Rather than rent control, let the state buy apartment buildings at full market value and charge whatever they want for rent.
3
Homelessness has been and continues to be among the greatest shames of this country. A basic human right denied because of unchecked market forces. No longer are the homeless comprised of the severely mentally ill. Today, much of the homeless population in New York City and San Francisco (and generally throughout both cities' respective states) are ordinary people who have been exploited by the market and neglected by the government. these are mothers who work day in and day out and still can't make enough to afford a home, or whose expenses and responsibilities are so great, that they've prevented them from securing a home. These are children who attend school every day and yet have no stable place of their own.
For far too long the absence of true housing regulation has made potential losers out of all of us, especially in cities where housing is increasingly becoming a commodity, landlords exploiting lucrative loopholes, unchecked gentrification prompting these responses and lessening affordability in neighborhoods whose success has been the result of efforts by the marginalized.
What is a community when one has no security of place, and by extension, what is any city or state without this network of stable communities?
5
Interesting to hear those who want sympathy for the poor property owner who must face rising expenses but have no sympathy for the renters who ultimately are called upon to pay those expenses through rising rents.
The lack of affordable housing is a national crisis. 50% of renters are cost burdened some of them spending more than half their income on housing.
The ignorance of some of the remarks regarding the issues and their total lack of empathy is most disturbing. I suspect a few may even be contrived, and even those that are not show an ignorant of how they themselves are beneficiaries directly or indirectly of the same kind of aid they complain about for others. Oh the hypocrisy of it all.
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I am just a few days away from death after five years of homelessness as a disabled senior. I was forced out of my home by people making meth below my apartment and toxic mold everywhere there. In five years the city of New York could not even inspect my apartment or give me any aid— not even food and water. It is a sad broken system. I have health insurance I just can’t use it because I’m too disabled.
The only help I ever got was when I went to Pennsylvania – – there I was given shelter by a church and taken to a food pantry. If you expect the state of New York to help you you might as well start digging your grave now.
4
Why shouldn't they have to show up for appts? I couldn't believe it when I read this. How much lower can we go? People don't get better with low expectations.
Part of their problem/s is that they live unstructured lives. Keeping appts is one way to begin to live a responsible life.
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If you’re getting benefits, the very least you can do is show up for an appointment. If I don’t show up to work, I don’t get paid. If you’re not working you have nothing but time and a couple hours here and there is very little to ask in exchange for being supported by working people.
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Congress needs to get off of the Nixonian Grant Habit and start adding big money to building low and destitute income housing.They do it in Communist China and it is to our shame that the government through Congress refuses to spend Big Dollars on housing which would be Huge!
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There, but for the grace of God, go I.
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I don’t mean to be the killjoy here but as it already stands, New York State is a welfare giveaway state. I don’t mean this to be bigoted or mean. Let me just say that I have first hand experience with NY State welfare programs. My current wife and I almost didn’t get married because the welfare benefits in NY are so good. You see, she was a single mom who moved to NY with her 2 small children to live with me. At that time she was eligible for all kinds of public assistance including but not limited to: better health insurance for her & the kids than I had, free tuition for the children, and a plethora of other small grants & programs. When we were deciding whether to get married or not, giving up those welfare programs were a huge stumbling block. Why in the world would we give up free healthcare and free future college tuition for the children just for a piece of paper saying we’re married? Obviously we decided to do the right thing and got married instead of leeching on NY State welfare programs. But how many folks out there have not made the right decision? Incidentally, the woman in the article who lost her husband should have had life insurance on him. Evidently she didn’t, which is why she was forced out her apartment. So NY State taxpayers should pay for the fact that there was no life insurance on her husband? It’s all about personal & social responsibility folks.
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People don't always make the right decision--who even knows what the right decision is in certain circumstances. It's about social responsibility. Your statement is bigoted and mean--you are right about that though. Trying looking outside your own life and think about others and what could improve their lives.
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Life insurance? You do realize that life insurance, a) costs money they probably didn’t have, and b) would have run out eventually. The fact that this woman works a full-time job and still lost her home simply because her husband died is a sad tragedy in the United States.
