
California's hidden homeless: workers living in cars due to property prices - bcaulfield
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5212977/Californias-middle-class-homeless-living-parking-lots.html
======
dbcooper
The original article was written for the LA Times:

[http://beta.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-safe-
pa...](http://beta.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-safe-
parking-20171224-story.html)

~~~
dang
Thanks. Corresponding HN thread was
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15995240](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15995240).

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baron816
I recently moved out to Silicon Valley and it’s shocking to me how depressed
the area looks. All the housing is cheap, ugly 70s/80s era architecture. Much
of that is poorly maintained. Most retail storefronts are about the same. Add
in all the poverty and homeless and I’m betting it would be impossible for any
visitor to tell there was an economic boom unrivaled in all of civilization
happening. Consider Venice in the 14-16th centuries, Amsterdam in the 17th
century, London in the 18-19th centuries, New York in the early 20th century.
SV is not building anything people are going to want to come see 400 years
from now. It’s amazing how people there are happy to let people suffer to
protect nothing special at all.

~~~
marnett
Very well said. This city drains me of what little energy I have left.

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monkseal
I had a friend who decided to live in his Ford Explorer in San Diego rather
than pay rent....

Then he flipped his Explorer on the freeway going like 70 mph. He survived
unscratched but his SUV was totaled.

Fortunately for him, he was able to move in with his mom and stepdad (who he
hated) but if he was anybody else and he didn't have family in the area he
would have been completely homeless...

~~~
FireBeyond
It sucks that happened, but it's hard to conjure the same sympathy.

He made choices - "live in car, rather than pay rent" \- what happened to all
the money he saved by doing so? Wasn't able to buy a new car? Or spent it?

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soared
Serious question not addressed in the article: Why don't they move out of
California?

~~~
azernik
That might be a solution for _them_ , but it is not a solution for _us_ and
_our_ society. If the cost-of-living-adjusted wages aren't high enough to give
the providers of such essential services housing, then that's a problem we
need to fix regardless.

~~~
aantix
Cost of living wage is a bit of a misnomer

~~~
azernik
Why a misnomer?

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dazc
'Teachers, chefs, nurses and other middle class workers living in cars...'

Shame they couldn't find any for the body of the article?

~~~
verall
Because it's the daily mail...[0]

[0] [https://youtu.be/5eBT6OSr1TI](https://youtu.be/5eBT6OSr1TI)

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jfoucher
Sorry if this sounds rude, it's not meant to be, but as a foreigner, I really
cannot fathom why what are basically homeless people would be called "middle
class". How can you be "middle class" and poor at the same time ? What is the
definition of "middle class" ?

~~~
closeparen
Many people perceive class based on salary/occupation and dollar values rather
than what those dollars actually buy in context. The Bay Area is considered
rich, even if the median person’s standard of living is below national
standards, because salaries are so high.

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mlinksva
If we didn't dedicate so much land and building space to cars and parking,
people wouldn't have to live in cars and parking lots.

~~~
jonny_eh
And allow for more density in general.

~~~
mlinksva
Especially density that's cheap and high quality == manufactured...like cars.

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LyalinDotCom
This can't be the America we want for our children and fellow citizens, but
until we can get normal people into elected office the tailspin of our country
will continue.

If you feel helpless about situations like this two pieces of advice of how
YOU can help:

1) Get educated on your local politicians and newcomers during elections

2) Vote

You'll make a huge difference.

~~~
mmmBacon
I think that for things to truly change we need to do more than just vote.
Most local elections in SV are a joke. We need some of the smart people that
we all know to start running for public offices.

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wonderbear
How did the labor and housing markets get so dramatically out of sync?

~~~
dbcooper
[https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shoag/files/why_has_region...](https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shoag/files/why_has_regional_income_convergence_in_the_us_declined_01.pdf)

Why Has Regional Income Convergence in the U.S. Declined?

>The past thirty years have seen a dramatic decline in the rate of income
convergence across states and in population flows to wealthy places. These
changes coincide with (1) an increase in housing prices in productive areas,
(2) a divergence in the skill-specific returns to living in those places, and
(3) a redirection of unskilled migration away from productive places. We
develop a model in which rising housing prices in wealthy areas deter
unskilled migration and slow income convergence. Using a new panel measure of
housing supply regulations, we demonstrate the importance of this channel in
the data. Income convergence continues in less-regulated places, while it has
mostly stopped in places with more regulation.

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uhh
Teachers and chefs I could see, but nurses?

My wife earns a six-figure salary as a nurse here in San Diego, CA and she
works at one of the the lowest paying hospitals in the area.

~~~
sbov
The person they're talking about is a CNA. According to the US BLS they
average 24k/year. Nowhere near six figures.

