New Orleans reduced homelessness by 90% (and saved a fortune) by giving homeless people homes

Fucking yes, this. I am familiar with the good community work that was being done in Nawlins. I particularly remember some homes that were in bad enough shape that they were torn down and to avoid having the area deteriorate those lots were turned into community gardens where the locals were taught to grow their own food. This plus giving the homeless their own homes is pretty amazing.

10 Likes

You obviously have never been to New Orleans. Not only is there not “a massive surplus of housing”, there is a major shortage and very limited land to build on. Which is why 3% of the city was homeless.
Absolutely this would work for the west coast cities you mentioned if it was implemented.

7 Likes

Thanks for the good news, and right in the middle of carnival too

1 Like

In the surrounding area in the outskirts of NO and nearby there was available land and abandoned homes from what i recall (parents lived about 45 mins away years ago). Though i think for the purposes of the homeless i presume one would want to put them in places where there are amenities at hand (and opportunities) rather than in more isolated places that would require transportation.

2 Likes

Ain’t Americans cool when given half a chance to do the right thing for the right people.

5 Likes

I’m from New Orleans. In surrounding areas (New Orleans East and lower 9th ward mostly) there was plenty of land, but no water or electricity. Many of those neighborhoods still don’t have utilities (14 years after Katrina). Livable areas with utilities saw a major spike in housing cost which caused a serious housing shortage. Many people moved away. Many stayed and were homeless.

5 Likes

so not a The Onion article after all

1 Like

Believe me, I’m all for it; it seems like a very ethical approach to this problem, and I’d be in favor of it anywhere it would work. My point is more that in macro terms, for cities where lack of housing supply has already driven costs out of the range of even median-income earners, I’m not sure how you put this into effect. The basic premise that “rental assistance is cheaper than homeless services” pencils out when average housing costs are below some line, and doesn’t when they’re above that line. And the line is going to be different for every zip code.

A vacant house is still owned by someone - how do we get them to rent their private property? What if they don’t have the time, resources, expertise, or connections to administer and maintain a rental property? What if they don’t have the knowledge to do their taxes now that they include rental income? What if they can’t initially afford the increased insurance premiums?

Regarding vacation rentals (which absolutely exacerbate housing shortages) if the reason the property isn’t available to the long-term rental market is that it’s worth more as a vacation rental, I’m guessing the rental assistance provided by this program isn’t going to cover the difference. How do we force AirBnB owners to take part in the program?

The best option for this situation may be a vacancy tax - additional property tax you have to pay if the home is vacant for some % of the year. But that won’t instantly make all vacant houses available as rentals.

Again, I think this would be a great solution for a city like Detroit, where a lot of the homes are actually owned by the city. I’m more skeptical about it in cities with housing shortages.

1 Like

Totally, I wasn’t speaking to a practical solution given our current laws, more lamenting the destructive transformation of housing from ‘shelter’ to ‘asset class.’ aka “CHOPPY CHOPPY” :smiley:

1 Like

Baltimore seems a good fit as well, for the same reasons. NoLa, Detroit and Baltimore should form some kind of city peer group to learn from one another, as they have a lot of common problems.

1 Like

I literally believe there are a decent number of people who actually follow this maxim, quite intentionally. It’s not the majority, but it’s a sizable enough population to make things awful for a lot of the rest of us. Lot of overlap with narcissism/sociopathy/psychopathy.

2 Likes

I was in Amsterdam last week and saw no homeless- this week I’m in San Diego which has a huge homeless population as does my home town Seattle. It’s pretty shocking going from one to another. Apparently the Netherlands spent 176 million on their solution.

1 Like

Please continue to do so. Socialists need a little R&R.

Last time i was in the area a few years ago i was surprised a lot of homes and areas were still abandoned ): Love that city though, hoping i can go back to visit… its been a while

1 Like

this, along w “cold vaccine shows promise”, makes BB the news site of the day!

Next thing you’ll be suggesting its a good idea to not punish people for being badly educated, poor, sick or disabled. Where will America be if you don’t punish these freeloaders?

7 Likes

This is great but basically only applies to homeless veterans and children, as there are Federal dollars allocated to assisting then with housing, medical care, food, etc.

If you are otherwise it’s basically shelters and local community funds and so on.

So our socialism basically only extends to kids. Color me unimpressed.

2 Likes

Ummm… Because it is theft.

We should be very careful about this. It requires taxes to pay for it and taxes are taken at the barrel of a gun.

Theft at the barrel of a gun for the greater good I’m assuming.

That seems low. I’d bet California has at least 250,000 homeless.

Bad news for ya, all property is “taken at the barrel of a gun.”

4 Likes