Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Well, one thing is for sure.....
The GOP is not trying to force the mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into suburban neighborhoods.
That is a Democratic policy.

No, they forced them out of mental institutions and defunded the rehab facilities, so they are homeless. I don't know what you mean by "forcing...into suburban neighborhoods" - I guess you only want homeless people to be in urban areas? Or you think there aren't suburban people who are forced out of their homes and are just homeless where they are? Can you clarify this because it doesn't make any sense to me.

A lot of the urban homeless got sent to cities from elsewhere, picked up by the sheriff and given a one-way bus ticket, by smaller communities who figured the big cities would have the resources to deal with them. There have been a lot of articles written about this. There were also notorious cases like the Nevada mental institution that closed down and just dumped over a hundred mental patients onto street corners in San Francisco.

A lot of the homeless are also drug addicts who went to the city to chase after their poison of choice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Well, one thing is for sure.....
The GOP is not trying to force the mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into suburban neighborhoods.
That is a Democratic policy.

No, they forced them out of mental institutions and defunded the rehab facilities, so they are homeless. I don't know what you mean by "forcing...into suburban neighborhoods" - I guess you only want homeless people to be in urban areas? Or you think there aren't suburban people who are forced out of their homes and are just homeless where they are? Can you clarify this because it doesn't make any sense to me.

A lot of the urban homeless got sent to cities from elsewhere, picked up by the sheriff and given a one-way bus ticket, by smaller communities who figured the big cities would have the resources to deal with them. There have been a lot of articles written about this. There were also notorious cases like the Nevada mental institution that closed down and just dumped over a hundred mental patients onto street corners in San Francisco.

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to change near-in zoning to increase density when there are thousands of vacant homes in places like Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit that the government can't give away. Maybe Biden should focus on addressing how to fix the surplus housing caused by job loss and crime before trying to ghettoize functioning suburbs.

The IRA and other bills passed help address job creation and crime. The GOP voted against these bills. It takes time to undo decades of urban neglect, but places like Baltimore and Cleveland have to work at the state and regional level to capture their place in the corporate heirarchy to attract investment, businesses and thus jobs. That is why Biden has been so focused on Jobs jobs Jobs...because jobs actually do trickle down.

I have seen nothing from the GOP from a policy standpoint to address this. But it still doesn't help when there are jobs in places like the DC area and there aren't in Cleveland. How does moving please from the DC area to Cleveland help when the jobs are here and not there?

Anonymous wrote:There is absolutely no reason to change near-in zoning to increase density when there are thousands of vacant homes in places like Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit that the government can't give away. Maybe Biden should focus on addressing how to fix the surplus housing caused by job loss and crime before trying to ghettoize functioning suburbs.

ok, so there is a homeless person in Montgomery County, MD. You offer them a vacant house in Cleveland. then what? How do they rehab the house with no money? How do they earn money with no job? There is a reason Baltimore and Clevleand are how they are. Detroit is a little different because the city simply razed blocks of houses and turned it into "urban agriculture" which has been successful in providing jobs and food for area residents.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Well, one thing is for sure.....
The GOP is not trying to force the mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into suburban neighborhoods.
That is a Democratic policy.

No, they forced them out of mental institutions and defunded the rehab facilities, so they are homeless. I don't know what you mean by "forcing...into suburban neighborhoods" - I guess you only want homeless people to be in urban areas? Or you think there aren't suburban people who are forced out of their homes and are just homeless where they are? Can you clarify this because it doesn't make any sense to me.

There is absolutely no reason to change near-in zoning to increase density when there are thousands of vacant homes in places like Baltimore, Cleveland, and Detroit that the government can't give away. Maybe Biden should focus on addressing how to fix the surplus housing caused by job loss and crime before trying to ghettoize functioning suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Well, one thing is for sure.....
The GOP is not trying to force the mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into suburban neighborhoods.
That is a Democratic policy.

What is the Republican solution?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Well, one thing is for sure.....
The GOP is not trying to force the mentally ill and drug addicted homeless into suburban neighborhoods.
That is a Democratic policy.

Anonymous wrote:This is the inevitable consequence of Democratic, and some Republican, policies over the last few decades. What did you think would happen when you add 100 million people to a country? Where did you think they were going to go? Upzoning closer in suburban neighborhoods is one of the least-bad places to make room for them.

Also keep in mind, if the country keeps growing, that those future new people will also need somewhere to live. You're worried about today's densification, but you might just be able to stop tomorrow's.

