Rv's are the new housing.

pianotuna wrote:
westernrvparkowner

My "reading" of the article suggests that 60% of the 43 thousand have jobs. Just that those jobs are not sufficient to provide a roof over their heads.

I know that this is not a new problem. My father had a friend who lived in California in the 1970'ties. One day a man came to her door. He had set up a tent in her front yard. He explained to her that she could allow him to use her bathroom--or he would relieve himself in her front yard. The man was a veteran. My father's friend did not have much of a choice.

And be it 50 years ago, as in your example, or today, I would call the police and have him removed from my property. Don't care if he is a veteran, a draft dodger, or a martian. Sometimes, "it's not my problem" is the very best answer.

Chainwright wrote:
Hmmm, My problem is with Property taxes. in Texas we have the 3rd highest property tax rates in the nation. Yup, Texas keeps advertising:"Come to Texas, where housing is cheap," and I laugh. Yeah you may be able to buy a home for 200K which in Cali could run you 800K to 1M+ as in NYC. But, what is not advertised is that you Property taxes go up between .5% to 1% (i'm being nice) per yr. So on a 200k house you start out paing 8000+ a yr in property taxes. We're paying 14K right now. But out of principle we don't see why we should. To us it's outrageous. Just imagine all those folks that live in homes that were Passed down to them from generation to generation, what do you tell them? "sorry, Too bad." "Your family didn't leave you enough money to pay for taxes in the future? well you gotta sell and git." As a retired vet, that's definitely NOT what I fought for.

But you have no income tax and that is much more your property tax.

very well researched and written

thank you for posting

there are some junk RVs and they tend to cluster together

but there are many RVs in decent clean well cared for shape
not brand new, like those of many members here with families and expenses that don't have new Rvs

But simply forced out of being able to pay rent

its in the news quite often

I hate to say it, but the Homeless Population in California isn't a priority with our politicians. It's only going to get worst.

^ Excellent post by toedtoes.

westernrvparkowner wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Frightening to me that over 43 thousand folks have NO place at all to stay--not even a car. My heart goes out to them.

It is deeper than they have no place to stay. They are the mentally challenged, drug addicted and those otherwise incapable of helping themselves. It boils down to them making that choice. There are services available if they wanted them. This isn't the 1930s with millions unemployed cast adrift with no safety net.
Living in a free society has it's costs, and one of those costs is people are free to make their own choices. We can't just arbitrarily force people into drug rehab and mental care facilities. The insane asylums of the mid 20th century were deemed a complete failure. People can't be made to quit drugs. It's a problem without a solution.

You first say "making them incapable of helping themselves" and then "It boils down to them making the choice". I'd question their ability to make the choice if they are incapable of caring for themselves.

At this point, there is no cure for mental illness, only treatment of the symptoms which are not always effective and are expensive.

Drug addiction is often the outcome of mental illness or an abusive home life. While you might be able to overcome the addiction, if you can't properly treat the underlying issues, then the addiction will resurface.

And some homeless are such because of hard times in their lives (just like in the thirties) and they are doing the best they can.

One of the problems is that there are not enough beds in the homeless shelters for everyone who needs a bed. Add that some shelters limit the occupants by sex, age, etc., or are located in unsafe neighborhoods (the "not in my neighborhood" syndrome), and you find that it is not that easy to find a safe place for a family to stay.

Treatments are often expensive. Or they are poorly managed. Or the person is incapable of understanding the help for what it is.

Many people do not have a support system in place to get them help when they are unable to do so for themselves.

Some of the "help" offered includes splitting up families. And there have been far too many examples of agencies/support centers/etc., splitting up families unnecessarily and even purposely for the benefit of themselves or others that down on their luck parents are justifiably afraid of losing their kids if they seek help.

Until we as a society stop blaming people and start simply helping them, I agree there is no solution.

westernrvparkowner

My "reading" of the article suggests that 60% of the 43 thousand have jobs. Just that those jobs are not sufficient to provide a roof over their heads.

I know that this is not a new problem. My father had a friend who lived in California in the 1970'ties. One day a man came to her door. He had set up a tent in her front yard. He explained to her that she could allow him to use her bathroom--or he would relieve himself in her front yard. The man was a veteran. My father's friend did not have much of a choice.

Hmmm, My problem is with Property taxes. in Texas we have the 3rd highest property tax rates in the nation. Yup, Texas keeps advertising:"Come to Texas, where housing is cheap," and I laugh. Yeah you may be able to buy a home for 200K which in Cali could run you 800K to 1M+ as in NYC. But, what is not advertised is that you Property taxes go up between .5% to 1% (i'm being nice) per yr. So on a 200k house you start out paing 8000+ a yr in property taxes. We're paying 14K right now. But out of principle we don't see why we should. To us it's outrageous. Just imagine all those folks that live in homes that were Passed down to them from generation to generation, what do you tell them? "sorry, Too bad." "Your family didn't leave you enough money to pay for taxes in the future? well you gotta sell and git." As a retired vet, that's definitely NOT what I fought for.

If there isn't a problem with crime or sewage dumping it is better than them sleeping in the city parks or sidewalks. Have to wonder if they have a sense of community making it a lifestyle choice more than a poverty solution.

pianotuna wrote:
Frightening to me that over 43 thousand folks have NO place at all to stay--not even a car. My heart goes out to them.

It is deeper than they have no place to stay. They are the mentally challenged, drug addicted and those otherwise incapable of helping themselves. It boils down to them making that choice. There are services available if they wanted them. This isn't the 1930s with millions unemployed cast adrift with no safety net.
Living in a free society has it's costs, and one of those costs is people are free to make their own choices. We can't just arbitrarily force people into drug rehab and mental care facilities. The insane asylums of the mid 20th century were deemed a complete failure. People can't be made to quit drugs. It's a problem without a solution.