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> Homelessness is a hard problem to solve because it requires individual attention. No! It's precisely the other way around: it requires federal attention firs

> Homelessness is a hard problem to solve because it requires individual attention. No! It's precisely the other way around: it requires federal attention first and foremost. Homelessness is a societal challenge to solve, not one whose burden should fall on those communities that act charitable to fellow human beings and pick up the slack of those just busing the homeless off to the next Democrat governed town. > Both petty and violent crime increase overnight, vandalism on surrounding properties skyrocket, the places are littered with trash that ends up in the ocean, property values drop, and are ultimately boarded up until the encampment moves somewhere else and the cycle repeats. They gotta go somewhere, they're humans, not stray dogs, and 99% of the homeless aren't homeless by choice but because society failed to provide for them. I agree an encampment might not be the most desirable thing to have next to a residential area, but on the outskirts adjacent to some commercial zoning it makes sense. Add a bus line, provide basic sanitation and social services on-site... and start building fucking housing.

MisterTea 2y ago
> and 99% of the homeless aren't homeless by choice but because society failed to provide for them. I'd like a citation for that claim. > but on the outskirts adjacent to some commercial zoning it makes sense. This only makes sense if you want to ensure they don't break the poverty cycle by isolating them to blighted industrial land cut off from society. This is the same issue plaguing many poor and low income communities which have been placed in undesirable parts of municipalities. > and start building fucking housing. Where's the money coming from?
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  > Where's the money coming from? The Canadian Housing Infrastructure Fund announced in April, presumably. Of course, it's pretty much guaranteed that we'll get a Conservative government next summer and that money will disappear.
- beedeebeedee 2y ago
  > Where's the money coming from? It should come from taxes on the folks doing obscenely well from our unfair economic system
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > I'd like a citation for that claim. Well... the most recent stats I have for Canada [1] show: 41.8% financial issues (aka, housing becomes unaffordable thanks to exploding rents, wage stagnation and general inflation), relationship issues (36.9%) and domestic violence (13.3%) coupled with a lack of shelters, the remaining 10% are attributed mostly to (mental) health issues. The US population will likely be skewed more towards mental health issues being the root cause, particularly combined with the opioid crisis (it's always hard to tell - do the drugs themselves cause the issue or are a ton of drug users just self-medicating because they have no access to healthcare or other ways to cope with stressors?). From personal experience (aka anecdata) working in dodgy bars in Germany and hanging around with punks in my youth, the only people I know who "voluntarily" lived on the streets admitted to having mental health issues, mostly varieties of what I'd judge to be claustrophobia today. > Where's the money coming from? Reverse tax cuts for the rich, ban foreign investment into housing unless it's adding capacity to the rental market or it's used for primary residences. At least banning foreign investment is being tackled by Canada [2], but other countries should follow suit - the sooner the better. [1] https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/5170-homelessness-how-does-it-happen https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/5170-homelessness-how-d... [2] https://jingdaily.com/posts/what-canadas-ban-on-foreign-home-buyers-means-for-chinas-emigrants-pursuit-of-the-vancouver-dream https://jingdaily.com/posts/what-canadas-ban-on-foreign-home...
bryanlarsen 2y ago
> and start building fucking housing. From the article: "multiple high-rise condominiums are under development in Halifax" For a small city, that's a significant amount of new housing. 50 years from now that will be affordable housing. The problem is that virtually all high density housing in Halifax is >100 years old and either has been gentrified or is already affordable. Approximately no high density housing was built 50 years ago that would naturally become affordable today.
hgomersall 2y ago
Blair Fix has an interesting analysis of this that suggests on a national scale we need primarily higher incomes at the bottom end. I'm fairly sure there are areas that also have insufficient houses, but I hadn't really considered the problem might just be people are too poor: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/08/22/from-commodity-to-asset-the-truth-behind-rising-house-prices/ https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/08/22/from-commodit... If the analysis is accurate it needs more than just affordable housing to be built.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  Of course people are too poor, but any kind of wage increase will be immediately snatched up by the landlord caste. I remember the days when Covid stimulus checks came 'round in the US, half of Reddit was up in arms over messages from landlords all but demanding they'd get their share (or the entirety of it). Landlords should not exist for long term housing, period.
- beedeebeedee 2y ago
  > I hadn't really considered the problem might just be people are too poor I'm a little surprised by that- I thought that this was common knowledge? (But then again, there has been heavy propaganda against homeless people, and diverting attention that this has anything to do with an unfair economy, a la "homeless people are all crazy", "homeless people are all addicts", "homelessness is a choice")
  - hgomersall 2y ago
    I think it's less that than I thought that primary problem was just insufficient housing. Of course, both things can be true, particularly on a local scale.

