Article

2017-11-06 Economy

Homeless explosion on West Coast pushing cities to the brink

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Posted by Besoeker 2017-11-06 02:54|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 I wonder what brought this on?

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2017-11-06 04:54|| 2017-11-06 04:54|| Front Page Top

#2 Its self-inflicted.

Posted by gorb 2017-11-06 05:19|| 2017-11-06 05:19|| Front Page Top

#3 "....and counties to spend millions - in some cases billions - in a search for solutions...."

The fail is strong in these counties. Here's a big, fat, hairy clue - money is not the answer. Why iffin it were, problem woulda done been solved by now.

Posted by Bangkok Billy 2017-11-06 06:06|| 2017-11-06 06:06|| Front Page Top

#4 Trickle down economics works if you are a panhandler.

Posted by phil_b 2017-11-06 06:14|| 2017-11-06 06:14|| Front Page Top

#5 "I’ve got economically zero unemployment in my city, and I’ve got thousands of homeless people that actually are working and just can’t afford housing," said Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien. "There’s nowhere for these folks to move to. Every time we open up a new place, it fills up."

Cause the property tax on a 20 million dollar home brings more revenue to the apparatchiks than a block of affordable housing. Not to mention campaign donations.

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-11-06 07:28|| 2017-11-06 07:28|| Front Page Top

#6 P2k, you're never gonna get affordable housing with the property tax rates in California. It simply ain't gonna happen. I've seen condos, glorified apartments, going for $1 million. The solution is in the graphic for this post (see above). Put these people on the next freight train to flyover country. That's most likely where they came from anyway. You don't have any friends or family in California? No contacts? No job? No money? No prospects? Time to move along then.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-06 09:52|| 2017-11-06 09:52|| Front Page Top

#7 De-industrialization and the importation of low skilled immigrants both legal and illegal has consequences. The idea of total globalism as an economic model brings with it the lower standard of living that the rest of the “globe” knows far too well.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2017-11-06 10:50|| 2017-11-06 10:50|| Front Page Top

#8 Put these people on the next freight train to flyover country.

We don't want'em and that makes no sense.
Greater populations provide more tax dollars for social services. Sparse, scattered populations already can't handle the volume of natives.

May you need higher local taxes, Abu.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-11-06 11:07|| 2017-11-06 11:07|| Front Page Top

#9 P2k, you're never gonna get affordable housing with the property tax rates in California.

Cali is well beyond the point of no return. Largely a self inflicted wound made ever more possible by allowing mortgage interest rate deductions that are well beyond just the the income of 95% of Americans. Them prices wouldn't have gone up if it wasn't for that welfare for the rich.

Posted by Procopius2k 2017-11-06 11:39|| 2017-11-06 11:39|| Front Page Top

#10 NOT a self inflicted wound. I've said this over and over again: The influx of illegal aliens into California was a federal failure. George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Baraq Obama inflicted this scourge upon us thereby ensuring the preeminence of the Democrat party here. I've told you all before: California used to be a Red State producing presidential timber such as Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, senators like George Murphy, Sam Hayakawa and Pete Wilson. Sadly, those days are gone. We didn't have any homeless freaks back then. We didn't have exoctic, sub prime mortgages back then. If you couldn't put 20% down, you either rented or moved outta here. Those weird mortgages were responsible for the skyballing price of housing.

I've told you this too: There will never, ever be affordable housing in coastal California because the demand for apartments and even little granny shacks is so high. Maybe most Rantburgers wouldn't want to live here but the demand for real estate here is world class. You might pay more in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Tokyo or Singapore but hardly anywhere else.

If you can't hack it here, it's time to move on.

I don't care where these people go. I just want our politicians to enforce the vagrancy laws. No more coddling. No more handouts. No more tent cities. No more hepatitis A. No more urine and feces on the sidewalks. Just get them outta here.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-06 12:36|| 2017-11-06 12:36|| Front Page Top

#11 The only reason they pushed those 'homeless' out of the rich neighborhood is that 'donations' mean more than the mere dozen-or-so democratic votes of the homeless - who would most likely just go bother some other 'not so rich' neighborhood anyway.

And isn't Seattle sponsoring a 'safe zone for drug users' so they have a 'safe place' to shoot up their junk without fear of being harassed by the cops? And then they will wonder why crime is spiking in those neighborhoods (which, BTW never seem to be in the rich urban areas....).

Posted by CrazyFool 2017-11-06 12:54|| 2017-11-06 12:54|| Front Page Top

#12 I lived and worked in Westminster, Irvine, Costa Mesa, Garden Grove and often flew out of LAX and Burbank. I volunteered for every out of town and offshore assignment because I enjoyed the Real Estate appreciation but couldn't stand to live there, exactly because of that Abu, and I grew up on Chicago's south side!