There but for the grace of God.
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Don't talk about personal responsibility unless you direct at the Republican party, who is the main impediment against helping these people. Republicans; backing a thrice divorced, philandering misogynist, who had no inkling of "personal responsibility" when he took 5 deferments; rich kids could, while poor kids had to go fight, because their Daddies absolved them of any "personal responsibility". I'm a veteran who has been homeless in the past, and I come way before ANY of these Republican leeches who are helping to drive this country and he people into the ground. As for you? Quit whining. You and your wife did the right thing. Stop comparing yourself to others or erroneously accuse people of not choosing to do what you did. You don't know anyone's story except your own.
3
Capitalism!
3
More help? More help?
How about helping yourself? Getting up early, staying positive, lining up interviews and making it happen for yourself?
You can do this. Millions, yes, millions, have done it before you.
Look in the mirror and own it.
Cmon.
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Sure. Minimum wage jobs might be available. But you still won’t be able to afford even one rented room.
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What New York needs (and will probably never get) is real justice for renters. (Why, for instance, should landlords be entitled to ANY rent increases?). Safe, affordable shelter, along with education and health care should, in an enlightened society, be part of that society's public services like police and fire protection and be priced according to people's ability to pay. No basic commodity should be allowed to become a cash cow for the owning class.
8
It might be of interest to you to know that the operating cost of a 2 bedroom unit in Flushing Queens, is about $1,000 per month including utilities. This is what a not for profit cooperative building is forced to charge because of expenses. Real estate taxes rise almost every year and are even higher in places like Long Island where there is no local income taxes to support the governments there. The union contract for our building staff is up for renew this month and they will likely want an increase. As buildings age, more repairs are needed. We are currently replacing our elevator machines from 1957 to meet city mandates in 2020 and 2027. We should more in terms of at cost housing rather than affordable housing. This is what was done after WWII when many cooperative projects were promoted by the Federal Government under the National Housing Act.
14
"Why, for instance, should landlords be entitled to ANY rent increases?"
@Talia Morris: a colleague of mine owns a 4-family building in Jersey City - which is often considered the 6th boro of NYC. This year, Jersey City had its first property tax reevaluation in many decades. His previously high annual tax bill of $15,000 jumped overnight to $29,000! Thats $2416 per month just for taxes. Add that to his monthly $5,500 mortgage payment, $400 insurance premium, and $250 water/sewer and electric bill. Two of the 4 boiler systems needed complete replacement this past winter totaling almost $10,000 for materials and installation. He collects less than $8500 a month from 4 apartments. You do the math.
He is not alone, not in Jersey City nor in New York where the vast VAST majority of landlords are holders of small multi-family buildings straining under very similar circumstances. Its a business, like any other. So, no, definitely not a "...cash cow for the owning class".
Painting landlords as villainous creatures in black capes and oily mustaches serves nobody at all. Its just that sort of hoary stereotyping that prevents our society for addressing the true source and root of the housing crisis.
14
Well said.
1
“No one is being accountable — they raise your rent more than your salary,” she said. “Everything just spiraled out of control, and I ended up getting evicted.”
Isn't this article describing a monumentally misplaced focus? Shouldn't all energies be directed instead at the real problem - i.e., non-living wages that have reduced 10s of millions of Americans to modern day serfs?
I genuinely feel for Ms. Cummings. Its astounding that anyone should have to survive on 21K a year. But 'housing', for better or worse, is a huge profit motivated industry in our capitalist country. For the vast part it consists of privately held property being run as a business - buying, selling, leasing, renting, etc. Landlords - including Ms. Cummings' - are business people with many legitimate expenses like any other business.
Won't it ALWAYS be a losing battle to try and paint a profit motivated business as the root of the problem, rather than focusing on the lack of decent incomes that prohibit so many citizens from participating fully in the economy?
$21,000 a year is less than $1,800 a month GROSS. Where at all in our country (never mind the North East!) - can anybody really lead a healthy life on that sort of income?
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