Housing Crisis

… they could simplify their workflow by just driving everything directly from REI to the landfill :thinking:

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Some of my favorite gear came from REI dumpsters.
But I didn’t have to sleep in it first.
I’m sorry you all are having to deal with this frustrating and inhumane use of public resources out there.
SMH.

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I’m reminded of a high school geography teacher I once had. He was preaching about the inefficiencies of communism and told us some story about Russia trying to keep people employed and make their economy look great. They’d set up one factory to make wagon wheels, another factory to paint the wheels, and then a third factory would melt the wheels down and ship the raw materials back to the first factory.

If true, I think it would still be a better system than what we have going on here today.

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Nearly 90% of homeless Portlanders swept from encampments are back on streets; just 1% got permanent housing - oregonlive.com

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Started watching this video series, and it shows how people are struggling and finding ways to survive the lack of affordable housing:

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https://archive.ph/TMYUb

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Lots of uproar with tinges of NIMBY about an AirBnB in my small neighborhood. I was a little :roll_eyes: about it at first, but then I was curious enough to start looking at the short term rental listings in the area, and wow! In my ZIP code one person (or rather, his various LLCs) owns over 10 single family homes and at least 30 more in the city. This one guy, who lives in a very swank part of So Cal, has removed over 40 houses from availability for long term occupancy or family ownership. (Thanks, online property tax databases!) This area has a significant housing shortage too. So I’m not eyerolling anymore.

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In the last six months, I’ve been through 43 states and a bunch of major and minor cities- Boston, DC, Philly, Atlanta, Tampa, New Orleans, Austin, Phoenix, SF, Portland, Seattle, SLC, DeMoines, Chicago…

Every single one has huge homeless encampments or tent cities. All of them. I’ve traveled to a lot of these places before, but I’ve never seen this many homeless. The only places I didn’t see homeless camps were the places in the South and Southwest where the buildings are already such tar paper shacks you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

It’s bad, and it’s bad everywhere. Like, worse than you thought.

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Saw this earlier today :cry::

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Jimmy Fallon Agree GIF

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I never thought of that. It’s so true! If anyone had seen me doing some of my weird stuff that happens at home, they would certainly cross the street to avoid me!

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I’m not sure I like the idea of it being under an HOA…

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https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/11/ugly-houses-ugly-truth/

@doctorow on housing!

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There was a story on local radio today about how they’ll be “clearing” a homeless encampment in Portland, ME. They kept mentioning how the residents will get 24 hour notice of the action, as if that’s a great thing.
Imagine being told you need to relocate within 24 hours and everything you leave behind or can’t carry will be trashed. It’s like living in a fucking war zone.
ETA: for context, this is after surviving a Maine winter, unhoused.

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