This morning, when I went out and got the Sunday edition of the neighborhood advertiser formerly known as the Los Angeles Times (yes, we’re luddites - we still take the print edition, even if it is a shadow of its former self), I found a political mailer inside, it being a bit over two weeks before the California primary on June 7.
This is the ONE. I have not admired Tom more than I do for this ONE.
TC, laid out the story for a TRAGIC OPERA SERIES,. It isn't only about LA, the Democratic candidate running for City Attorney or one of his favorite new toys, Elon Musk's Falcon 1 rocket. Think instead about urban planning, housing, homelessness, Otzoy’s Roomkey site...maybe when you are done reading this opus, you will marvel that TC controlled spraying the entire space with expletives.
This is the story of THE UNHOUSED PEOPLE IN AMERICA. It is the story of how complicated torture is for innocent human beings. It's the story of how government wounds people relentlessly without the use of bullets.
I wish to pay tribute to TC for piloting the course of misery taken by UNHOUSED Americans today and tomorrow ….
Thank you TOM for setting me straight. I was familiar with homelessness, and my nephew contributed to my education before TC. Your reporting took me back to the lives of people, which need to be documented and supported. Have you considered submitting this piece for publication?
in Philadelphia, there’s not only a problem for tenants, there’s also an incapacitating problem for landlords. Since the lockdown in March 2020, landlords were not allowed to evict any tenant, so tenants have had a free pass to pay no rent, while the landlords’ bills keep piling up. On top of that, the city passed a law saying that every case of bedbugs was the landlord's responsibility, for all the damages to the tenant, unless the landlord could prove the tenant brought the infestation with them, which no landlord has ever been able to prove. The newest law prohibits landlords from denying housing based on eviction records, nor can they deny a tenant solely because of credit scores or an eviction record that is more than four years old. They also prohibit denying a tenant housing because of their inability to pay rent or utility bills during the COVID-19 emergency period. So what’s left? Landlords are required to let tenants know another reason why they are denied.
The upshot is that the “good” landlords are selling out of the business, and the out-of-state hedge-fund landlords are buying in, with their ruthless tactics that prompted the city council to write the new laws in the first place.
You could be writing about Eugene, OR as well here, TC. We are a liberal bastion here in the center of the west side of the state, and have an increasing unhoused population. There is no real affordable housing, despite the glut of high end high rise housing built to the west and north of the campus of the U of O. Many of these are quad-style "apartments" with separate sleeping quarters, 2 shared bathrooms and a single shared kitchen/living area; rents for these plus the parking that needs to be paid for tops 1500 a month. There are a couple of "high end lease" buildings where the rents are roughly 2K monthly for a studio apartment.
We have a huge unhoused population; most of these are in some way chemically dependent or suffer from degrees of mental illness, although there are a fair number who simply cannot find housing that is affordable. I was working for the county as the state hospitals closed, sending all of the psychiatric patients back for community care, where there wasn't any to be had.
While I greatly appreciate your unvarnished presentation of yet another one of the many complex problems in the US today, I had to read it in pieces because it was just too painful otherwise!
You wrote: "This is not just going on in Los Angeles, or Southern California, or the Bay Area. Friends of mine in Austin tell me this is now the way things following the arrival of “tech development” there. Another friend in Chicago read the article when I e-mailed it to him and said that the only difference he could see was the names of the places."
It's true. I live 30 miles southeast of Austin. A friend in Austin, who lives in a run-down Habitat Home (which she helped built) is planning to sell it for close to a half million (its current worth) and live in an RV. She cannot afford the taxes on it and she cannot keep it up. Someone will come in and bulldoze it down and build another gentrified high rise as they have done everywhere. Musicians and artists are being forced out of Austin - many are moving to my town. Many young people, who work in Austin, are moving here. There are literally no houses available here and rental property is ridiculous for a small town in the poorest county in Texas. A wealthy female realtor from Austin (I consider her a shark) has bought up the older homes here and converted them into Air BnB's - so they sit empty most of the time and do not contribute to the local economy - do not pay local taxes. She swoops in before a homeowner is even thinking of selling and makes an offer "too big to refuse" and voila, another home is gone. She now owns about six homes, several of the historic buildings on the square and has recently bought one of the oldest and most cherished hardware stores - which she plans to convert into "something" that doesn't pay taxes here. She's a shark because she's robbing this town, other realtors who make their living here, and she's driving up the cost of housing here. It's disgusting.
