I will do anything to end homelessness except build more homes
146 comments
·June 20, 2025edude03
thrance
I very much agree. This is how I feel too in regards to this "abundance liberalism": some people think they can fix the whole country by deregulating zoning laws and tweaking a few numbers. It seems foolish to me. Whatever the solution is, I am convinced it requires (re)building actual social nets and welfare.
jleyank
Until WFH is common, areas are condemned to affordable housing shortages or commuting nightmares. Yeah, some areas pony up for dedicated path public transit but that’s rare. There’s lots of land over there but the jobs are over here. And people don’t want houses like the 50’s and don’t seem to like high density housing with kids.
And nobody wants to see their real estate property decline in value…
dkga
I enjoyed reading it, even if it leaves a bitter taste by knowing that it is describing a very real feeling. Also I like how the author also relates the NIMBY problem to sabotaging public transportation initiatives.
donatj
I live just outside Minneapolis. There's an absolute glut right now of largely unoccupied apartments that have sprung up in the last couple years anywhere there was an open lot and many places there wasn't - tearing down a number of historic buildings in the name of cheaply built wooden framed apartments. Probably over 100 new buildings in the last five years within a 30 mile radius. Most of them cost more per month to live in than my monthly home payment. I frankly don't understand would could afford to live in them.
The homelessness problem is also visibly the worst it's been in my lifetime.
I'm genuinely doubtful the problem is lack of housing alone. The person curled up under the bridge, the person screaming on the corner, they need more than another apartment they still can't afford added to the world. That doesn't help them.
No matter how many of these luxury apartment buildings you build, the people can't afford the rent. The owners of the buildings would seemingly rather see them sit at quarter occupancy than lower rents, and it's kind of understandable.
We're drowning in unaffordable housing and people are still homeless.
djexjms
Reading this comment thread was a fun way to start my day. Always funny to see people react to satire about them.
gadders
I don't think housing will help the people with mental health issues and addiction problems.
Honestly I think sometimes building (compassionate, 21st century) mental health "asylums" and treatment centres would do more to end homelessness.
TimPC
This is a scapegoat at best in areas with high homelessness. The mentally ill and drug abusers are the most visible part of the homeless population not all the homeless population. There are also complex relations to cause vs effect where mental illness may be at manageable levels until a crisis like homelessness exacerbates it or drug use may be a result of being homeless instead of a cause.
jvanderbot
The mentally ill and drug abusers are also the ones who need to be dealt with in a way totally separate from those who are struggling but trying to get back on their feet and need a place to shower and sleep safely.
They cause disproportionate damage to cities and the cause of aiding homeless itself. It's asinine to conflate the two issues and waffle back and forth between "more houses" and nimby name-calling. Neither will help.
We should have 21st century asylums and more houses. I won't accept a false choice, we can do both. (I'd argue we also need subsidized job relocation programs so people don't get stuck in high CoL areas looking for minimum wage jobs. There are very affordable areas to live in USA that want workers, let's make this market more efficient).
watwut
You think mentally ill do not need a place to shower and sleep safely? And what do you think the lack of place to shower and sleep safely does with already mentally ill person?
Like common, this does not passes the smell test. When housing is cheap, mentally ill can pay housing and have easier time getting support to get that housing. Their mental health issue do not escalate so quickly due to lack of sleep and constant danger.
bmicraft
And yet it works almost flawlessly everywhere it's been tried. But sure, the US is different, special. That's always the argument, right?
beAbU
Not every homeless person has mental health issues. And most probably those with mental health issues _because_ they are homeless.
Rounding all the homeless up into an asylum is just sweeping the problem under the carpet.
Notatheist
Kind of a pointless stance when trying to build that support infrastructure walks you into the same NIMBY-wall.
watwut
Being homeless makes peoples mental health issues massively worst then whatever there was before. So yes, housing actually helps people with mental health issues.
