this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Today I Learned

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[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I’ve said time and time again that “building more houses” is not the solution.

I mean, it's also been said that a lot of these empty houses are in rural/suburban neighborhoods outside of dying industrial centers. We're effectively talking about "Ghost Towns", with no social services and a deteriorating domestic infrastructure, that people are deliberately abandoning.

And we're stacking that up against the homeless encampments that appear in large, dense, urban environments where social services are (relatively) robust and utilities operate at full capacity around the clock.

Picking people up from under the I-10 overpass and moving them to

doesn't address homelessness as a structural problem. It just shuttles people around the state aimlessly and hopes you can squirrel them away where your voters won't see them anymore.

At some point, you absolutely do need to build more apartment blocks and rail corridors and invest in local/state/federal public services again, such that you can gainfully employ (or at least comfortably retire) people with no future economic prospects. You can't just take folks out to shacks in the boonies and say "Homelessness Resolved!"

[–] zaki_ft@lemmings.world -3 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Sounds like all those places need are people to live in them.

It's a win-win.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They need economic activity to be livable. Shoving broke people onto a reservation doesn't accomplish that.

[–] zaki_ft@lemmings.world 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They create the economic activity.

More people living in an area means there's more to do and more people to do it.

On average, each additional person contributes more than they take out.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago

They create the economic activity.

You have to go back and actually read Kapital.

More people living in an area means there’s more to do and more people to do it.

Visit a refugee camp and explain that to the locals

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 9 points 2 days ago

...But nobody wants to live there.

You could give a bunch of homeless people housing, but there's simply no structure around it. They have no money, and there's no jobs. There's no services around. They won't be much better off than homeless in a big city tbh. Might be WORSE off.

There needs to be available housing near the places where there's actually things to do, jobs to hold, services to use.

Worst part is, I bet a LOT of those ghots towns are suburban, not urban - so it makes it more difficult and expensive to build up a new community there. Everything is spaced out

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Stalin thought Siberia needed a lot of people living there. Look how that turned out.

[–] incompetent@programming.dev 4 points 1 day ago

Forgive my ignorance; I don't know much about Siberia other than it is desolate and not much fun. How did that turn out?

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You need jobs near those places first. The locations are dying because of lack of industry.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

A lot of those places suck and they're not going to turn into vibrant cultural centers with social services quickly.

[–] zaki_ft@lemmings.world 2 points 1 day ago

It won't happen overnight.

If homeless people would prefer living in tents under highways, that's their choice.