Growth in Homelessness

Homelessness can also be hard to track. Many who are homeless are also transient. I've noticed in both Orlando and Tampa that you see a significant surge in the amount of homeless people you see in the winter time. I've seen several sources attribute that to weather issues. Some of these homeless people will scrap up enough money to get a bus ticket from NYC or Chicago and get down to places like Miami, Orlando, Tampa and New Orleans for the winter since our winters are relatively mild. On the same front, the amount of homeless people I see also decreases in the summer as they then go back up north to escape the brutal heat. Many are transient just in general and hop from city to city via train hopping.

 

Any reason citizens can’t cram more people into a house to cut costs?

 

Because we shouldn't have to. Because up until probably the last 10 - 15 years most Americans could afford at least a starter home. Many times on one salary, but especially on two. Up through the 1980s if you worked a decent enough full time job, you could afford at least a basic home or a decently nice apartment rent.

Why can't we just limit the amount of immigrants coming into the Country? You limit immigrants, you cut down on the demand which would then naturally start to decrease rents and prices overall. It wouldn't be immediate, but it would happen.

You realize your argument is for Americans to give up on the American dream (homeownership). I'm sorry but I'm 41 years old and made $62,000, I shouldn't have to freaking have roommates. I don't make a lot of money but I should make enough to be able to afford a place to call my own.

Your argument is the argument I hate. You want us to adapt to the immigrants instead of the immigrants doing the right thing and adapting and assimilating into the U.S. culture.

We didn't ask those immigrants to come. It isn't our side who should have to make the sacrifice. It isn't our side who should have to adapt. The responsibility to adapt and assimilate falls to the immigrants.

 

So your argument is that they should put less people into a house to lower demand for housing?

Actually, we did ask immigrants to come. We have a labor shortage. That means that we need to get labor from somewhere or provide less goods and services in many industries (decreasing supply leads to increasing prices, especially in industries that can't be offshored).

 

why is the american dream homeownership? Homeownership doesnt always make sense from a financial perspective. Its all about living within your means. Immigrants have figured that out when it comes to housing. Perhaps the american dream should be to live within your means. My first 5 years I had a roommate enabling me to save money. I then realized that I had some 'extra time' on my hands so took a part time job to save more money. Eventually I got married and bought a house. Was able to afford it because I had worked 2 jobs and saved and my wife did the same. There's a house in my neighborhood that has lots of people living in it. No idea how many but there's usually around 10 cars parked in front of it. Doesnt bother me, they've chosen to do that in order to live in the neighborhood. There's plenty of places you could by on a $62k salary, you just have to be willing to move to a location that has those properties available.

 

So if you evict the immigrants living in a garage, but the citizens stay, how much supply of housing have you added? Zero. But if these immigrants in the garage work in construction, then you've actually lowered supply!

The answer is more low income and higher density housing. These can't magically appear. They need to be built. Which today, means immigrant labor.

 

It’s not at all unusual for day laborers or those working for temp agencies to not have permanent homes. Anecdotally, I can confirm. Mom worked as a greeter at a Village Inn when I was a kid. She also picked up various temp jobs, as available. We showered at truck stops and did laundry at laundry mats. You get resourceful when you have nothing.

There’s also a lot of data demonstrating that homeless people often have formal employment. One decent study: Employment alone isn’t enough to solve homelessness, study suggests

 

Is it going to hurt you that much if the U.S. raises minimum wage? Will your self-esteem be shattered?

 

If you deport all the illegal immigrants, you significantly decrease the demand. Once again you are only looking at the supply side.

You decrease demand, then sellers, landlords and apartment companies don't have as many people to raise prices and rents on. Owners, landlords and apartment companies have to become more competitive which causes home prices and rents to naturally stabilize or even come down.

Illegal immigrants, even if the houses and apartments are put up almost instantly, will not build up enough to keep up with the supply for an open border.

You also completely ignore the stress of more housing. More pollution in our environment. More stress on our roads, hospitals, schools, emergency services. You can't have illegals working as doctors, nurses or EMT's. Here in Florida our infrastructure is at the point of failure with the current inventory, we can't handle additional housing and apartment inventory.

You decrease the demand by deporting illegal immigrants. When you decrease demand, prices stabilize or come down without having to build more inventory. And you don't have to destroy more land to build that inventory, including potentially environmentally sensitive areas. And you don't have the resulting stress on the infrastructure. Win-Win for citizens.

 

AzCatFan, if they got their way, would have us living like the Chinese. This is what AzCatFan wants for us, just so that AzCatFan can get the precious illegal immigrants:



To some this doesn't look so bad. To me it looks like the glorified prison that it truly is. And here's the thing, after 10 years they will look like this:



AzCatFan wants us to be no better than the 3rd World. That's the end goal, flood the U.S. with illegal immigrants and destroy the Country.

 

They should have some kind of sliding scale between the corporate tax rate and the minimum wage. Pay people more, get a more favorable tax rate.

 

And how is that going to help workers at McDonalds? A locally-owned franchise that's barely scraping by will probably be hurt much more by the salary increases than by slightly higher taxes.

 

What about food? Do you eat food? Who is going to pick America's fruits and vegetables? Who is going to work in the meat packing factories? You?

 

Kind of rude to claim what someone else wants, don't you think? You think someone should pick some ugly scenario and claim "Yep, that's exactly what the donaldgod wants!"

 

There are middle grounds between urban slums pictured above and large, single family homes in large plots of land. But currently, only about 15% of homes on the market are low income. And most new builds are not low income.

As for demand, if the immigrants are living in a garage or packed in a house, and not all are undocumented and deported, how does deportation help supply? It doesn't. The house where the undocumented lived is still being used. Again, nearly 5 million citizen kids live with at least one undocumented parent. These kids don't leave, they still need housing regardless of whom is deported.

We should also consider zoning changes for some business areas into multi-use or residential. Post COVID, most Phoenix cities have a 20% commercial vacancy rate or higher. Including nice suburbs like Scottsdale, where my old office was before they closed and went fully remote. Many commercial vacancy rates in Florida are over 10% too. Sure, some wouldn't be suitable for a zoning change, but many would be.