of calling an exterminator - rampant spider infestation which landlord refused to do anything about (seriously, I've never seen so many different colored spiders) - landlord started arguing with us at our door when we threatened to report them to the city for above - our downstairs neighbor's shower stopped working and still wasn't fixed by the time we moved out Apartment 2: - mold growing in the bathroom and sharp splinters coming out of what must have been 50 year old hardwood floors, no fix from landlord so we taped the floor where there were nails/splinters - only 1 burner worked on the stove (no fix from landlord) - power to the entire building would flip on and off at least once a month You couldn't get out without paying for the rest of the lease. That's what made it so much worse than what you're describing. I would have gladly been evicted from these hellholes. It ended up being the case that the corporate landlords in the area were actually much better behaved than the local ones.
        AussieWog93 5y ago
        I take back the comment about no bad landlords. Christ!
newsclues 5y ago
Not always. In the past governments built large amounts of housing. In Canada the CMHC used to get affordable housing built on a massive scale, but now it’s mainly just mortgage backing for banks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Mortgage_and_Housing_Corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Mortgage_and_Housing_...
poorbutdebtfree 5y ago
Affordable housing is such a loaded term that means different things to different socioeconomic groups. Are we talking about project based housing? Section 8? New construction for applicants with x% of the the median income? In any event almost no one working a full time job will qualify.

Governments only want other people money (so called taxes/donations), and, sometimes, be elected. Thinking that governments can not provide themselves affordable and usually free housing is somehow contradict reality.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

KerrAvon 5y ago

With statements like this, it’s important to define “government” — for example, the specifics in the Twitter thread are hugely helpful in identifying the actual bottlenecks.

crate_barre 5y ago
Landlords despise tenant protection laws. They’d rather just treat the place as an investment than deal with tenants that have rights.
- ceeplusplus 5y ago
  Tenant protection laws seem like failures to me. They don't prevent landlords from being bad actors (by neglecting maintenance and not giving a shit about the quality of the property) and they don't protect landlords from bad tenants. All they do is allow a few people to get evicted 6 months and thousands of dollars in legal fees later instead of in a week.
  - AussieWog93 5y ago
    I'm guessing you've never had a bad landlord! Our previous landlord was an absolute nutjob (we found out later he'd been doing all sorts of strange/illegal things and had a ridiculously high tenant turnover; shame since it was a nice unit). Eventually, his wife came on one of the inspections and decided we weren't fit to grace her property, so we were given 120 days to vacate. This is the minimum in Victoria for "without cause" eviction. While incredibly stressful (and I still don't think the laws are strict enough; "without cause" eviction should be as difficult as "without cause" firing), it was long enough to find another suitable property to move to. I couldn't imagine how terrible it would be to only be given, say, a week's notice until we were homeless.
    - ceeplusplus 5y ago
      I've lived in the East Bay for years (this is _the_ worst housing market period) and being evicted is hardly the worst outcome: Apartment which we applied to but didn't rent: - owner insisted that we follow her rules about living habits (e.g. get up/sleep times) or we wouldn't be allowed to rent (this was a large building of 20+ apartments) - subtle hints during our tour that she profiled everyone and only rented to those people she considered to be "responsible" people - threw a tantrum at us and returned our rental application when we asked for a few days to sort out the contract signing and then proceeded to lecture us on responsibility - heating was controlled by her for the entire building (imagine what it would be like to live there) Apartment 1: - mouse/rat infestation which the landlord addressed by saying they put up traps instead of calling an exterminator - rampant spider infestation which landlord refused to do anything about (seriously, I've never seen so many different colored spiders) - landlord started arguing with us at our door when we threatened to report them to the city for above - our downstairs neighbor's shower stopped working and still wasn't fixed by the time we moved out Apartment 2: - mold growing in the bathroom and sharp splinters coming out of what must have been 50 year old hardwood floors, no fix from landlord so we taped the floor where there were nails/splinters - only 1 burner worked on the stove (no fix from landlord) - power to the entire building would flip on and off at least once a month You couldn't get out without paying for the rest of the lease. That's what made it so much worse than what you're describing. I would have gladly been evicted from these hellholes. It ended up being the case that the corporate landlords in the area were actually much better behaved than the local ones.
      - AussieWog93 5y ago
        I take back the comment about no bad landlords. Christ!

newsclues 5y ago

Not always. In the past governments built large amounts of housing. In Canada the CMHC used to get affordable housing built on a massive scale, but now it’s mainly just mortgage backing for banks. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Mortgage_and_Housing_Corporation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_Mortgage_and_Housing_...

poorbutdebtfree 5y ago

Affordable housing is such a loaded term that means different things to different socioeconomic groups. Are we talking about project based housing? Section 8? New construction for applicants with x% of the the median income? In any event almost no one working a full time job will qualify.