California Seeks Solution for Housing Needs

The state of California is incredibly polarizing. People have strong opinions about where they stand on the state, it's typically one of two stances they take. They either admire the state (because most who take this stance live there), or they think it's one of the worst-run states in America. Love or hate California, it has the nation's highest property costs, the highest tax rates, the highest rates of drug use and per-capita crime, and the highest number of homeless Americans living inside of its borders. So, when news breaks that California is trying to do something about its housing needs, one might think that the state means to finally do something to address the homelessness that is growing out of control. One would be wrong about this, however, as when California says they have a "housing need" in the state, what they mean is that they need more houses that wealthy people can move into.

The average rent for a low-end apartment in California is over $1,400 per month. This is the entire statewide average. In San Francisco, one of America's most historically famous cities, the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment is over $2,900 per month, and in Los Angeles it's over $2,300 per month. When California says that there's a housing need in their state, they don't mean Fresno or San Bernardino. They certainly don't mean for the nearly 200,,000 homeless residents, or even the suspected one-million-plus undocumented residents who may be homeless (and are surely unaccounted for). No. They mean new housing for the wealthiest Americans, because California thinks that luring in more wealthy people will somehow fix the state's problems.

Most of you were "today years old," as the kids say, when you learned that California was a huge proponent of Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" economics. Who knew California was so conservative? The fact here is that California has been trying to build new housing since Arnold was their governor, but their issue is that between vying for sporting franchises and arguing with the federal government over funding for a "sanctuary state," the politicians in California never got around to building homes.

As of this week, however, in June of 2021, they're finally planning on addressing that so-called need for housing in the state. Their problem: They've waited so long, and done so much to ignore actual problems in the state, that they cannot find any actual land on which to build these houses. Land that is available in the biggest cities of the state basically act as home base for outdoor shanty towns for the homeless now. So, California has a unique answer to create more housing: They're going to build homes in vacant parking lots.

If you're in need of a grossly overpriced home in an area where it's a 100% guarantee that it will be broken into, and you have zero legal recourse against it, don't worry. There are many thousands of parking lots vacant in California, mostly thanks to the state causing many thousands of businesses to go bankrupt during their very strict Covid restrictions, which are still ongoing for the middle-class and absolutely no one else. Developers and politicians are ready to get the ball rolling here, splattering pre-made, stacked housing throughout the state on a variety of parking lots. Just tie them in with water and sewer, and these pop-up homes can easily rent for $5,000 per month, which would provide the cities in question with millions of dollars in additional funding that definitely will not be squandered this time and misappropriated. They promise! No more low-level council-people with $100,000 sports cars or five-day vacations to the Bahamas. California is getting serious this time.

There Might Not be a Need for Long

When it comes to California, they may decide by next week that there's no longer a "need" for this housing at all. In fact, they might decide that what they "need" to do is tear down all of those businesses with empty parking lots now, in order to grow community gardens or plaster solar panels, or any other thing that will benefit the wealthy citizens and make life a nightmare for the poorest and most desperate people of the state. If California does one thing better than everyone else, it's disenfranchising their poorest, most vulnerable citizens.

The likelihood that Californians will see pop-up, stacked housing any time soon is slim to none, as they're really just that inept. But the fact they're floating this around, rather than helping their homeless and unemployed population, is just amazing. Only in California.