[PLUG] How we treat the homeless...

[Jim Karlock]

Actually it is a very simple, two tiered, problem:

1. Cost of housing is ONLY in areas with severe restrictions on 
building on unused land. In Oregon & Washington it is Urban Grown 
Boundaries. They have doubled cost of rents/ housing. Simple 
economics - they create a shortage of land, which drives up the 
price. In Portland's low income are, Lents, a parcel recently sold 
for ONE MILLION/ acra which is about $125,000 for a 5000 sf empty 
lot. Portland adds at lease $50,000 to that for permission to build. 
When you start with almost $200,000 in cost BEFORE building anything, 
you cannot build affordable houses.

2. People who simply cannot afford rent, end up living with friends, 
sharing an apartment, living in a camper or moving to another area. 
There are many successful services for this group. They generally do 
not end up in tests surrounded by needles.

3. Tent people are about 50-80% drug/alcohol addicts, some mentally 
ill that probably should be in institutions, and criminals who no one 
will rent to.

You may have noted an increase in people doing absolutely crazy 
things described as a mental health crisis - mostly illegal drug use.

View Seattle is Dying on YouTube for one viewpoint on the problem.

thanks
JK



At 10:46 AM 9/22/2019, you wrote:
>On Sun, 22 Sep 2019, michael at robinson-west.com wrote:
>
>>I hear that San Francisco isn't any better than Portland when it comes to
>>homelessness.
>
>A major reason in SF, as in other cities with large homeless populations, is
>the cost of housing. The Economist (current issue, US section) notes that in
>SF a family of 4 with a total income of $129.000 would spend 50% of that on
>a small apartment. Average rents now top $4,000 per month. Whew!
>
>Today's Washington Post reports that a woman who's lived in a predominantly
>black neighborhood for 40 years might be forced out because high-speed
>gentrification is raising rents and replacing buildings for those with
>higher incomes while forcing out those who cannot pay the higher prices.
>
>This is a continuing, higly complex problem that has no simple resolution.
>
>Rich
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