And your description of the plight of our homeless is so on the mark. I have a personal friend whose first husband became homeless on purpose - he had mental issues and just left home. He was murdered somewhere in Austin. She and her daughter collect blankets and clothing all year and then make an annual trek in December to Austin, to drop off their collections for the homeless in Austin. She's known as "the garage sale queen" because of the various items she collects. They do this in memory of Clifford. And that's just one little anecdote to add to yours.
If I was to write about the AirBnB scum, I would outdo my record for use of expletives and might get close to that old Navy Chief I knew who could go for 30 minutes without repeating himself. Like Uber and the rest of the SillyCon Valley "disruptions" AirBnB feasts on the problems, makes money from making them worse, and then claims innocence after giving the sharks (I've met too many like the one you describe - and I'll bet if she comes from Austin that she's not a Trumper) the ability to feed.
I once did an internship at an agency (which some of you might actually know) called "Bowery Residents' Committee," which was supposed to be a multi=pronged treatment center for homeless people in that part of town. it made the headlines the time I was there because another intern (from NYU, I believe) had the poor judgment to begin an affair with one of her "clients," who was an alcoholic paranoid schizophrenic. after some weeks of this going on, he stabbed her to death. in any event, I would sometimes have to go into the Director's office and noticed that he was always on the phone, ignoring my presence and babbling in such a way that the only words I heard were things like "Shearson" and "Lehman Brothers." he had one of those architectural models of what looked like a huge complex of buildings. my assumption (naive at best even then, before I knew how things actually "work") was that it was the model for a new agency that was being built to provide the kinds of total human services the population required. decades later, I saw the agency referred to as "a multi-billion dollar financial juggernaut" with some kind of stranglehold on the population it's supposed to be serving. as it happened, that agency's main deal was owning the land on which a whole bunch of new and new-ish boutique hotels had been built...the kinds of places that cater to movie stars and NBA players...super-luxurious. I know these kinds of places at firsthand because I've spent a few nights hanging out and getting high on the roof with an old student, who handles the security at one of them (a separate funny story), who was having a great time at his job but who also realized that his bosses had gotten rich on the backs of the homeless people who'd been displaced by the hotel. this whole deal is so bad in so many ways that it often looks insoluble. will I sound horribly paranoid if I venture the opinion that my reaction is actually a (little) part of their plan?
Elllen, My nephew worked in homeless shelters for 4 -5 years, including all male (the most difficult, most violence and 'smelly'; families, which made him happy because of the children. Jesse is a very loving and generous man; he is also high functioning with schizophrenia. The dishonesty of one of the operators and double shifts were very punishing to him. He cared about the residents - noted that quite a few were captured by conspiracy theories, a general absence of political understanding, abundant hardships and love...
My friend described her husband in much the same way you describe Jesse: loving and generous. She said he was a kind and "sweet" father and husband. I have often wondered if his disease might have been schizophrenia. The first time Shaela and her daughter took their "Christmas" gifts to the homeless, they had to just leave them on a street corner. The recipients were so frightened and suspicious, they scattered and hid. But over the years, they have come to expect her and occasionally, one or two might be brave enough to converse with her. She expects nothing in return. But the homeless situation in Austin now is terrible. The newcomers who have built and live in those high rises despise them and are doing everything they can to pressure officials to "banish" them. How do you banish that many people whose homes have been taken from them or whose illnesses cannot be treated because the state (thank you Abbott and ilk) have made treatment impossible and unavailable?
