A system where “your rent should be 1/3 of your income” no longer means “we don’t rent to poor people” and instead means “show us your income and your rent will be a third of that.”
Oh is that a chorus of weeping landlords I hear? Poor babies. Delicious as the sound is, may I propose a solution to your vewy sad pwobwem of “oh noes I hoarded all the houses and now I can’t get rich about it”
Y’all fuckers are probably good at lobbying, yeah? Pretty influential? Got a connection or ten up your sweaty little sleeve? Drive up wages. Do it. Cowards. Raise the minimum wage? Again? Higher? Positions start at $100/hour!! Bread still costs $3-5ish or whatever and sure your rent is like $4k/month but your slimy landlord makes $4000 from you now instead of like $1500 or whatever a 1br apartment goes for now (that’s pretty typical here but ymmv). Everybody wins
Wait, what’s that? Impossible to run a business if wages far exceed profits? Fair, yeah, sure. Hey quick question has anyone ever heard of universal basic income? Just throwing that out there
But maybe maaaayyyybe there’s a simpler solution I suppose
Abolish landlords???
Did I hear someone say abolish landlords?
Oh okay okay well maybe we can meet in the middle. Let’s say like… you’re allowed to own one rental property. Little extra cash on the side, right? Sure. Of course you’re gonna be held accountable and responsible for maintenance and building codes and utility services and… oh? That’s too much to deal with? Mmm too bad. Anyway okay that weeded out most people so we’re left with… what’s that? A society where everyone has a safe and affordable home accessible to them and we’re all generally happier and more functional as a society because we’re not stressed out of our buttholes from living under a constant threat of sudden financial ruin? Neato :)
Guys am I dreaming or did a CONSERVATIVE page just perfectly sum up leftist economic and political ideology POSITIVELY!
It was turning point usa that shared this! That means that even conservatives do agree with left wing thoughts on these issues! If we can just communicate we can build a bigger more inclusive movement and actually do something about this system the conservatives also disagree with!
Never forget that both the left and right hate authoritarianism, poverty, war, a predatory and corrupt economic system, etc.
Any statistics around homelessness are greatly underrepresented. Here’s why:
• The numbers that tell how many unhoused people are in the United States are done using something called Point In Time (PIT) counts.
• PIT numbers are used to identify needs for services, and help shelters qualify for funding.
• PIT counts are done on a random night in January every year.
• PIT numbers only count people who are legally considered homeless (couch surfing isn’t considered homelessness, legally) This means PIT counts are only counting people in shelter beds, and those visibly sleeping outside.
• On this random night in January, it’s often freezing. When I was unhoused in New England winters, I can tell you I wasn’t sleeping outside. I’d stay up and walk around if I couldn’t find a place to crash, and sleep in the daytime. I knew sleep meant death. Most people who do sleep outdoors are usually hidden well, because that means warmth and safety.
• Most shelters simply do not have the funding to staff outreach workers to go out to do PIT counts. Even if they have the funding, it’s hard to find unhoused people, so staying out the whole night is difficult.
• From unofficial counts done similarly to PIT counts in warmer months, it’s easy to see booming numbers of unhoused people. More people aren’t unhoused in the summer, it’s just less dangerous to sleep outdoors.
• PIT counts especially misrepresent youth, disabled people and other marginalized people, because they’re often couch surfing while homeless. Couch surfing is not legally considered homelessness.
“The top 10 landlords reported record profits last year at the same time as tenants made a record number of quality complaints.”
“The CHMC report has inspired a renewed call for increasing housing supply. […] If landlords are incentivized to build, would they choose to build affordable housing? It may be more profitable to not build at all”
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