A Twist in California’s Homeless Crisis: Evictions by the Evicted

Sad. How did we get here, and how do we help??

We live in a sick world.

It's Uber for evictions! The job creators should be proud.

Life on the edge payscale doesnt match up to real cost of living our country is more and more just for the wealthy

So, this is the story of two people. *Two people* out of *40 million*, and the NYT takes that data point and spins it into the headline, “... more homeless people are trying to find work, even if it means becoming part of the process that forces people out of their homes.” The lengths to which the Times will go to generate its regular drumbeat of California-bashing articles is absolutely breathtaking. I am relieved, though, to know that homelessness in New York has been completely solved. Wouldn’t want the Times to have to do any reporting on that on their front page.

The poor preying on the poor. This is why the film "Parasite" resonates with people from all over the world.

Just another demonstration of Oakland’s hypocrisy, and the abandonment, under the current administration, of the working-and lower-middle class. Unless, it seems, you’re undocumented, an Millennial artist living in a warehouse zoned only for business not residence, or, it now seems, a trespasser with a big mouth and instagram-friendly face. The Mayor and city council cares about you if you’re raking in the tech-related money or otherwise in the 6-figures income. Average, law-abiding, rent-paying lower-income people, not so much.

Oakland’s more-progressive-than-thou city council just approved a measure that bans landlords from doing criminal background checks on prospective tenants and from using any such information they acquire in deciding who they rent to. The only exception seems to be registered sex offenders. So, now in Oakland, thanks to misguided policy and those who enacted it, homeowners and hardened criminals who recently got out of prison have more rights than do law-abiding existing tenants. Probably none of the Council members live in a rental apartment building where they and their children or elderly parents must share common hallways, doors, laundry and storage rooms, entryways, mailrooms, or garages with all of the other tenants in the building and anyone to whom those fellow tenants grant access or lend a key. One of the council members has been the victim of a violent mugging. One wonders how he would feel if he suddenly found himself and his wife and children living under the same roof and sharing necessary quarters such as an ill-lit garage or secluded laundry room with his assailant. And pity the family whose child was last year criminally bullied by the new family across the hall, or the young lady whose stalker was jailed but protective order expired and 4 years later she comes home one night to find him moved in to the apartment right above hers. Or the old man who 10 yrs ago was robbed of his savings via identity theft bumps into the scammer by the mailroom

I don't believe just LAST NIGHT I saw the infuriating predictive brilliant film "99 HOMES" from 1914, just a few preTrump years ago. And now I read this. I'm not advertising but SEE THE FILM if you have not and care to understand the present situation in the USA in a very dramatic film.

Shame, shame, shame on America. Shame on the greed running rampant in this country.

The billionaires can fix homelessness with the stroke of a pen and not miss a penny . How many billions do you need?

Gotta get in on this landlording business. The amount of people groveling before you for crumbs and a the ability to live in a hole-filled shack for two thousand dollars a month seems awfully enticing.

So much to unpack here.

Talk about the blind serving the blind.

" The leading causes in San Francisco in 2019 were losing a job (26 percent), alcohol or drug use (18 percent), eviction (13 percent), arguments among family or friends (12 percent), mental health problems (8 percent), and divorce or breakup (5 percent)..." Among the causes listed for homelessness, how many of which are avoidable, and how many of which can government do something about, and how many are just personal failings? Out of personal control (39%) - - Losing a job (26 percent) - Eviction (13 percent) Personal issues (35%) - - Alcohol or drug use (18 percent) - Arguments among family or friends (12 percent) - Divorce or breakup (5 percent) Government can help? (8%) - Mental health problems (8 percent) Let's be real: Government won't be able to eradicate homelessness completely. Government could conceivably help with mental health patients. And mixed income housing is never going to provide enough units for everyone. (In fact, mandatory affordable housing projects like 40B in MA only serves to intensify the gentrification in those neighborhoods where projects all target luxury condo in order for private developers to make profit.) Rezoning could increase more housing stock without major rebuild, but it's not going to help those who are already homeless. A surer bet, is for government to build affordable housing further from CBD, plus public transport to help people get around. That's the only way to accommodate more homeless folks.

Will the census give us some idea of what the homeless population is in our country? When I worked the census in 1990 we were instructed to go to every single house or shack where it was possible for someone to live. I didn't encounter anyone living under an overpass or in an automobile, these are much different times. The best of times? and surely for many , the worst of times.

How much empathy am I supposed to have for the many homeless people who came to California because of its allure? Many of these people who transplanted to California without jobs knew that California was expensive and only had enough money to make the journey. Once they are stuck, homeless without a job, they blame everyone except themselves. The best thing California can do is start building bathrooms with showers near the homeless communities for hygienic purposes. Then the homeless should also be evicted from the streets and be given the option of being detained or living in a camp dedicated to public projects (modern day equivalent of the WPA for our homeless).