MisterTea 2y ago

> and 99% of the homeless aren't homeless by choice but because society failed to provide for them. I'd like a citation for that claim. > but on the outskirts adjacent to some commercial zoning it makes sense. This only makes sense if you want to ensure they don't break the poverty cycle by isolating them to blighted industrial land cut off from society. This is the same issue plaguing many poor and low income communities which have been placed in undesirable parts of municipalities. > and start building fucking housing. Where's the money coming from?

bryanlarsen 2y ago
> Where's the money coming from? The Canadian Housing Infrastructure Fund announced in April, presumably. Of course, it's pretty much guaranteed that we'll get a Conservative government next summer and that money will disappear.
beedeebeedee 2y ago
> Where's the money coming from? It should come from taxes on the folks doing obscenely well from our unfair economic system
mschuster91 2y ago
> I'd like a citation for that claim. Well... the most recent stats I have for Canada [1] show: 41.8% financial issues (aka, housing becomes unaffordable thanks to exploding rents, wage stagnation and general inflation), relationship issues (36.9%) and domestic violence (13.3%) coupled with a lack of shelters, the remaining 10% are attributed mostly to (mental) health issues. The US population will likely be skewed more towards mental health issues being the root cause, particularly combined with the opioid crisis (it's always hard to tell - do the drugs themselves cause the issue or are a ton of drug users just self-medicating because they have no access to healthcare or other ways to cope with stressors?). From personal experience (aka anecdata) working in dodgy bars in Germany and hanging around with punks in my youth, the only people I know who "voluntarily" lived on the streets admitted to having mental health issues, mostly varieties of what I'd judge to be claustrophobia today. > Where's the money coming from? Reverse tax cuts for the rich, ban foreign investment into housing unless it's adding capacity to the rental market or it's used for primary residences. At least banning foreign investment is being tackled by Canada [2], but other countries should follow suit - the sooner the better. [1] https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/5170-homelessness-how-does-it-happen https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/5170-homelessness-how-d... [2] https://jingdaily.com/posts/what-canadas-ban-on-foreign-home-buyers-means-for-chinas-emigrants-pursuit-of-the-vancouver-dream https://jingdaily.com/posts/what-canadas-ban-on-foreign-home...

bryanlarsen 2y ago

> and start building fucking housing. From the article: "multiple high-rise condominiums are under development in Halifax" For a small city, that's a significant amount of new housing. 50 years from now that will be affordable housing. The problem is that virtually all high density housing in Halifax is >100 years old and either has been gentrified or is already affordable. Approximately no high density housing was built 50 years ago that would naturally become affordable today.

hgomersall 2y ago

Blair Fix has an interesting analysis of this that suggests on a national scale we need primarily higher incomes at the bottom end. I'm fairly sure there are areas that also have insufficient houses, but I hadn't really considered the problem might just be people are too poor: https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/08/22/from-commodity-to-asset-the-truth-behind-rising-house-prices/ https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2024/08/22/from-commodit... If the analysis is accurate it needs more than just affordable housing to be built.

mschuster91 2y ago
Of course people are too poor, but any kind of wage increase will be immediately snatched up by the landlord caste. I remember the days when Covid stimulus checks came 'round in the US, half of Reddit was up in arms over messages from landlords all but demanding they'd get their share (or the entirety of it). Landlords should not exist for long term housing, period.
beedeebeedee 2y ago
> I hadn't really considered the problem might just be people are too poor I'm a little surprised by that- I thought that this was common knowledge? (But then again, there has been heavy propaganda against homeless people, and diverting attention that this has anything to do with an unfair economy, a la "homeless people are all crazy", "homeless people are all addicts", "homelessness is a choice")
- hgomersall 2y ago
  I think it's less that than I thought that primary problem was just insufficient housing. Of course, both things can be true, particularly on a local scale.