Is Portland over?

Quote: Tanko

Homelessness isn't always due to drugs and mental illlness,

Half of them have jobs, but they can't afford the rents.

Especially hard on singles.

'A record number of Americans can’t afford their rent.'

'Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — from $750 to $3,374 last year.'

This is generations in the making, probably since the 1970s but really gained steam in the 1990s.

First issue is ROI. You pay the same for the land. You pay the same for a 2x4 at THD. So you want to get the most rent possible.

Another issue is too many tenant-friendly laws. If you might have to pay a fortune to boot someone then you want as much rent as possible.

Still another issue is zoning. Municipal corporations want the most tax dollars possible. Thus they zone out affordable housing and zone in luxury units.

This "working homeless" is an interesting thing. Some are by choice. Go where there is work and work for that gig or season. Stay in cheap motels. Heck, I badly wanted to do this in land work when ND was booming. I have met other people doing it. An answer would be old school "rooming houses." IIRC like the kind the guy lived at in the movie "Midnight Cowboy." College dorm style. Common bathroom and you get a small room. But the money is not there so it will not happen.

The USA is in more and more of a spot where the average person cannot afford an average lifestyle. Something will give sooner or later.

Quote: AZDuffman

Uh, what is the DEMOCRAT plan? Democrats run most of the cities where the problems are. Let them figure it out.

The GOP are the ones making it a campaign issue. Or are Republicans really good at finding problems, but absolutre $h!t at solving them?

Quote: GenoDRPh

So what's the GOP plan to reduce homelessness and increase the availability or housing affordable to the median income earners?

Ask the GOP.

When you start your term with a national housing deficit of 3.5 million units and an unemployment rate of 6.4% in the middle of a pandemic, you don’t screw your own people and throw your borders wide open to allow millions of people to flow into your country to compete for shelter and goods and services with suffering US residents.

By then end of 2022, the housing deficit reached 4.5 million units. Possibly 5 million in 2024.

At least Justin Trudeau recognizes the problem in Canada. Not that he's going to do anything about it.

'Migration: Justin Trudeau Admits Young Canadians Are Locked Out of Housing Wealth'

'Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that a generation of young Canadians will be denied housing wealth because they cannot buy their way into the nation’s migration-inflated housing market.'

Quote: AZDuffman

Uh, what is the DEMOCRAT plan? Democrats run most of the cities where the problems are. Let them figure it out.

Idaho is a very reliable republican state and the average house is over $480,000. Kind of tough on $7.25 minimum wage.

Quote: GenoDRPh

The GOP are the ones making it a campaign issue. Or are Republicans really good at finding problems, but absolutre $h!t at solving them?

Where? I have not seen or heard of them talking much about it. Homeless camps, yeah, maybe. There are lots of Bidenvilles out there. But it is a local issue, meaning Democrat mayors and councils have to figure it out.

Quote: DaveeyD

Idaho is a very reliable republican state and the average house is over $480,000. Kind of tough on $7.25 minimum wage.

People on minimum wage do not buy houses. Never have. To say they do is to make a jerk out of yourself.

Quote: Tanko

Ask the GOP.

When you start your term with a national housing deficit of 3.5 million units and an unemployment rate of 6.4% in the middle of a pandemic, you don’t screw your own people and throw your borders wide open to allow millions of people to flow into your country to compete for shelter and goods and services with suffering US residents.

By then end of 2022, the housing deficit reached 4.5 million units. Possibly 5 million in 2024.

At least Justin Trudeau recognizes the problem in Canada. Not that he's going to do anything about it.

'Migration: Justin Trudeau Admits Young Canadians Are Locked Out of Housing Wealth'

'Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted that a generation of young Canadians will be denied housing wealth because they cannot buy their way into the nation’s migration-inflated housing market.'

The Canadian housing "crisis" is the USA on steroids. As I hear it, Canadian financing works different and that makes things worse. Add in that at 10% of USA population the same number of immigrants or foreign money is 10Xs the problem. From health care to housing, Canada is looking more and more a potemkin village. Outsiders think it looks great, inside it is not so much.

Well, they do have curling.

Quote: AZDuffman

Where? I have not seen or heard of them talking much about it. Homeless camps, yeah, maybe. There are lots of Bidenvilles out there. But it is a local issue, meaning Democrat mayors and councils have to figure it out.

And the Red Sate governors?

Quote: GenoDRPh

And the Red Sate governors?

So far it is a Blue governments problem. Why do you want to give Democrats a pass all the time? Oh, yeah, because even when Democrats are mayor and council somehow it is still because of dem wascally wepublicans.......

As for the high price of housing today: I gotta think it will crash substantially when we boomers die out; none of the newer generations can match our numbers nor our financial success.