- cross-posted to:
- brainworms@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- brainworms@lemm.ee
Organized labor across the country is now setting its sights on housing costs as rents and mortgages continue to soar
As housing has become a top issue in strikes and protests in recent months, US unions are pushing for change and backing innovative solutions for the housing affordability crisis.
With US house prices and rents rising in recent years, and high interest rates and inflation taking their toll, housing affordability has become a major issue at the bargaining table for US labor unions. Many workers are facing 60-, 90-, even 120-minute commutes to work because they cannott afford to live near their jobs.
Housing has been a big issue in the recent rolling strikes by thousands of Los Angeles hotel workers. In Oregon, 400 Yamhill county government employees went on strike in November because, the union said, “many workers are not able to afford housing”. In the Twin Cities, worker dismay about large rent hikes is fueling plans for a multi-union strike by up to 30,000 workers in March. When San Francisco hotel workers hold contract talks later this year, housing affordability will be a top issue.
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As a rule, the only single statistic that is clearly correlated with homelessness is the delta between the prevailing wage and the prevailing rent in a geographic area. You can basically predict a city’s homelessness rate by the affordability of housing. Sure, people try and cite all kinds of other things. They’ll say it has to do with weather, with mental health, with drug use, with available social services. But there’s also statistics that basically confound these kinds of measures so badly you can reasonably claim them to be falsified. Homelessness is, above all else, an effect of housing unaffordability. Anyone who talks about the issue who tries to pretend ANY other issue matters more than lack of affordable housing is suspect. You may or may not think this sounds insightful, but the truth is that the gulf between prevailing wages and prevailing rent is really just a measure of how painful it is to get a residence in an area – so of COURSE homelessness increases with it.
Meanwhile, MOST US cities have laws, rules, and processes set up that reduce housing supply, either intentionally or as an obvious consequence. Policies that objectively make no sense.
Labyrinthine and unreasonable permitting processes. The slow death squeeze of the local builder by national firms that churn out giant, expensive, ticky-tacky homes. Redlining-era restrictive zoning rules that prevent sensible infill. Mandatory parking minimums based on voodoo ‘science’ that can make it flatly impossible to build dense housing (even in bikeped or transit-connected neighborhoods). The gradual death of the local bank, forcing ALL projects to fit standard national finance paper products that may not work or make sense in your city. Lack of regulation on the rental market or incentivization of owner-occupancy. Lack of said bikeped and transit connections, which de facto increases costs by forcing residents to own, maintain, and use cars for all their trips.
I absolutely think labor organization is a big way to fight back against homelessness because improving bottom-line prevailing wages is going to be a way to fight back against homelessness – but no single solution will do the job on its own. And most of the best solutions for this can actually start super local – they don’t need national or even state elections to go a certain way, they just need local politicians to listen. You, as an individual, can email, call, or show up to MPO/council meetings and move the needle on a lot of these.
If you want to, you can start with something like the Strong Towns action lab to view guides, advice, and script-like documents for what to actually do and say at these meetings.
Lack of socialized medicine/medical care tied to employment is a bigger issue IMHO.
I don’t know that I agree with that, and I say that as someone with a massive amount of medical debt. Putting someone in a home is more important than getting them socialized medical care. Both are very important, but your health is not going to improve if you live on the streets or in your car. And homelessness is booming.
I absolutely want socialized medicine in the U.S. No question. But homelessness in the U.S. is at record levels. And many of them have jobs, they just don’t have homes they can afford. This is a major crisis.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/homeless-record-america-12-percent-jump-high-rents/
Exactly. The ACA made it so the homeless could get medical care without going broke. In my state, they’re mostly fully covered if they’ve bothered to apply for it.
However, most homeless organizations still push a “housing first” model because access to medical care doesn’t really make life on the street any better. In fact, being on the street leads to higher instances of needing emergency services. When people have a “home” to go to, you’ll less often needing to be treating them for frostbite in the middle of winter, for example.
A place to stay would drastically reduce the near-constant need for emergency services of this vulnerable population.
I think you put too much faith in the ACA. It’s still insurance — with all the copays, hoops, and “not covereds” that comes with.
People who have huge medical debts lose their homes. People with addiction problems can’t take care of themselves and keep a home. People who have chronic health problems can’t hold down a job without ongoing treatment. Being able to walk into a clinic and get the help you need means that your income can be spent on other things (like food, clothing, and shelter).
housing has always been the biggest problem in urban areas imo because something basic as getting a job is tied to having a permanent adress. applying for freeidical care is fairly easy (i did it a few years back when i held a part time job pre covid), and the health care org still sends me mail, despite myself having a different plan now at a different job. finding a roof over your head just gets progressively worse and theres no immediate signs of it getting better, making it the #1 problem.
Putting someone in a home is more important than getting them socialized medical care
I get your point and I agree, but allow me to reframe this dichotomy a little: housing is health care - it literally saves lives. These issues are intertwined, and socialized housing should be part of a socialized health care strategy.
Semantically, sure. Practically and politically, they have to be dealt with as separate issues since they require completely different people with completely different areas of expertise. You might be able to put socialized housing into a socialized medicine bill, but considering how unlikely either of those are in the current American climate, putting them together makes it even more unlikely.