This is so so good, TC. I haven’t read anything this good at linking up all the pieces of this economic disaster. In a much smaller NY city I saw some of what you describe without the knowledge to understand how it all fit together. But I soon learned. While I tried to help people I knew who got caught up in homelessness, whatever I did was never enough. It’s a riptide that pulls them under. Now, back to reading your important report again. ❤️🤍💙
"And now, the primary purchasers of private homes are hedge funds, which turn the properties into rentals, with rents set at the highest possible rates. One can see small signs nailed on telephone poles - “We buy homes for cash.” The phone number is for a local real estate agent working for a hedge fund."
As a veteran who nearly became homeless in 2014, this infuriates me and pushes me ever further towards progressive socialism. Capitalism is cruel and it discards people in the name of greed.
Thanks, TC. I have wondered about all the homeless people I've seen if San Francisco. In the Midwest I don't believe it's quite that bad, but it's getting there. Even Madison, WI, a bastion of the left wingnut fringe, has a serious homeless problem.
Great piece!!! I live in an area with a large homeless population and I am not sure of the answer. I think it starts with financial help in exchange for nothing. Certainly complex when mental illness and addiction are factored in and increasingly unaffordable housing. Letting hedge funds and corporations buy up SFH was the end of the middle class, imo.
If universal health care including nationally available robust, mandatory mental health care was a priority the rest of the problems would be manageable.
increasingly, I see Reagan as the villainous prime mover in all this...a truly vile president. yes, it's probably true that he is "the most consequential of modern presidents" (as, say, Sean Wilentz, among others, likes to say). the trouble with that, of course, is LOOK AT THE CONSEQUENCES. a villain for sure. eight years of the intellectual equivalent of Jonestown Koolaid.
This is the ONE. I have not admired Tom more than I do for this ONE.
TC, laid out the story for a TRAGIC OPERA SERIES,. It isn't only about LA, the Democratic candidate running for City Attorney or one of his favorite new toys, Elon Musk's Falcon 1 rocket. Think instead about urban planning, housing, homelessness, Otzoy’s Roomkey site...maybe when you are done reading this opus, you will marvel that TC controlled spraying the entire space with expletives.
This is the story of THE UNHOUSED PEOPLE IN AMERICA. It is the story of how complicated torture is for innocent human beings. It's the story of how government wounds people relentlessly without the use of bullets.
I wish to pay tribute to TC for piloting the course of misery taken by UNHOUSED Americans today and tomorrow ….
Actually, Fern, it's "Tom," not "Tony;" but no harm, no foul, on grounds that You Are Fern. :-)
Thank you TOM for setting me straight. I was familiar with homelessness, and my nephew contributed to my education before TC. Your reporting took me back to the lives of people, which need to be documented and supported. Have you considered submitting this piece for publication?
Amen.
👍🏼
in Philadelphia, there’s not only a problem for tenants, there’s also an incapacitating problem for landlords. Since the lockdown in March 2020, landlords were not allowed to evict any tenant, so tenants have had a free pass to pay no rent, while the landlords’ bills keep piling up. On top of that, the city passed a law saying that every case of bedbugs was the landlord's responsibility, for all the damages to the tenant, unless the landlord could prove the tenant brought the infestation with them, which no landlord has ever been able to prove. The newest law prohibits landlords from denying housing based on eviction records, nor can they deny a tenant solely because of credit scores or an eviction record that is more than four years old. They also prohibit denying a tenant housing because of their inability to pay rent or utility bills during the COVID-19 emergency period. So what’s left? Landlords are required to let tenants know another reason why they are denied.
The upshot is that the “good” landlords are selling out of the business, and the out-of-state hedge-fund landlords are buying in, with their ruthless tactics that prompted the city council to write the new laws in the first place.
A perfect description (of many scenarios) of why this problem is not something that will go away with a "snap of the fingers."