And yes, as housing becomes less available, people with mental health issues are among the worst affected.
ndsipa_pomu
I don't think housing will hurt the people with mental health issues and addiction problems.
beAbU
Giving housing to the homeless means we change the homeless into neighbours.
And who the hell wants a poor person as a neighbour.
PaulHoule
… or crazy. I know a lot of people who’ve struggled with homelessness and they (1) have serious mental health problems and (2) usually have no insight into them.
Yes, I know the talking point that the median homeless person is not mentally ill, but for the sane homelessness is usually a temporary condition, for the insane it is chronic.
pieds
I would, and do. I would prefer if people were less poor, but that would require things to be different. Who the hell wants to be an expat in their own society? Because that is what many are trying to do until it inevitably catches up to them and they have to move anyway either physically, mentally or both when the market, their lives or society changes.
j-krieger
Different sources say 40 to 50% of homeless have substance abuse problems. A lot of people don't want addicts as neighbours.
2OEH8eoCRo0
Poor person? Sure. Drug addict or mentally ill? No.
thoroughburro
> And who the hell wants a poor person as a neighbour.
In your case, don’t worry; nobody wants an asshole as a neighbour.
furyofantares
They are being sarcastic.
bitlax
How would I prevent my property from smelling like marijuana?
ujkhsjkdhf234
What does this have to do with poor or homeless people?
comrade1234
I live in Zurich - the tightest rental market in the world (.7% availability) but don't really have a homeless problem for some reason. I have met a lot of people that have had to move to neighboring cities though.
scandox
In Dublin on 1st of February 2025 there were 1200 properties available to rent in a city of 1.5 million.
gadders
I wonder what could have happened in Dublin to use up loads of the available housing? Does anyone know?
silver_silver
I was told by a local while living there a major factor was Google and Meta (and others) buying out entire buildings to house their staff
borosuxks
Probably AirBNB
arrowsmith
Many such cases
Filligree
Years and years of insufficient building, combined with zoning rules that discourage apartment buildings.
EDIT: It's fascinating that I'm downvoted for this. I wonder if the voters also live in Dublin?
fakedang
Airbnb, free migrant housing, rampant unvetted immigration and a tech industry that pays more in comparison to other industries.
fakedang
Switzerland ships the homeless by bus to other European capitals for free.
https://www.joe.co.uk/news/swiss-city-offers-beggars-one-way...
comrade1234
I think that has more to do with the summer gypsies than an endemic homeless problem.
bmicraft
You realize that's a slur, right?
maxweylandt
How is public transport to nearby commuter towns? If it's affordable/convenient/reasonably quick that can help a lot, I suspect. (But am quite ignorant so appreciate correction!)
joshvm
Very good, generally. It's affordable by Swiss standards, which is to say expensive for tourists but remarkably good value if you're a resident on a median salary. The cost of the whole-country annual rail pass costs less than a point to point season ticket in the UK, and there is no peak travel. So you should never pay more than 3-4k a year. Most people just get a half price card (often employer subsidised) and/or a local pass which is generally better value unless you're commuting between cities.
_petronius
Switzerland has the best rail system in the world (IMHO). One app can manage ticketing across all public transit in the entire country, and it is extremely fast and reliable. Lots of people who work in Zürich, for example, commute in from Zug (due to lower taxes in the neighboring canton).
amai
Wonderful article. We need more of this.
null
_dark_matter_
This isn't everywhere. I live in Nashville and we have SO MUCH housing being built. Just apartment building after apartment building after apartment building.
energy123
It is a big problem in Democratic states like California, where the leftists (Dean Preston and other leftist NIMBYs) have allied themselves with homeowner liberals to make it impossible to build housing.
Republican states like Texas do a significantly better job, as you can see by looking at annual per capita new housing, and lower rental inflation.
There's a growing liberal movement to change this status quo but they're still not that influential beyond rhetorical support from some Dems.
