On Fri, 27 Jul 2018 10:16:32 +0700, John B. Slocomb
wrote:

Where are all these homeless, that I read about here, coming from? I
read one news article that alleged that the homeless in the Bay Area
were the results of extremely high rental rates in the area but how
did rental rates get that way? After all rental rates follow the same
economic laws as any other financial activity. You can only have high
prices where there people to pay them :-)

Oddly, most of the local homeless are from other parts of the country,
where housing is far more affordable. The SCZ city council ran a
survey of some of the more sober shelter residents and found that most
had arrived in Santa Cruz in less than 3 years ago and came from all
over the US and world. A substantial number are obviously illegal
immigrants from Mexico and Central America. It seems odd that if the
cost of housing is such a major problem for these people, why would
they leave an area with far cheaper housing to go to an area with
seriously overpriced cost of housing (and living)? Are they planning
on working hard for a short time, live like a homeless person, collect
as much cash as possible, and then return to where it's more
affordable to live? I doubt it as most don't seem to want to do any
kind of work at any pay scale. Incidentally, it's not just the
homeless, but also the local teenagers who don't want to work. I
can't find any local teenager who wants to do some minor landscaping
and brush clearing around my house. I suspect that there's something
wrong here.

Where did all these high rent payers come from?

They're imported by the high rolling Google, Facebook, etc who pay top
dollar for talent:
http://fortune.com/2018/03/01/best-companies-bay-area-2018/
Predictably, there's quite a bit of job hopping among the tech talent,
jockeying for position and of course more money. Long commutes are
not a huge problem if the company supplies vans, buses, home loan
credit, and crash pads for the occasional overnight push.

Are a lot of people
immigrating from S. California?

Yes. That was me in about 1973. However, it wasn't about cost of
housing, jobs, or pay scale. Let's just say it was more about getting
away from an area that was rapidly becoming unlivable and moving to
one that was more pleasant. I suspect that today's migrant tech
workers have much the same motivation. I'm not sure how that would
fit in the average homeless persons business plan.

Industries going bust? Only in the Bay Area?

Sorry. I don't know. I don't know anyone from the rust belt. By all
reason and logic, the Bay Area should have emptied just after the dot
com crash in about 2001. Are we heading for another bubble?
https://www.marke****ch.com/story/this-is-nothing-like-the-2000-dot-com-bubble-2015-03-25

Where are these improvised people coming from?

Just follow the money and you'll get a clue as to what moves them and
from where. I think some better questions would be:
- Why is the ratio of non-productive recipients to productive workers
increasing?
- Is the support structure that we provide for those who cannot work
facilitating homelessness as a lifestyle?
- Where is the money coming from that these people live on? Donations,
drugs, taxes, what?


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558