I think step one is universal healthcare. For many reasons that we all are familiar with by now. (being tied to a job that has income limitations because you need the healthcare(ish) it provides, becoming bankrupted by healthcare costs, getting kicked out of your housing due to medical costs)
The revolutionary silver bullet to begin increasing housing availability is to eliminate the ability to depreciate assets via the tax code if they are single family detached homes. Many of these rentals are already fully depreciated and will remain rentals. But recently purchased (within 10 yrs.) rentals will likely be sold and importantly they will not be purchased by ‘investors’. That shift will provide a flood of homes into the market which will apply downward pressure on prices. More people being able to afford to purchase those homes will free up rental availability, thus applying downward pressure on rental affordability.
Now that only addresses single family homes; there remains multifamily housing to be addressed which will be more complex. A robust government regulatory agency for housing is not something we currently have in the usa, obviously. (see picture) Reforms of those regulatory bodies are needed whereby penalties they assess would have actual teeth. I imagine penalties that remove ownership. I also imagine the countless tax incentives used in constructing and rehabilitating these structures being negotiated quite differently, to include public ownership.
Just a few thoughts here; I haven’t all the answers. I’m curious when the last housing project was built in the usa.
Having financial plans in place is very important, I know it’s hard but making a savings account will help a lot. Even if you just set it up so that $20 a week goes to it it will help.
Most Americans can’t afford a $500 emergency so your first goal will be getting to that point in a savings account. Your second goal will be getting to that point plus having funds in your account for you deductibles for your insurances (car, health, renters, etc). Then your out of pocket max for health.
It’s a slow roll building a savings account and it’s hard to leave it alone but it will help a lot.
Of course even then it’s still pretty nerve wracking so one thing that I’ve done is get a line of credit with my credit union and some credit cards with really high limits that I pay off every month and only use for like gas or groceries. That way they stay open and in the event of a financial emergency that surpasses my savings I’m not completely fucked. Which saved my ass 2 years ago when I had to have emergency dental surgery 3 times in one year. ($10k that I’m still paying off)
Basically trying not to over extend yourself financially will help immensely.
But a massive help is having a healthy social safety net.
Thank you for writing that. I felt like credit card taught me to be a little irresponsible with cash (even though I payed for everything from debit straight away - I thought this two-step payment would better my score and limit for the future, lol), so I blocked it, but from that angle it really makes sense to have one in case of emergencies.
Paying for three dentals in a row can be only topped by the constant dental pain itself. If you budget didn’t crumble under that weight, with your situation, you are a tugboat called Unsinkable (or even Unthinkable?). I’m not joking, I can’t imagine it now, even though I’m housed and have some people I can loan from. It’s just too much.
Why’s that much discipline and intellect is needed to stay alive while poor? Stereotypes paints poor people as lazy and stupid. Is there a special program I can apply to and stop caring at all? Doubt so ):
Agreed. That’s not what the second panel said though. OP said cringe about safe parking spots. That’s like saying cringe about giving homeless people food. Yeah no shit people shouldn’t be homeless.
Sorry if it wasn’t clear - the cringe is housing / economic situation pushing so many to have to live in their cars. Absolutely great idea to have safe havens.
the land is being developed, and crime was getting out of control. and they only had to move three blocks to a different one, supplied by the city. to cite the very article you posted:
There were more than 100 emergency calls for drug use, sex acts, theft, vandalism and unresponsive people in and around the camp. A number of neighboring American Indian nonprofit organizations urged the city to close it.
it’s a little more nuanced than mean people kicking out poor defenseless citizens.
I’m not big on people supplying hard drugs, and theft often goes with threat of violence and trauma, but the criminalization of drug addiction, human sexuality when homeless, and whatever “unresponsive people” specifically refers to… yeah, I’m gonna say that there’s a lot less nuance than you might prefer.
theft and vandalism? don’t conflate the issue this isn’t about the cruel treatment of the addicted. it’s about keeping the law abiding citizens safe. empathy has been granted for years, this didn’t happen overnight. coupled with the fact that there were calls for closure from non profit organizations… maybe read the article
I agree that the situation in the article is complicated and that these homeless people were not exactly saints.
My point above is that these homeless people living in tents in an empty lot in January are worse off than the homeless people in the article that OP references. Those homeless people live in cars in a protected lot which I think is a big improvement from tent life.
The sad thing is that a Cyberpunk dystopia is nominally interesting. Violent, terrible, and impoverished, yes, but also fastpaced and exciting. Our world is dull, programmatic, largely predictable, and extremely boring unless you have disposable income. We all have cellphones, yes, but that doesn’t make it cyberpunk.
That’s because people in cyberpunk settings actually have the volition and guts to make change happen, and to put themselves through adversity against all the odds. People in the real world probably won’t attend a peaceful protest in their area for something they support if they aren’t in the mood.
This is true of any work of fiction. People in works of fiction - at least works of sci-fi or fantasy adventure - are typically more risk taking because that’s interesting to a reader/audience and the author knows this.
The characters the story is written about do. The people living in it that the main character doesn’t even interact with don’t. Nobody cares about salaryman #97543784 who, at the beginning and end of the story is still pushing pencils but maybe reads about an office explosion in the news.
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