There are too many of us and as more and more fall down the economic ladder the rest of us look away and pull up the rungs. We have become callous and without empathy. We are so unwilling to help because we don’t want to be taxed and we know that we too are one lay-off or illness away from bankruptcy and homelessness.

Homelessness has become a top issue challenging public officials in many cities across the country, exposing the underbelly of a fragile economy. At some point, it will be a tipping point from a roaring economy to a recession. A look at the major cities across the country is showing the same story. Lack of affordable housing driven by an underperforming job market, lack of affordable healthcare, and of course the opioid crisis. It is chilling stability in the middle class.

Am I the only person who wonders how we can allow so many migrants into our country when we have so many homeless citizens? We may have wealth, but there is some limit to our resources. Should we as a nation be allowed to say this is it, there is no more room, at least until we catch up with the needs of our citizens, which is going to take a very long time no matter who wins the presidency next November.

Scary troubling times, I can't think of the best popular analogy in film or in literature to describe this. Dickens, yes, any others? The most we can do is work our best to preserve our resources, live way below our means--ie., avoid high cost of living locations, and hope to avoid calamity.

And so the wheels turn and the results of late-stage capitalism are evident for all to see. Each day the parks, underpasses and city streets of Oakland just fill up a little more with the region’s homeless, the trash piles get bigger, the roads more decayed, the blight more evident. Oakland’s too-little-too-late response is to plead and badger already overtaxed citizens to pungle up more funds to “clean the parks and waterways”. I keep thinking it can’t get worse, but it does and more of my tax paying neighbors move away. We have serious deep problems here that our bloated city and state governments refuse to even consider. We need funded mental healthcare institutions and the laws reinstated to commit the ill to the care they need. We need serious drug addiction services and a larger police force to after the rampant drug dealing I see every day. We need enforcement against blight and trash dumping that coexist with some of the highest rents in the country. We need to help others to find and fund the housing they need and get every homeless encampment closed down. If China can build a hospital in a week, why can’t California solve this homeless problem in a year?

The wealthy get tax cuts they don't need while Trump lies about his efforts to cut safety net programs. In a rich country like ours, there should be minimal homelessness, yet owing $270 is enough to become homeless. I don't have polite words to say how wrong this is.

This makes me angry, sad and digusted.

Homelessness is a national crisis that has clearly gotten worse since Trump’s election. It’s a complex issue that needs more then just housing as a solution.

“repeated encounters with the criminal justice system” ... The word encounter connotes unexpected and serendipitous, which is at odds with the word repeated. Where is the editor? Perhaps we call a spade a spade, or an ex con an ex con. An eviction from a $135/Mo apartment does not reflect an housing affordability crisis so what conclusions should the reader draw? Evictions are in fact part of a healthy, functioning housing market. Renters who can’t be evicted act like renters who can’t be evicted, which isn’t good for owners or neighbors.

This is a national embarrassment. California needs to step back from the restrictive zoning and regulatory burden placed on development in housing and increase the housing stock.

Making the homeless agents of eviction is not new. Reminds me of Trump’s methods for clearing rent controlled tenants from a building so he could take it upscale. As I recall from news accounts in the ‘80’s, Trump used Russian thugs (Brighton Beach immigrants), who knocked on doors repeatedly in the middle of the night, invited homeless to move into the lobby, and pointed out to them that the elevator made a good toilet. Trump’s vision for America seems to be proceeding well. The Space Force is no doubt intended to develop off-planet options when this one is trashed.

CA has decided that allowing an unlimited number of illegal migrants here is a good thing for the state. That means that these illegal migrants need to have places to stay. This, in turn, means that the competition for housing increases. The most expensive places in the country to live are those with the most complete welcome for illegal migrants. The homeless are USA citizens who cannot pay the rents. The illegal migrants get all kinds of aid in CA, and are willing to live with many people in a small residence (ignoring zoning codes). CA is coming to a crisis point. It's either the USA citizens or the illegal migrants.

This is all very depressing but there is no way "losing a job" is the reason for eviction in 26% of cases. I know people here in the city that have regular office jobs and sleep in their cars. Unemployment rates are the lowest in the country (2.2% in SF), there are thousands of ways to make money in the Bay Area. If you can't find a job here, you won't find it anywhere. There are only 2 reasons for this madness: 1) skyrocketing rent prices driven by rent control and lack of housing; 2) mental health issues including addiction. Landlords dealing with rent control raise prices on uncontrolled units to make up for what they are loosing with rent control. We are paying 4K-5K per month because there are people who pay 135 per month. It evens out. Furthermore, I do not understand how it is EVER ok to have mentally ill people take care of themselves when they clearly incapable of it. To think that a country that calls itself "first world" does not have mental and addiction treatment programs! It's pathetic. There are thousands of mentally ill people living on the streets like stray dogs. They have ocasional episodes, attack passersby, end up in jail, and go back to stay on the streets the very next day. What are they going to jail for? For having a mental illness or addiction they can't control? We need to get rid of rent control, build more housing and start TREATING mentally ill, not punishing them.

