I’ve discussed this recently with a buddy of mine and he heard a podcast where dealing with government assistance is way more expensive to build housing than getting private investors.
Reading all these posts makes me think that we can do better without the red tape.
I think that homelessness is a tough issue to tackle like mass shootings… there could be a mental health component that’s not easily solved by more housing or gun control.
I haven’t done a deep dive into the Reagan years (I was just a kid then and I don’t have much an interest in politics), but, from the little I know, I am not a fan of his. However, I do think it’s important to keep in mind what @EC99 had written above about Reagan’s actions as governor.
There is actually also an interesting reddit thread about this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/cuwdzk/i_often_hear_that_the_reagan_administration_shut/
His actions as governor, in this regard, were actually kinda/sorta progressive. As President, not so much (of course)… I do agree that the McKinney Act was a really poor and insufficient band aid.
I think it was a test, to see just how much impact the Federal could do to what is largely a state and local issue. The way it reads, it’s like it set up systems for a two-year trial to see ‘what works and what doesn’t’. That is my impression, though.
Just building housing doesn’t solve the problem. The housing has to be of a certain quality or people aren’t going to be willing to live in it (see people choosing street over shelters). But if it’s too nice, you create an incentive not to work/make your income appear lower than it is. For example, in San Francisco if you offered any sort of decent affordable apartment in the city, you would create a big incentive for people to get under whatever the income threshold is for the housing. Say the income threshold is $30k for a family. Rather than make $70k a year and pay 30k for housing you would be much better off working less than half as much, making 30k and getting a free/subsidized apartment.
I think homeless is way harder to tackle. Several countries have been able to almost completely stop mass shootings (see UK and Canada averaging less than one a year). No large first world democracy has solved homelessness. The economics of market based housing make it just so difficult to resolve.
Private investors aren’t interested in building affordable or low income housing, at least not in the SF bay area. Their only interest is profit, and housing the homeless is less profitable than charging $3000/month for a luxury studio.
If we’re talking about stupid federal laws let’s bring up the jones act.
Okay that’s my off topic comment or the week, goodbye
I should find that podcast but I also brought that up and my friend said that there is enough margins to have people interested… especially if they are also interested in helping with the homelessness issue. Charities exist for a reason… so building housing with low profit may still be something people want to contribute to.
@EC99 I agree… increased housing doesn’t solve the problem (that’s sort of what I meant), but it does go beyond that. The parallel to gun control is the way American society is compared to other parts of the world, which is also a factor in homelessness.
Although we hate to admit it, entitlement is big factor and happens at all levels and is more prevalent here than abroad. You can draw this entitlement line to a variety of issues but I don’t want to landfill this post… like “I should be able own a gun”, “I have the right to take revenge”, “I can do what I want”, “I can say what I want”, “I can live on the street”, “I have no choice but this”, “My body my choice” (not to say this type of entitlement is not necessary) etc etc. This is a very big bag of reasons which is why it’s almost impossible to reign in.
But, just like it seems other countries have solved mass shootings… why is homelessness less of a problem in other cities/states in the US? At a macro level, we sort of know… but it’s not easy to create a universally applicable solution.
And you mention income level… that alone is not the only factor. Because now that puts us into the topic of affordable housing vs homeless housing which isn’t quite the same. There is overlap but the case can be made that it’s for different scenarios.
Slow mode is rough to have this conversation but I know it can get polarizing.
Oh common you know Jussie would never make it up.
I mean NYC building all these tents and rallying for illegals but never cared of previous homeless people? Not sure what that is about. I am all for opening the border and letting millions of unvetted people in. Actually should all go to humane blue counties and cities. We care about homeless and illegals too.
Which part of the city are these tents and stuff? Legit never seen em. There is a mens shelter right off the belt parkway near a school (pretty odd) but that’s about all i’ve seen
have you actually thought this out in practice? i mean really really thought about the practical implications of this nutty ass scenario you’re proposing here?
I’m guilty of doing it in 2014. I was an intern at the time making ~$22/hour + a $750/mo living stipend - which works out to ~$54k/year. Since I was only working for 3 months, it was difficult to find short term housing. But I found some “extended stay” places that allowed you to rent per-month. The catch was that they’re low income housing if renting per month and I was over the cap. I showed up and the dude at the front desk literally told me to not include the stipend and I would be accepted…
My barber recently did this for a while. Also a low income place, but he just played around with his cash payments to make his reported income below the cap.
And yes, the low income housing places tend to be quite nice for the rent.
The phrase illegals is considered derogatory in most (if not all parts) of the US. It’s dehumanizing.
Lol thank you for the laugh tonight, needed that 
Hi all, I’ve moved off-topic and inappropriate content from this thread to the Off-Topic Landfill. Please engage in a civil and constructive manner here. Thank you.
"We psychiatrists saw too much of the old snake pit, saw too many people who shouldn’t have been there and we overreacted. The result is not what we intended, and perhaps we didn’t ask the questions that should have been asked when developing a new concept, but psychiatrists are human, too, and we tried our damnedest.‘’
‘‘The psychiatrists involved in the policy making at that time certainly oversold community treatment, and our credibility today is probably damaged because of it.’’
Article from 1984.
Maybe should read some local news. A simple good search of Bronx Tent Cities would give you a view. Actually google maps named them Adams Tent City too. But hey what do I know. I am sure yall all care about the homeless like Marthas Vineyard cared for those 50 illegals.
It couldn’t possibly be because we throw pills at every ailment.
Joe had a brilliant idea to distribute crack pipe kits
No easy solution and I won’t pretend to know much about this subject. One thing I do know is that if drugs plays a major role in homelessness, then decriminalizing narcotics offenses will NOT help in this crisis. Of course tackling the drug epidemic is a good step. This means we need to take control of the southern border. This is the opposite of creating taxpayer funded legal injection centers, which is just a version of euthanasia.