Wanna End Homelessness? Try Building More Homes!

On this episode of Common Sense Soapbox, the gang discusses the multifaceted reasons behind increasing homelessness. More spending is not one of them.
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CREDITS:
Written by Sean W. Malone
Animated by LtAmazil, Adamdonk, and Emily Slatt
Voiced by Seamus Coughlin and nosoup4knowles
Layout by Jaime Velasquez, Trevor Smith
Produced & Edited by Sean W. Malone
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LINKS:

[pavelzabak]

Let's not forget the fact that California spent 20 billion dollars in a last 5 years for homeless people... AND YET THEY CAN'T TRACK WHERE THE MONEY WENT.

It's sounds like...

🎉 *THE MONEY LAUNDERING MOMENT* 🎉

🎊 *THE GAME SHOW THEME STARTS PLAYING* 🎊

[societyofrobots]

California raised taxes to pay for low cost government housing. Their solution is the problem.

[acem]

1. They are likely getting homeless from other places in the US because they spend so much on "helping".
2. This brings up another principle of Economics, if you subsidize something, you get more of it. They subsidize homelessness, so they get more.
-An Economist

[TheMormonSorceress]

I saw a city in Texas that decided to help the homeless by hiring them to clean up trash in the city. The city gets clean, they gain experience for their resumes, learn the value of hard work, and get to eat with what they earn.

[kotlolish]

Fun fact.. this issue is NOT only an US problem but a huge problem in EU. Where for 4 years... i been told "Just wait where you are the housing bubble will pop this year."

I decided to ignore it and buy a house.. my appartment that was getting too tiny? Doubled in value.
The house I live in now for almost a year? Almost 50k Euros more worth then when I bought it and STILL RISIING!

And why did housing go up so much here? Cause we build less then our population growth could handle... not just from birth rates but also immigration and refugees.
From 50k houses per year to a measly 8k houses per year for my country.

Building more houses will solve the problem we all are facing.
Cause if housing is affordable and nice, it will also fix every other issue underlying things. Feeling you gotta have two jobs? Gone.. since cost of living goes down a lot.
Birthrates going down? Going back up cause people feel more secure to raise a kid.
People having trouble finding jobs? Will also be fixed cause now there are more customers nearby to serve thus more employees needed.

Also why was housing here cut down? Envoirmentalism. Cause building shoots up a lot of CO2 in the air....
But you know what also shoots alot of CO2 in the air? People having to commute long distances by taxi, bus or car, cause the housing they can afford are far away from their jobs.

[cashcleaner]

Here in Ontario (Canada) a report was made a few years ago addressing the housing crisis and the top recommendations. The experts concluded exactly what this video says: we need to build more. And in order to do that, we need to cut red tape and bureaucratic obstacles.

Everyone one seems to agree on the solution that nobody in government wants to actually do.

[Sumschmuck]

Seamus neglected the debunkers for so long they lost their bunker

[Xenoraniumwolf]

As a resident of California, especially living near LA, I could further explain the situation from what I've seen.

California politicians' "Fight against Homelessness" is to basically throw money at the problem. They believe that the reason why they're homeless is because they lack money. So they started to give out welfare checks and *free phones to the homeless, which only drove them to double down.

While it's true that many have mental illnesses and drug addictions, many of them are there by choice. Some aren't even legal US citizens.

At one point, politicians wanted to force privately owned hotels in LA to turn half their rooms into housing for the homeless.

Why go back to being a functioning member of society when you get more benefits being a bum?

[No.]

We don't want good solutions!
*WE 👏 WANT 👏 TO 👏 COMPLAIN 👏!*

[dimitribarronmore]

Silly Seamus, homes aren't for living in! They're for investing in!

[djinsanity]

Lizzo scares Bob. Run from the natural disaster!

[whocares]

Now talk about WHY California has roughly HALF the Nations homeless.

Hint: it’s not because of anything Shamus talked about in this video. It’s closely related to what Bob and the bum said at the end.

People come to California to be homeless because California has the most free handouts, the mildest year round weather, while having the weakest criminal justice system for “petty crimes”. They are essentially subsidizing and enabling homelessness.

[arcdecibel]

I like free things, too! I can't opt to be homeless because I have a wife and her parents to take care of, as well as kids someday. But if I were single, abandoned my principles, and just got tired of my job, I'd go straight to California. It has nice weather, they give you free money, and they don't punish you for stealing. I could even visit home whenever I wanted, because they bus their homeless to places like Texas. California has created an incentive structure to be homeless on every level, including cheap drugs. And for me, personally, to take dumps on Leftist doorsteps.

