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A comment on L.A. council members propose taxing landlords who leave homes vacant.

Re:L.A. council members propose taxing landlords who leave h... by mullingitover on Friday June 21, 2019 @02:27AM (#20240330)
Seems lazy for the author of the article to fail to mention any hard numbers for the actual vacancy rate. Without that context it's hard to judge whether this is meaningless grandstanding by the city council or determined problem-solving.

The real problem with homelessness in LA is that the street camping isn't being rolled back now that the terms of the 2007 settlement with the ACLU have been fulfilled. Instead the slums are being normalized. Shelters aren't even full. It makes homelessness an increasing lifestyle choice at a time when unemployment is reaching multi-decade lows.

We need to put a permanent hard ban on street camping and work backwards from that to handle the humanitarian needs of the population.

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Re:L.A. council members propose taxing landlords who leave h... by threezero on Friday June 21, 2019 @03:17AM (#20240577)
Shelters in LA have waiting lists, and Section 8 housing has 37,000 families on waiting lists. Sounds like it’s not a “lifestyle choice” for a lot of people.
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Re:L.A. council members propose taxing landlords who leave h... by mullingitover on Friday June 21, 2019 @03:30AM (#20240631)
> Reviews conducted at 60 shelters funded by LAHSA last year found more than half -- 33 -- were not filling all of their beds. Overall, LAHSA-funded shelters had a 78 percent utilization rate, well below the 90 percent required in their contracts.

https://www.kqed.org/news/11668623/why-do-thousands-of-l-a-s...

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