~~~
uhh
Yeah, I just saw that. The headline is misleading. Nursing assistants are not
the same thing as nurses.

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fataliss
This should come as no surprise. With a software engineer salary it's barely
enough to support 2 people. Can't imagine what it must be for the lower income
brackets... When rent is 33%+ of a six figure salary for a 1 bedroom built in
the fifties and looking like it, you can start wondering how the heck did we
get there.

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louithethrid
Is there no way, to just take a normal residential building, tear everything
down inside except for the exterior walls and fill it with japanese sleep
coffins?

Even if zoning laws would forbid this- life should find a way as they say.

~~~
dsr_
Let's estimate it out.

[http://www.loopnet.com/california/san-francisco_apartment-
bu...](http://www.loopnet.com/california/san-francisco_apartment-buildings-
for-sale/)

2950 21st Street is 4900 square feet and costs $3M. Right now it's 4 x 1200
square foot apartments, which go for about $45/square foot. Yowzers, that's
$4500/month.

Let's say you take each of the two floors and remodel them: two full bathrooms
designed for shared tenancy, each coffin takes up 8 feet by 5 feet by 4 feet
and you stack them two high, with 8 sqft of hallway and such added in. That's
48 sqft per coffin stack, so with perfect layout you get 100 coffin stacks.
But you need room for bathrooms for 80+ people, and that means 8 stalls, 8
sinks, and 8 shower cubicles, taking up about 20% of the space. OK, your max
occupancy is 80 where it used to be 16.

The good news: you can charge as little as $250/month. If you spend enough on
insulation you won't need to spend much on heat in the winter, but ventilation
is going to be a problem.

Nobody gets a parking space.

Lice will be a problem.

Cockroaches will be a problem.

However, the issue that will get you the status of first slumlord to be
sentenced to life in prison is fire safety.

~~~
louithethrid
If you design it in such a way, that people can evacuate similar to airplanes?
Basically every floor becomes a slide to safety outside?

Also it doesent have to become slumy if its well organized. See the various
capsule hotels in japan. If you up it to 300 $ you could have comon "living
rooms".

More interesting is, how would hide this from the neighbours?

My suggestion: Have somebody drive a big truck into a garage regularly and
basically be the shuttle service. Provide a set of two rooms near the front
door - and a concierge actor using racism to provide a cover. Finally, a faked
daily lightshow, behind the windows to provide the ilusion of ongoing normal
life.

This stealth hotel really would be a "hacking" -challenge: Next problems would
be water and sewer system.

Power supply and noiseless ventilation.

My suggestion- create many false positives, to desensitize residents eveywhere
to loud air conditioning.

So for the hacked hostel to exist, one would need neighbours nearby who for
money would allow a loudly humming installation (wifi-antenna) on there roof
to exist.

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Apocryphon
Is there a legal avenue for the governor to declare a state of emergency and
use eminent domain to mandate the building of homes, overruling local
authorities?

~~~
LyalinDotCom
I am sure they will get right on that.

~~~
Apocryphon
We just need the right governor in power, if we lived in a summer blockbuster.

------
taivare
30 some people living out in the frigid cold in tents right now in Akron, Oh.,
they would love to be in southern Cal right now.

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JustAnotherPat
I've come to the sad realization that Holywood/Silicon Valley liberal ideology
is a significant enabler of inequality and wealth stratification.

They'd rather have people living out of cars and tents than being paid
reasonable wages or having affordable housing.

Can't wait until their latest amendment passes[0] in California.

[0][https://ballotpedia.org/California_No_Taxes_After_Age_55_Ini...](https://ballotpedia.org/California_No_Taxes_After_Age_55_Initiative_\(2018\))

~~~
tzahola
>No taxes above the age of 55.

Lol, is this a joke?

~~~
anigbrowl
Regrettably not. Note also that ti's a constitutional amendment, meaning it
won't be able to be overturned by the legislature in the (admittedly unlikely)
event that it passes. This is a simple money grab by established interests,
although it will be sold as protection for the most vulnerable - with the
unspoken provise that those who don't own property or have significant taxable
income don't matter. A previous initiative which limited growth in property
taxes, prop. 13, did a lot to shape the development of housing in the state
and arguably has contributed to the housing crisis, since it creates
significant disincentives to sell if a property has gained significantly in
value. I'm not a big fan of property taxes to start with, but prop 13 means
that people living in otherwise identical properties on the same block can be
paying wildly different rates of tax depending on when they purchased their
home, which is rather inequitable. I'd be somewhat worse off if it were
abolished but I don't think it's been good for California.