[SirFailsalot]

Bob being traumatised by Lizzo twerking and causing earthquakes is the most Bob reaction.

[xaNull]

My state found that full families with 2 working adults were living in tents by the river because there were no housing options for them. So they got a team of local politicians and real estate companies. They purposed a plan.. a bunch of new apartments. Once the 5 year project completed you know what we got? High end luxury apartments that only the mega rich can afford! ..what a joke.

[Monsuco]

There are two types of homeless people. You have some people that genuinely are down on their luck. They lost a job or got in a rough divorce or add catastrophic medical bills and could no longer afford their mortgage. They might have to stay at a shelter or on a friend's couch or with a relative. Then there are people that have severe mental illness and/or addictions. A lot of them live on the streets because they would rather be high or drunk or unmedicated than indoors. Solutions that might help those in the former category often just end up enabling bad habits with the latter category.

[HaloWolf]

Here is a shortened excerpt from my research about homelessness.

Homelessness is a faceted problem involving: Regional access to affordable homes, lack of access for aiding mental illness, prisoners not having adequate access to information and basic rehabilitation, most jobs requiring high skill sets, the minimum wage, and having poor family connections. As well as those who simply choose to not 'try' anymore.

Ever since the Regan administration, the presidents has been cutting taxes to mental hospitals (ex. being the Kirk bride mental hospitals). There has been a lack of institutions that cannot rehabilitate individuals who have problems mentally. Both in effectiveness of their methods, and quantity of hospitals.

Another big problem is children not being set up for success. Many parents don't set up a college fund, or neglect supplying them with the adequate tools for them to succeed.
This added with our declining public education in areas makes this a detriment to children.

Drugs taken by average normal Joes can use it responsibly, and at the right doses. In order to get 'addicted' to drugs, there's usually a underlying mental illness, or other problem.

Billions of our tax dollars are wasted because they either directly pay the homeless who don't have the wherewithal to use that money effectively. If you supply them with a free home, it will most likely go into disarray because of said mental illnesses, drugs, connections, and poor education. That's the half of it. The other half are rich pansies that sit around in a board meeting all day, talking about solving homelessness, and doing the bare minimum before running out of cash and requesting more. There is also the state, city, and local restrictions on basic aid. Elvis Summers built tiny sheds for the homelessness in Los Angeles. Sheds with a lock and key. These sheds were eventually confiscated by the city, demolished, and burned.

The last and final reason is because of investors buying homes and letting them sit to increase in value. Mix this with AirBnB and Virbo and you have yourself the utlimate homelessness problem.

In conclusion. In order to get from 0 to 100. You need to have at least a driver's license, a birth certificate, a recent pay stub, a recent bill confirming your address, or a Social Security Number. Homeless people do not have any of these documents, and if they do. They cannot get a job because of the high cost to entry. These costs include: Some sort of transportation, access to a shower, and a laundry mat. Electricity to charge a phone. WiFi or a network connection for phone calls. And the mental fortitude to curb despair. This is a lot to ask of a person's whose items go missing because of thieves or the city throwing their stuff away.

The #1 thing that curbs homelessness, are generous individuals who take them in, rehabilitate them, and help them get back on their feet. I can guarantee you. If you give our tax dollars back to us, have local basic necessities (bathrooms, libraries), provide en-masse tiny apartments, and curb the federal minimum wage. You will see homelessness drop to lower than ever before.

[bitnbyte]

As someone from Cali, you got your points correct! There's also that issue about certain influential people not wanting to solve the issue as they all get chunks from that $4.4B pie. They get wealthier the longer this crisis isn't averted.

[TrampyPulsar]

Another thing not talked about in California is the taxes have gotten so out of control that you can't run a small business period, and there are only so many jobs at big box retailers.

Also due to insurance and other government 'safety measures' for every dollar an employee makes the state pretty much gets two, this is why minimum wage is really really bad every time it goes up, sure you might get $5 more per hour, but your employer is losing $10 to the state for every $5 you make, and you will probably never see those $10 yourself. It creates an exponential problem, litterally the only way to pay your bills in california if you're not in tech or a trade is to work under the counter or freelance, and even as a freelance there is a good chance the state will crack down on you with licensing mafias to protect union interests.

[thecrionesevideomaker]

Who would have thought that making affordable houses could solve the issue

Edit: I meant help with the issue, my bad y'all