Fact Check

Based on currently available numbers, there are about 31 vacant housing units for every homeless person in the U.S.

  • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
    11·
    4 months ago

    Try to stay on topic. We understand you hate minorities but that is not being discussed here. The article is about how there’s more empty dwellings than homeless people. We both agree that is absurd yes? Perhaps there should be higher taxes on empty dwellings to motivate owners to sell / lower their asking rent.

    • StaySquared@lemmy.world
      12·
      4 months ago

      I’m… technically a minority. I just don’t have the mindset of victimhood that liberals tell me I should have.

      With that said, we should cut the head off the snake, asset management firms like BlackRock (that’s a whole other discussion in of itself).

      Allow the market to run its course. Meaning if no one is buying these empty dwellings, naturally, the price of these empty dwellings should drop over time. If the owner is able to continue holding onto it and refuses to lower their price to attract more attention to sale, that’s on the owner. Doesn’t make sense to force their hand to sell it by increasing their taxes on a building that isn’t even being utilized in the first place.

      Same thought process for renting a dwelling. If the owner can afford for assets to not produce, then so be it. But anyone with a sound mind would definitely lower their rent prices to attract renters.

      • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
        1·
        4 months ago

        Allow the market to run its course.

        We have been allowing the market to run its course, we are living with the result: a limited quantity required for survival (shelter) is bought up for the purpose of profiting off that scarcity and requirement, and those that can’t afford to maximize the landlord’s profits are left on the streets.

        When people do this with luxury items like concert tickets and consoles we vilify them and call them scalpers. When they do it with shelter it suddenly becomes “an investment” regardless of the harm it does to the general population.

        I find it baffling how often I hear “things are bad right now with X, but we just need to continue doing the exact same way we have been and change nothing, and surely it will improve!”

        • StaySquared@lemmy.world
          11·
          4 months ago

          Well I personally feel that BlackRock and other asset management firms are the problem. I don’t support corporations buying up assets (homes in this case), manipulating the market, and attempting to flip for even more than its actually worth.

          • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
            1·
            4 months ago

            Well I personally feel that BlackRock and other asset management firms are the problem. I don’t support corporations buying up assets (homes in this case), manipulating the market, and attempting to flip for even more than its actually worth.

            Okay, but that is a result of “letting the market run its course.” What do you suggest be changed in order to stop BlackRock from doing that?