BryantD
To be fair, Minnesota is getting it right and Washington is reluctantly stumbling in the right direction. However, I’m forced to agree on the general sentiment.
California is a bit embarrassing. We’ll see how the Builder’s Remedy and laws like SB 1123 play out, I suppose.
xnx
Is "blue state" / "red state" the right distinction, or "rich area" / "poor area"? Rich people anywhere will do all they can to keep their property values from going down.
detourdog
North Adams Massachusetts has plenty of empty housing. There is a lot of vacant housing in Western Massachusetts.
energy123
Those are words that are low in epistemic legibility.
I look at metrics to arrive at my opinions. Things like the difference between the number of new housing per capita in various cities in California compared to Austin, Texas. Things like the R^2 when you do a linear regression of the amount of new housing per capita against changes in rental inflation.
bradfa
Is any of it affordable for the median household income in your area? If so, that’s great!
_petronius
Affordable housing is good, but building of housing of all types lowers housing prices for everyone[0]. Build it all!
[0]: https://research.upjohn.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1314...
smcin
Depends if you find the following prices affordable, for TN salaries. Here's one blog I found [0]; seems Nashville has a slight glut at the high-end:
> Nashville home prices went up in May 2025, but not by much compared to last year.
> Average sale price $853.8K; median price stayed flat at $613K.
> But here's what's interesting: sellers had to drop their asking prices more than before. The average list price was $1.012 million, but homes actually sold for about $158K less than that...
> More Homes Available for Buyers: Active inventory jumped +29% compared to last year.
> Total inventory (including homes under contract) increased +16%
> Sales Activity Slowing Down -18%
[0]: https://www.nashvillesmls.com/blog/nashville-housing-market-...
dzhiurgis
New housing doesn't have to be affordable for everyone.
Median income goes towards old housing.
willis936
When more people are being priced out of a market than new housing units are added, then yeah they do need to be cheaper to make housing more available. The net result is more stratification, not less.
Ask anyone how to make cheap housing though. No one has a convincing answer. I'm convinced that it's the right question.
jimbob45
This does appear to be an application of Goodhart’s Law (when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure). Affordable housing is neat but it implicitly encourages infinite housing be built and does nothing to address employment and crazy down payment requirements (especially for those who could otherwise pay the mortgage!).
vintermann
Is lack of enough homes the main reason for homelessness?
OtherShrezzing
I think that's not necessarily the most important question. A more important one is "are more homes (dwellings) the easiest way to reduce homelessness?", and "do more dwellings reduce the number of rough sleepers?", to which the answer is "yes". During Covid lockdowns, the UK housed all street-homeless people at four days notice (other countries did this too). This was possible because of the sudden availability of hundreds of thousands of vacant hotel rooms.
For at least a little while, a massive influx of supply of dwellings entirely eliminated rough sleeping in the UK, mitigating the harshest impacts of homelessness for thousands.
bisRepetita
Was it mandatory to be out of the streets, police enforced? Were the hotels free for the homeless population? Trying to figure out whether it was the increase of availability only, or combined of forced housing/low price point.
OtherShrezzing
Voluntary - a small population chose to stay on the streets. The accommodation & some meals were provided at no cost to the individual.
foul
When you examine an island of critical business development with desperate need for workforce yes, otherwise you will mostly find rent and prices that compromise life conditions. Basic needs aren't a market you can easily disrupt (unless you plan to let a class of slaves or poors be created).
corpzo
[dead]
I think anyone who has actually been hands on trying to improve the lives of the unhomed know that 1) it’s a gradient between “I get kicked out of x everyday and go back at night” and “I’m sleeping under a bridge” and 2) rarely is it the actual cost of the home that’s the problem. Often it’s mental health / substance abuse / lack of a support system. Heck I think there is enough movies/shows about how people fall through the cracks that if you really cared you could learn about the problems in a fun night at home watching Netflix.
So no hate to the author but this feels like pointless political posturing