Re:LA has passed new restrictions on sleeping in cars and RVs
by Splognosticus on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @02:27PM
(#16979812)
> There are enough homes in the US, as far as I know.
1.8% of all homes in the U.S. are vacant[1], as compared to 0.17% of the population who are homeless.
[1] https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/currenthvspress.pdf [2] https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2017-AHAR-P...
Re:LA has passed new restrictions on sleeping in cars and RVs
by jhbadger on Saturday May 05, 2018 @09:39AM
(#17001743)
It's not like most vacant houses are perfectly fine though. These numbers presumably include the decaying abandoned houses in places like Detroit which were abandoned because people couldn't make a living there.
Re:LA has passed new restrictions on sleeping in cars and RVs
by closeparen on Wednesday May 02, 2018 @04:54PM
(#16981075)
The “enough homes in the US” are in the outlying sprawl of economically stagnant agglomerations of suburbia, not in cities.
There are enough homes in the US, as far as I know.
> I'd argue this is actually the arc of humanity for millennia - America's decentralization is a mistaken aberration, and one that's ending.
Yes, I think you're right. And I think it's generally a good thing that the suburban sprawl phase is ending.
> People who can afford to overwhelmingly choose cities.
In the past, "can afford" was generally "yes" for cities, it's just that you may have had to choose a working class neighborhood. But now we have the population density of the 2020s and the income inequality of the 1920s. The result is that the zone of affordability for many cities is now so far out that you can no longer get close enough to even be able to commute into the city.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Reducing inequality would be great, but doesn't seem likely any time soon. Maybe a larger number of smaller mini-metropolises instead of concentrating in a small number of giant ones like NYC/LA/SF/Seattle, etc.