A record number of Americans can't afford their rent. Lawmakers are scrambling to help
apnews.com
A new Harvard University study found that half of U.S. renters are paying nearly a third of their income on rent.
    • NateNate60@lemmy.world
      11·
      10 months ago

      What doesn’t work (but inevitably will be tried):

      • Asking nicely (lol)
      • Subsidising rent (landlords will raise rents to compensate for subsidy)
      • Rent caps and rent control (artificial price ceiling creates shortfall in market, leaving people still without adequate housing or on long waiting lists, or landlords will find bullshit reasons to evict tenants and raise rents)

      What does work:

      • Building more fucking housing
    • Coreidan@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      10 months ago

      Wrong! They are most definitely helping. They are helping the landlords. They don’t give a fuck about the people.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
      2·
      10 months ago

      As much as my local government sucks they did approve a huge rental complex in my city with the condition that 5% is low income housing. It sucks because even this is no where near enough even for my city alone. Still you asked for anything so I am mentioning it.

    • iopq@lemmy.world
      32·
      10 months ago

      Look at Texas property prices, a lot of places actually dropped due to new buildings being available

  • azimir@lemmy.ml
    13·
    10 months ago

    And by “Lawmakers” they mean Democrats and Progressives.

    So far the taste to actually accomplish anything at all from the right wing is minimal. Maybe they could fail to impeach the head of HUD and see if that helps?

  • jordanlund@lemmy.world
    11·
    10 months ago

    When I was a very young adult, first starting out… waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy back in the late 80s…

    My state offered a feature called “Renter Refund”.

    You paid your rent over the course of the year, and as long as you were a resident for more than 1/2 the year, a portion of your rent was kicked back as a tax refund.

    Now, that doesn’t help on a month by month basis, but it’s nice to have at the end of the year.

    Naturally my first year as an adult was the very last year it was ever offered. :(

  • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
    6·
    10 months ago

    The solution has always been to regulate residential investments.

    Treating housing as a comodity is the problem. Unafforable housing is the symptom. End corporate landlordship.

    • Fades@lemmy.world
      2·
      10 months ago

      Absolutely and tack on international buyers snapping up homes left right and center so they too can sit empty