I presume that this is all Mr. Trump's fault. Obviously pitiful Republicans have been running California and San Francisco for the past twenty years and have forced these people into homelessness. Oh, sorry I meant Democrats.

A homelessness problem? An alternate way to think about it is that it is an overpopulation problem. Rents are so high because of an undersupply of housing, no doubt, but a case can be made that it is an oversupply of people that is causing the undersupply of housing. This undersupply of housing coincides with the tech boom that has reverberated about San Francisco and its neighboring communities. As tech has boomed, companies get created or existing ones expand, many offering large salaries to attract applicants. Large numbers of those companies feel compelled to locate in the hottest areas of this tech boom, SF and Silicon Valley, in particular. Unsurprisingly, as these firms expand, while paying more to attract talent, the housing supply only slowly responds by building more housing. In the urban areas, especially SF, the costs of building tall buildings is prohibitive and lucrative, though not at affordable rates. In the suburbs, many communities are not eager to build high density housing, fearing a threat to their detached-home, suburban lifestyle. This doesn’t even factor in the costs and strains of long commutes. Yet, inexplicably companies and people often fail to respond rationally and simply move to a cheaper location. What’s more, the worst effects fall on those with low paying jobs. Why don’t the tech companies move elsewhere? There is a widespread belief that some magical “sauce” is created by locating in the most impacted areas. Go figure.

Prices are certainly higher in the Bay area. When i was doing process server work, only a couple of years ago, I was getting a flat $15.00 per hour.

We now live in a society where we all have to think very carefully about the skills we develop and what value those skills command in the market economy. This is all very sad, but I'm sorry — if you were in the the luxurious position of having a $130 per month apartment while living next to one of the fastest growing cities in the last 10 years, then you had plenty of time do develop yourself. Maybe you take a coding class, learn about winemaking and get a job at a vineyard, get a teachers' or nurses' degree, anything. There is so much economy activity occurring in the Bay Area. I hope the next occupant of that apartment makes a better use of those opportunities.

Here is a thing I have noticed about my reaction to stories like this - and it's something that I don't like. I no longer feel hopeful enough to think that anything will change. I see our current, Dickensian, Gilded Age America. I see the rigging of the elections, the packing of the courts, the consolidation of the media, and I know in my heart that things will only get more pitiless, more brutal, more cruel. We won't build a safety net. We will shred what little there once was. The middle class will continue to vanish. Most of us will become poorer, sicker, more powerless, more beaten down. It's getting worse, and the fix is in. I no longer feel secure enough to empathize too much with people who are homeless. I have seen it happen to friends. I can see how it could easily happen to my family. My first impulse, reading this, is to reassure myself that I'm okay, that it's not me, that I'm still okay, that I'm different.I am afraid to identify with people in these situations, because it's a bit too close for comfort.

Well, there's nothing wrong with being a process server. Maybe the person who (allegedly) lost her job and seems unable to pay $135 per month for a rent-controlled apartment should take it up.

No matter the reason, in the SF Bay Area everyone wants their photograph and story in the news. No matter the reason.

We live in a world and country that is fast descending into darkness. Only a real and lasting change can stop this madness and that change have to start with a change in consciousness from the individual to the collective!

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw

tRumps great economy at work. At what point will people rise up and revolt? Of course in CA it takes 40 votes to equal those in lowly populated states.

I'm trying to think of a good metaphor for this, or a literary text that sums this up. Alice in Wonderland? A Kafka novel? Catch 22? Or: Crime and Punishment? One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest? Lord of the Flies? Or maybe one that needs to be written: The Legacy of Trickledown Economics How I Learned to Love and Loathe Ronald Reagan Republican Empathy Donald Trump, or Making Capitalism Cruel Again

This is the saddest news to read let alone live. We must do better

The story reminds me of the Grapes of Wrath. How a few shekels can motivate a homeless person to inflict that pain on someone else.

A 'gig' job for a "document company" that hires homeless to serve eviction notices. Why would you fail to identify such an entrepreneurial employer?

The so-called 'reasons for becoming homeless' are meaningless and misleading. You don't become homeless because you lose your job. You are homeless because you either cannot, or will not, pay for housing. It is that simple. Now, there are myriad reasons behind that, but let's not oversimplify, or overcomplicate, why a person is homeless. And, don't ask them, because people are rarely insightful about their life failures. Most have an 'excuse', not a reason.

Just yesterday I read an essay by Rebecca Solnit titled "Death by Gentrification: The Killing of Alex Nieto and the Savaging of San Francisco" in her collection of essays on American crises. It was a horror story. It actually made me angrier than the lead essay, "The Loneliness of Donald Trump" which disgusted me. Donald Trump is the forest. Gentrification is the tree. That and local police brutality. Something has to give. It has to as it can no longer go on like this.