Posted by Skidmark 2017-11-06 12:56|| 2017-11-06 12:56|| Front Page Top

#13 funny how all the socialist west coast cities are suddenly inexplicably experiencing mass homelessness. Seattle,Portland,San Fran,Los Angeles, San Diego.... all run by entrenched leftists who are convinced socialism is the cure

Posted by 746 2017-11-06 13:27|| 2017-11-06 13:27|| Front Page Top

#14 We didn't have exoctic, sub prime mortgages back then. If you couldn't put 20% down, you either rented or moved outta here. Those weird mortgages were responsible for the skyballing price of housing.

Another federal failure, BTW, invented by denizens of the DC swamp and not inflicted upon Californians by themselves.

And good for you, Skidmark. If I wasn't so hung up on the ocean I'd move to a small town in the Midwest myself. For the money I'd make on my house I could live like a king back there.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-06 13:32|| 2017-11-06 13:32|| Front Page Top

#15 746, San Diego has a Republican mayor. The way he talks about the homeless you might think he's a donk but he's not.

Again, many if not most of California's problems are a result of federal policies that could just as well impact all of the rest of you.

Posted by Abu Uluque 2017-11-06 13:34|| 2017-11-06 13:34|| Front Page Top

#16 homelessness is UP across the board from what I've seen traveling this summer. not aware of the San Diego Mayor, thanks for the heads up

Posted by 746 2017-11-06 13:50|| 2017-11-06 13:50|| Front Page Top

#17 In addition to the standard homeless, and the addicted/mental problems homeless, we now have millennial homeless that choose the lifestyle. They tend to migrate more than the other types but I've heard claims of fairly large yearly salaries from panhandling.

Posted by rjschwarz 2017-11-06 14:06|| 2017-11-06 14:06|| Front Page Top

#18 Solution is for companies to move their ops to mid america.

However, even when the finances say to move, a lot of the CEOs won't do so because they like where they are.

Posted by lord garth 2017-11-06 14:13|| 2017-11-06 14:13|| Front Page Top

#19 Minimum lot size requirements and regulations with respect to multi-unit complexes are probably an issue, cost-wise. If the state did away with those, developers would find a way to shoehorn fairly cheap, but spartan multi-level complexes into small spaces. Of course, property owners next to these complexes could see their property values crash.

Posted by Zhang Fei 2017-11-06 18:55|| 2017-11-06 18:55|| Front Page Top

#20 scooped up the refuse of the homeless - mattresses, tents, wooden frames, a wicker chair, an outdoor propane heater. Workers in masks and steel-shanked boots plucked used needles and mounds of waste from the underbrush.

I'm waiting for the first Cholera epidemic. What do you think the response will be of the pampered elite children then?

Posted by AlanC 2017-11-06 19:53|| 2017-11-06 19:53|| Front Page Top

#21 scooped up the refuse of the homeless A few years ago a homeless man sleeping in a New Mexico bosque with overgrown grass, was turned into "refuse" by a huge lawnmower / bush hog machine. The operator stopped when huge chunks of fresh red human came out of the discharge chute, but -- he was too late.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 19:58|| 2017-11-06 19:58|| Front Page Top

#22 I'm waiting for the first Cholera epidemic.
San Diego is already suffering from a huge hepatitis A outbreak, known to be related to its homeless problem.

Dr. Janet Haas, president-elect of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, said the outbreak is unusual for the U.S. because the spread of the liver infection has been blamed on a lack of basic hygiene and sanitation, not contaminated food.

That means public health officials can't solely rely on previous containment methods.

and...

In San Diego, where nearly 85 percent of all confirmed cases are located, cleaning crews are hitting the streets, attacking them with high-pressure water mixed with bleach to sanitize any surfaces contaminated with feces, blood or other body fluids.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 20:08|| 2017-11-06 20:08|| Front Page Top

#23 What do you think the response will be of the pampered elite children then? Full body condoms? Relocation to North Dakota?

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-06 20:12|| 2017-11-06 20:12|| Front Page Top

#24 Two dimensions: a) the country has experienced a deep depression but the consequences have been deliberately removed from public discourse (aka "media") so far because the president for the last 8 years was a Democrat; b) Americans tolerate the indecent and criminal behavior of homeless people because the political and intellectual classes tell them that is the right thing to do.

The already-started re-growth of the economy will help (whatever Trump has been doing is less than 1% of what ought to be done, and some of his anti-free-trade ideas are not great). But we also have to destroy the anti-American ruling class of moochers and looters.

Posted by Si vis pacem 2017-11-06 23:13|| 2017-11-06 23:13|| Front Page Top

23:13 Si vis pacem
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21:12 Seeking cure for ignorance
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