You could be writing about Eugene, OR as well here, TC. We are a liberal bastion here in the center of the west side of the state, and have an increasing unhoused population. There is no real affordable housing, despite the glut of high end high rise housing built to the west and north of the campus of the U of O. Many of these are quad-style "apartments" with separate sleeping quarters, 2 shared bathrooms and a single shared kitchen/living area; rents for these plus the parking that needs to be paid for tops 1500 a month. There are a couple of "high end lease" buildings where the rents are roughly 2K monthly for a studio apartment.
We have a huge unhoused population; most of these are in some way chemically dependent or suffer from degrees of mental illness, although there are a fair number who simply cannot find housing that is affordable. I was working for the county as the state hospitals closed, sending all of the psychiatric patients back for community care, where there wasn't any to be had.
While I greatly appreciate your unvarnished presentation of yet another one of the many complex problems in the US today, I had to read it in pieces because it was just too painful otherwise!
It got written in pieces for the same reason.
You wrote: "This is not just going on in Los Angeles, or Southern California, or the Bay Area. Friends of mine in Austin tell me this is now the way things following the arrival of “tech development” there. Another friend in Chicago read the article when I e-mailed it to him and said that the only difference he could see was the names of the places."
It's true. I live 30 miles southeast of Austin. A friend in Austin, who lives in a run-down Habitat Home (which she helped built) is planning to sell it for close to a half million (its current worth) and live in an RV. She cannot afford the taxes on it and she cannot keep it up. Someone will come in and bulldoze it down and build another gentrified high rise as they have done everywhere. Musicians and artists are being forced out of Austin - many are moving to my town. Many young people, who work in Austin, are moving here. There are literally no houses available here and rental property is ridiculous for a small town in the poorest county in Texas. A wealthy female realtor from Austin (I consider her a shark) has bought up the older homes here and converted them into Air BnB's - so they sit empty most of the time and do not contribute to the local economy - do not pay local taxes. She swoops in before a homeowner is even thinking of selling and makes an offer "too big to refuse" and voila, another home is gone. She now owns about six homes, several of the historic buildings on the square and has recently bought one of the oldest and most cherished hardware stores - which she plans to convert into "something" that doesn't pay taxes here. She's a shark because she's robbing this town, other realtors who make their living here, and she's driving up the cost of housing here. It's disgusting.
And your description of the plight of our homeless is so on the mark. I have a personal friend whose first husband became homeless on purpose - he had mental issues and just left home. He was murdered somewhere in Austin. She and her daughter collect blankets and clothing all year and then make an annual trek in December to Austin, to drop off their collections for the homeless in Austin. She's known as "the garage sale queen" because of the various items she collects. They do this in memory of Clifford. And that's just one little anecdote to add to yours.
If I was to write about the AirBnB scum, I would outdo my record for use of expletives and might get close to that old Navy Chief I knew who could go for 30 minutes without repeating himself. Like Uber and the rest of the SillyCon Valley "disruptions" AirBnB feasts on the problems, makes money from making them worse, and then claims innocence after giving the sharks (I've met too many like the one you describe - and I'll bet if she comes from Austin that she's not a Trumper) the ability to feed.
I once did an internship at an agency (which some of you might actually know) called "Bowery Residents' Committee," which was supposed to be a multi=pronged treatment center for homeless people in that part of town. it made the headlines the time I was there because another intern (from NYU, I believe) had the poor judgment to begin an affair with one of her "clients," who was an alcoholic paranoid schizophrenic. after some weeks of this going on, he stabbed her to death. in any event, I would sometimes have to go into the Director's office and noticed that he was always on the phone, ignoring my presence and babbling in such a way that the only words I heard were things like "Shearson" and "Lehman Brothers." he had one of those architectural models of what looked like a huge complex of buildings. my assumption (naive at best even then, before I knew how things actually "work") was that it was the model for a new agency that was being built to provide the kinds of total human services the population required. decades later, I saw the agency referred to as "a multi-billion dollar financial juggernaut" with some kind of stranglehold on the population it's supposed to be serving. as it happened, that agency's main deal was owning the land on which a whole bunch of new and new-ish boutique hotels had been built...the kinds of places that cater to movie stars and NBA players...super-luxurious. I know these kinds of places at firsthand because I've spent a few nights hanging out and getting high on the roof with an old student, who handles the security at one of them (a separate funny story), who was having a great time at his job but who also realized that his bosses had gotten rich on the backs of the homeless people who'd been displaced by the hotel. this whole deal is so bad in so many ways that it often looks insoluble. will I sound horribly paranoid if I venture the opinion that my reaction is actually a (little) part of their plan?
