Understanding homelessness

[KT2000]

Last edited Thu Oct 14, 2021, 07:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Daily I get phone calls from people who want to know if I want to sell my house for cash. Many of these are people who are driving up the cost of housing for resale later. Many are foreign investors. They may turn it into a rental or leave it empty so either a housing unit is removed from the market or turned into a short term rental. It appears to be an "in" way to make money now. Too bad for the families that cannot compete with the cash offers though. Here, a friend was continually turned down for a house due to the large number of cash offers, even though he had $100,000 to put down. He can only rent.

United States of Tents is a documentary on Amazon that takes a close look at the reasons for homelessness. A journalist was vacationing in Hawaii when he noticed some tents in the trees. He explored further and found more and more tents. He then visited a few cities to examine homelessness and what is being done about it. Cities are trying but this is a problem that will likely grow even more. A large factor turns out to be that the cost of housing is too high for working people to afford it without some form of government help.

The saddest part of all this is that once homeless, many continue a predictable downward spiral until they can never come out of it. Early intervention is a must.

I highly recommend this film.

[rurallib]

1. Thom Hartmann had a great newsletter on this today

https://hartmannreport.com/p/wall-streets-barrons-are-causing?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo2MDUxOTg3LCJwb3N0X2lkIjo0MjU2NTY5OSwiXyI6IkxibjVWIiwiaWF0IjoxNjM0MjUwOTc1LCJleHAiOjE2MzQyNTQ1NzUsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0zMDIyODgiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.TfZYMuXHfTx1FJVa1qLxyNtF9ZSjGxs1X8T-0xn2QRc

[KT2000]

6. Thanks for this

That is some fine tuned data from Zillow. So much is known but yet it is allowed to go on and on. The free market folks will never allow what British Columbia has done. Right now we are pretty much just outlawing homelessness.

[XanaDUer2]

2. A former coworker with a modest

salary couldn't compete for a house due to cash buyers. This was in CO. they finally found a place. It was a nightmare for her family

[cadoman]

3. sad fact: it's legal to launder money through real estate

Most of that "investment" is out-of-country persons laundering money through our real estate system. It is a loophole that is advocated for and received by the NAR during every tax code resolution.

I believe that a good way to stop this would be to apply a non-use tax on every unused property that is not the primary residence of the owner.

[KT2000]

5. That's a good idea

British Columbia solved their problem but that sent them to Washington.
BC appears to have studied the problem and addressed a lot of the problems in one bill. I especially like putting an end to self-regulation.

"The Act has four parts:

Vacancy tax: Amendments to the Vancouver Charter to enable the City of Vancouver to impose a municipal vacancy tax on vacant residential property
Foreign-buyers tax: Amendments to the Property Transfer Tax Act, imposing an additional property transfer tax of 20% on all residential property purchased by foreign buyers
Amendments to the Real Estate Services Act discontinuing industry self-regulation of the real estate industry
Creating a new Housing Priority Initiatives special account to fund initiatives in respect to housing, rental, access, and support programs with the new tax revenues resulting from this law.[1]"

What is NAR?

[cadoman]

7. National Association of Realtors

https://www.nar.realtor/

[KT2000]

8. Thanks!

They rule our local governments.

[Backseat Driver]

4. Not to mention time limits on reporting potential complaints of fraud

about RE brokers and notary publics that apply their sig and stamp illegally. It's a really short window, and if those crooks can hide themselves, well...

[Sympthsical]

9. Currently reading "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" by Matthew Desmond

It won the Pulitzer Prize.

It's pretty gripping. However, having been written in 2017, it's already kind of outdated given Covid.

Still a worthwhile read so far.

[KT2000]

10. yes, the documentary was from 2018

so he missed the Covid effect. We will see that soon.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

12. I've read that book.

It's incredibly good.

[canetoad]

11. Thanks for your post

There's an old, kind of ugly house, half a dozen doors down from me. It was empty for several years then four or five years ago someone - I think a woman in her 40s moved in. From the number of cars, I think there are three or four folk living there. They keep the place clean and don't make noise. I've nodded and said G'day a couple of times, other than that I never see them.

Since the pandemic began, house prices in this country town in SE Australia have more than doubled. Two days ago the For Sale sign went up on this house - full quarter acre corner block. I don't know the occupants but I'm deeply saddened that they will lose their home.

They may be squatters for all I know, but I doubt it. The point is they have made this plain, unremarkable little old cottage their home, and now they will be turfed out so that a developer can put three or four naff units on the block.

I think that without the pandemic, without the rush to own property away from the city of Melbourne thereby avoiding pandemic-related restrictions, these unknown neighbours could have quietly lived in their little house for years. Yep, I'm sad that they are being forced to move so that someone else can make a property windfall.