Without catastophic events like a meteor pounding into the earth or global Ebloa type pandemic, the human population is going to grow and how people put a roof over their head and food on the table is core. The GOP solution is "everyone pull themselves up by the bootstraps" while giving the wealthy tax breaks and corporations no taxes at all. Agribusiness receives more subsidies than any other sector except perhaps the defense contractors.

So you can complain about population growth but it is what it is. Combined with climate change which is eating away at livable places particualrly along the equator means we will have human migration as things get worse.

What is your solution other than, I have mine and want to pull up the ladder to prevent others from being able to survive?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

This is actually more horrific than the problem, though. Right now, I walk past the homeless on my way to my office in the urban core of a city. You're suggesting that we should ship them off to neighborhoods. No. People aren't homeless due to housing shortage. They are homeless due to substance abuse and mental illness. This isn't a solution for that problem. It makes the problem more potent.

There are people who are homeless because, despite having jobs, they cannot afford housing where they work or close to it, so they live in their car or in a tent. Yes, this does actually happen. If there were MORE housing where the jobs where, the relative cost would come down, you know, supply and demand.

And yes, there are also significant mental health and substance abuse issues. The GOP has NO solution or proposed legislation around those issues.

Anonymous wrote:
Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.



Do you really think people living in homeless encampments or on city streets or off somewhere in wooded areas will have the wherewithal to live in nanny flats in someone’s basement or a tiny house in a backyard?

Where would the rent money come from?

And who is willing to rent to people with mental health and/or addiction issues?

It’s far more likely that affluent people will put tiny homes in their yards and rent them out through Airbnb. Or their failed-to-launch adult children will move into the backyard.

None of this is solving the housing crisis.

Here’s what would:

Go back in a Time Machine so Congress could have taken steps to prevent corporations from commoditizing housing. Prevent Airbnb in urban tourist areas. Only allow citizens to purchase real estate and land. Put caps on how many properties one can own.

Those are real solutions.

Packing more people/families in tiny spaces is a fast track to shantytown.

Those are good ideas. However, the area around the DMV does not have a lot of corporations commoditizing housing (maybe you could give some examples of it in this area?). Airbnb is not a thing in our area as we are suburban and not touristy at all out here. There is a fee on noncitizen purchases already (has been for some time) and maybe it is not enough to deter them so that is probably a good one to look at. I'm not sure the caps on how many properties one can own will do much. Can't people use things like LLCs and just have different LLCs for each purchase (or separate ownership between marital partners or some such thing)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m legitimately thinking about switching my vote over this.

How often do you vote in your state and local elections? Because land use and zoning is largely controlled at that level.

You can vote for Trump all day but that's not going to change what Arlington and Montgomery Counties do with their land use regulations.

And, this administration is trying mightily to insert itself to alter policies that have traditionally been dictated locally.
And, you folks call Trump a "dictator." Biden has demonstrated a propensity to authoritarianism more than any other president we have had.

Anonymous wrote:I’m legitimately thinking about switching my vote over this.

How often do you vote in your state and local elections? Because land use and zoning is largely controlled at that level.

You can vote for Trump all day but that's not going to change what Arlington and Montgomery Counties do with their land use regulations.

Anonymous wrote:Y’all complain about the homeless crisis.
Y’all complain about a housing shortage.
Y’all complain about proposed solutions.
Rinse and repeat.

Do you really think people living in homeless encampments or on city streets or off somewhere in wooded areas will have the wherewithal to live in nanny flats in someone’s basement or a tiny house in a backyard?

Where would the rent money come from?

And who is willing to rent to people with mental health and/or addiction issues?

It’s far more likely that affluent people will put tiny homes in their yards and rent them out through Airbnb. Or their failed-to-launch adult children will move into the backyard.

None of this is solving the housing crisis.

Here’s what would:

Go back in a Time Machine so Congress could have taken steps to prevent corporations from commoditizing housing. Prevent Airbnb in urban tourist areas. Only allow citizens to purchase real estate and land. Put caps on how many properties one can own.

Those are real solutions.

Packing more people/families in tiny spaces is a fast track to shantytown.

This is the inevitable consequence of Democratic, and some Republican, policies over the last few decades. What did you think would happen when you add 100 million people to a country? Where did you think they were going to go? Upzoning closer in suburban neighborhoods is one of the least-bad places to make room for them.

Also keep in mind, if the country keeps growing, that those future new people will also need somewhere to live. You're worried about today's densification, but you might just be able to stop tomorrow's.

This.