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LThe Politics of a Housing Crisis By Roderick Wright, California State Senator (Retired)
isten to any political discussion today private investment in real estate with the intention and apart from inflation and crime, of diverting those investment dollars into Wall Street the dual crisis of homelessness and investments. “Mom and pop” rental housing investors the lack of affordable housing will have been particularly targeted. Oddly, on the political be front and center. There have right, conservatives object to spending tax money on been numerous solutions thrown poor people. Then, on the political left, progressives around, but none that I’ve ever heard object to private industry, and often in this case, “mom truly addresses the problem. Mark and pop” rental property owners making a profit, even Twain once said, “Everybody talks when that profit would actually be better for renters. about the weather, but nobody does This leaves us where we are today, in a severe crisis.
anything about it.” Housing and homelessness have been handled about the same way as the talk about weather, only with a lot of squandered money.
The lack of private investment in housing has been a major cause leading to the housing crisis and thus homelessness. There are many causes for this lack of
Homelessness and scarce affordable housing in investment, but first let’s highlight some of the other California are the confluence of several issues. First causes of homelessness, including job loss and low
and foremost, we have a housing crisis that is the result of years of regressive fiscal policies imposed by both of our primary political parties. Reductions In the private investment in housing caused by federal, state, and local policies are a principal cause of the housing crisis we face today. This is also a major contributor to the homeless dilemma.
Over the last 40 years, Wall Street, with the complicity of government has waged an effective war against
wages. For a variety of reasons, the cost of real estate, houses and apartments have grown much faster than personal incomes. This differential is growing wider as demand for housing further overtakes housing supply.
Other factors that contribute to the homeless crisis are the lack of sufficient drug addiction and mental health services, prison inmates being released without
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APARTMENT MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE - JULY 2022 CS-11