...at least David, you're on to their schemes' having been 'captured' -- 'take into one's possession or control by force'.
Elllen, My nephew worked in homeless shelters for 4 -5 years, including all male (the most difficult, most violence and 'smelly'; families, which made him happy because of the children. Jesse is a very loving and generous man; he is also high functioning with schizophrenia. The dishonesty of one of the operators and double shifts were very punishing to him. He cared about the residents - noted that quite a few were captured by conspiracy theories, a general absence of political understanding, abundant hardships and love...
My friend described her husband in much the same way you describe Jesse: loving and generous. She said he was a kind and "sweet" father and husband. I have often wondered if his disease might have been schizophrenia. The first time Shaela and her daughter took their "Christmas" gifts to the homeless, they had to just leave them on a street corner. The recipients were so frightened and suspicious, they scattered and hid. But over the years, they have come to expect her and occasionally, one or two might be brave enough to converse with her. She expects nothing in return. But the homeless situation in Austin now is terrible. The newcomers who have built and live in those high rises despise them and are doing everything they can to pressure officials to "banish" them. How do you banish that many people whose homes have been taken from them or whose illnesses cannot be treated because the state (thank you Abbott and ilk) have made treatment impossible and unavailable?
This is so so good, TC. I haven’t read anything this good at linking up all the pieces of this economic disaster. In a much smaller NY city I saw some of what you describe without the knowledge to understand how it all fit together. But I soon learned. While I tried to help people I knew who got caught up in homelessness, whatever I did was never enough. It’s a riptide that pulls them under. Now, back to reading your important report again. ❤️🤍💙
"And now, the primary purchasers of private homes are hedge funds, which turn the properties into rentals, with rents set at the highest possible rates. One can see small signs nailed on telephone poles - “We buy homes for cash.” The phone number is for a local real estate agent working for a hedge fund."
As a veteran who nearly became homeless in 2014, this infuriates me and pushes me ever further towards progressive socialism. Capitalism is cruel and it discards people in the name of greed.
been there/done that.
Thanks, TC. I have wondered about all the homeless people I've seen if San Francisco. In the Midwest I don't believe it's quite that bad, but it's getting there. Even Madison, WI, a bastion of the left wingnut fringe, has a serious homeless problem.
Yes indeed.
BTW - thank you very much for that Amazon review. There's two good ones there now and I like yours better.
Great piece!!! I live in an area with a large homeless population and I am not sure of the answer. I think it starts with financial help in exchange for nothing. Certainly complex when mental illness and addiction are factored in and increasingly unaffordable housing. Letting hedge funds and corporations buy up SFH was the end of the middle class, imo.
If universal health care including nationally available robust, mandatory mental health care was a priority the rest of the problems would be manageable.
wow, Tom....you KILLED it.
increasingly, I see Reagan as the villainous prime mover in all this...a truly vile president. yes, it's probably true that he is "the most consequential of modern presidents" (as, say, Sean Wilentz, among others, likes to say). the trouble with that, of course, is LOOK AT THE CONSEQUENCES. a villain for sure. eight years of the intellectual equivalent of Jonestown Koolaid.
I think Wilenz would agree - "consequential" doesn't necessarily correlate with "good," as Reagan demonstrates.
I definitley agree