AFFORDABLE HOUSING is the next issue to tackle. I will take the snark, the ridicule but i will keep

[Samrob]

screaming about it as I have about state and local campaigns and elections. The corruption and greed in nation-wide housing should be addressed by Dems. Legislation on speculation, foreign ownership, money laundering, scamming, banking, building etc. i needed. No, I don't have the answers but there are those out there who do and the power to take it on. There are huge links to the lack of affordable housing and crime, employment of skilled workers, quality education, tax structure etc.

When people have homes they can afford with the jobs they are able to work, they pay taxes, take care of their property, build safer communities, and live in neighborhoods of low or no crimes. When housing is unaffordable, families have to double up, their is no pride of ownership, parents with multiple jobs are absent more, crime rises, schools suffer, etc. We can do better if we help families to live better.

[Tetrachloride]

1. Peace and quiet and a microwave will do a lot for a simple life.

or an air fryer.

My last roommate was really pompous. He lasted a month.

Time to call in the chips on those landlord corporations.

[Doc Sportello]

2. K&R

It's not just homelessness. As you point out, the housing issue affects many other aspects of society. Even people who have housing are affected by things like having to double up or get a roommmate because they are quality of life issues. Just because we don't have all the answers yet doesn't mean this is unsolvable. Some cities and states are creating projects to start dealing with homelessness and affordable housing. But we have to start trying on a much greater scale than what has been done so far.

[dembotoz]

4. bingo

i grew old fairly middle class. the need for a safety net was always for the lesser fortunate.
at least with housing the need for the net is ever creeping closer

I have one homeless person living with me if if she moved out a family members family would move in.
Its nuts.

[Doc Sportello]

8. These last few years have been tough for a lot of people

When it comes to housing. I owned a house but when I retired I started to rent again. I planned for retirement but these rental prices in some caes have doubled. Luckily, I did find a house I can afford and fits my needs. But it took awhile. A friend in a retirement city in AZ recently had her rent almost doubled when a large corporation bought the apartment property. No way she can afford it.

[Wounded Bear]

3. Need to attack from top and bottom. UBI will probably be needed...

I've been thinking lately. One way to get people to 'come in from out in the cold' is just pay them.

Yeah, we need some serious housing regulation. Call it rent control, whatever. But letting hedge fund managers suck up housing and overcharge tenants to where they get driven out is capitalism going off the rails, as it is wont to do when not regulated. Not to mention that high end real estate is perhaps the most corrupt part of the economy. After all, that's where trump made his bones.

[Thunderbeast]

5. If wages (particularly the minimum wage) kept pace with inflation

more people could afford rents. We are looking at this problem through the wrong end of the telescope.

[hunter]

6. The answer is simple: build more homes. Have we forgotten how to do that?

My city still has a huge homeless problem and a lot of it is because people migrate here from places where being homeless is extremely dangerous.

I think we've been more successful than most cities housing the "working poor," senior citizens, and the like, but it's nearly impossible to build housing for people who are unaffable and unemployable in any capacity, usually people with severe mental health issues and/or addictions. That's when the NIMBYS come out in full force.

It's a cruel reality in the USA that many of these unhoused unemployable people end up in prison or prematurely dead.

It doesn't have to be this way.

Solutions to the problem will probably have to be at the Federal level because homeless people migrate. In too many places municipalities put homeless people on busses to distant cities that already have a huge housing problems. These stunts by Texas and Florida abusing immigrants in this manner are nothing new.

[jmbar2]

7. Affordable Housing Trust Funds are promising

Affordable housing needs to be taken out of the investment/speculation stream.

A promising approach is the creation of housing trust funds, which use low-income housing development money to build affordable housing that not only fits low income budgets, but also allows long-term renters to build some equity. The housing is not available to speculators or investors.

https://www.naht.org

Eugene, OR is investing in two projects using Affordable Housing Trust Fund money.
https://www.eugene-or.gov/4232/Affordable-Housing-Trust-Fund

[ScratchCat]

9. The issue is difficult and comes down to greed

Imo, the biggest problem is that over say the past 15 to 20 years, the bulk of people who have gotten into home construction have done so to get wealthy at the expense of the people they are selling to and essentially everyone else in the community. The new pricing scheme is to just add a "contractor fee" of 15 to 18 percent of today's cost at the big box store. People in my area are having to pay a builder an amount of profit that is equal to the median household income just for an 1800 sf home. Think about that for a minute. The builder builds one house and you have to pay a years salary as his "fee". He does no work himself, but takes your total years take as profit. Every builder I know lives in a million dollar plus home in a gated acreage lot subdivision and expects you to pay them an arm/leg for a house on a 50 x 150 lot.

There's no way to fix it when those building believe they are entitled to be wealthy at the expense of everyone else

[FakeNoose]

10. In Pittsburgh, as in many older cities, we have abandoned decaying houses

Families move out, people die, they can't afford the upkeep, they get jobs elsewhere, they can't pay their taxes, etc. There are lots of reasons why houses are abandoned. It's a pox in older cities when the new shiny McMansions in the suburbs are more appealing to families than the older decaying housing stock in racially mixed neighborhoods.

It's more than that, I know. It's the quality of the public schools, it's safety, it's proximity of grocery stores and shopping malls, it's a lot of things. But the cities have resources - namely social agencies - that can work together to fix up the abandoned properties and make them livable again. Homeless people can be taught self-reliance, young deserving families can be given a chance at self-sufficiency. Formerly dependent people can become productive citizens, tax-payers and voters.

The upsides are enormous to these worthy projects, all it takes is the political will and cooperation of civic-minded groups.

I totally agree with you that Affordable Housing is a serious issue that can only be addressed by the Democratic Party. The Repukes don't give a shit, except if they can make a profit. And even then their motives are questionable.

[Samrob]

11. Please do not overlook the corruption involved. Fixing that will go a long way to helping resolve i

a lot the related issues.