LogFAQs > #956629875

wolfy42 posted...

I'd expand on the above btw. Perhaps give EVERY tenant 6 free months, homless or not, which they can use at will (either at start, or later in case they loose a job/get sick etc) that way they are not kicked out on the street if something happens.

Also not all need to be that extreme, build those first, so EVERYONE can have a place, so focus on making as many as you can, until you start seeing vacancies, so some rooms are not being used.

THEN start building more full sized apartment complexes but still at affordable prices. Upgrades from the base units above (similar to some in Japan) but still extremely cheap to rent. These would have their own bathrooms (biggest deal) and possibly a small kitchen, similar to Studio apartments.

If you look for studio apartments in most areas you'll see there are almost none available, too much demand for them. So make a bunch in each area and rent em for double the other cost (so about $400 a month). With utilities/internet bringing that up to $500, that is STILL way within the means of someone on base SSI (which is around $1000 a month btw).

Not only would this save money on tons of other resources that are being used right now (jail, medical expenses for people using ER due to being homeless, police efforts and city efforts to clean up after homlessness etc), but it would, eventually, MAKE money for the government because they don't have to pay taxes etc, so all the "rent" is pure profit (other then maintanence). It may take a few years to pay for the initial cost of building it, but after that, it would actually generate a profit.

That would solve the homeless problem (also offer tons of jobs while doing it), possibly within the next 3-5 years.

Solutions could include multiple options, but the single biggest one is: Homestead laws

Tax the ever loving fucking shit out of residential property to a disgustingly massive amount. But then exempt those taxes from anyone's home if it's their primary residence (spend majority of the year there, can only have one registered as such). Severely puts the screws to anyone buying up houses as an investment and helps out people that just want a place to live.

But that will never happen. Governments LIKE the status quo. If they did the above, property values would plummet and a far higher percentage of homes would be owned by the primary residents, so overall tax revenue would decrease. The politicians in those governments also get hefty brib-- err... campaign contributions from the lobbying and special interest groups that benefit from the inflating housing prices (the realtors, the banks, the investment firms, etc...).
They'd rather tolerate a massive homeless population and a middle class perpetually sliding closer and closer to poverty if it means more money for them, than to actually fix the problem.