Setting new records for dead bums on the streets of Anchorage.  This is in summer.  If they don't figure out the shelter issue, it's gonna be a rough winter for the hard cases.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/07/27/anchorage-surpasses-homeless-outdoor-deaths-record-reports-6-deaths-in-less-than-a-week/

Anchorage surpasses homeless outdoor deaths record, reports 6 deaths in less than a week

RE

Quote from: RE on Jul 27, 2023, 10:11 PMSetting new records for dead bums on the streets of Anchorage.  This is in summer.  If they don't figure out the shelter issue, it's gonna be a rough winter for the hard cases.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/07/27/anchorage-surpasses-homeless-outdoor-deaths-record-reports-6-deaths-in-less-than-a-week/

Anchorage surpasses homeless outdoor deaths record, reports 6 deaths in less than a week

RE

It is hard to explain how I do this calculation.  People dying in hospital are not in the count.  So 29 means to me that there are about 10,000 homeless in Anchorage.

I could be way off.  In the thousands for sure.

Any local sources have a number?

According to this article, the current count is "more than 3000" homeless homo saps (HHS) in Anchorage.  How many more?  Who knows?  Taking an average between K-Dog's 10K and 3K, call it 6500.  This with a total population of slightly under 300K, for an HHS rate of 2%. If a city the size of NYC (8M) had this HHS rate, there would be 160K HHS.  Actual estimate is around 70K, so about double the per capita rate there.

Latest plan?  Hand them free tickets to the Lower 48.  One quote from a HHS said he'll go to Seattle because he heard the weather is better there.     I would suggest Miami for the Winter, then he probably could get a free bus ticket to Bangor next summer.  Be a Snowbird HHS rat!  Or maybe get his free plane ticket destination as Honolulu.  Hawaii is pretty comfortable year around due to being surrounded by the pacific ocean.

One thing an AK HHS would be giving up if he accepted one of these one way tickets to paradise on the streets of Seattle would be his annual share of the PFD,, the check every resident gets from  the Oil industry, which last year was $3200.  This year it's looking to be half that, but still it covers your cancerettes if you keep your smoking habit down to 1/4 pack/day, or better yet roll your own.

There is a big Mall named Northway that's been closed for years I would think would be a logical choice, but so far they got no funding for anything.  If they don't figure out something, its gonna start getting ugly in about 3 months.  At least the bears are hibernating in the winter though. 

https://alaskapublic.org/2023/07/31/anchorage-homeless-face-cold-and-bears-a-plan-to-offer-one-way-airfare-out-reveals-a-bigger-crisis/

Anchorage homeless face cold and bears. A plan to offer one-way airfare out reveals a bigger crisis

RE

AI is being deployed at just the right time.  A virtual Kurt Russell can do a remake.

Escape from AK



Don't feed the bears

The long arm of the law once again used to prevent those too poor to afford a fixed domicile to help themselves and use the Bugout Machine solution for serviceable shelter during the cold Alaska winter.  If there's no law on the books against it, TPTB will just make a new one!  Prroblem solved.

Now, personally I don't know why the owners of these BMs all pick these Downtown locations, because there are many much more desirable places a little further out of downtown with better access to Walmart and other Food Superstores where you go to get you supply of propane, food and of course booze and smokes.  Maybe because congregating in groups makes it harder for the Gestapo to tow away a lone vehicle when it is discovered in a concealed location away from prying eyes and not lowering the property values much f already pretty low rent districts.  Of course, the slumlords who own properties where for a price you can legally park your BM, and don't want their clients to use the free option of the commons.

In the capitalist model, there are no commons, all land is Private Property or Goobermint owned, and rent and taxes must always be paid to have a place to live.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/10/02/growing-number-of-homeless-vehicle-campers-in-anchorage-presents-a-dilemma-for-the-city/

Growing number of people living in vehicles presents a new dilemma for Anchorage

RE

As if our own homegrown homeless problem isn't bad enough, our usual forward thinking goobermint is importing families from other countries, all through legal channels and not illegal migrants without having any kind of plan in place on how or where to house them.

Now, we all know that pressure is on to keep the immigrants flowing in, because of a serious shortage of cheap labor to staff Mickey Ds, hotel maids, restaurant dishwashers and landscapers for the Hamptons mansions of the .001%.  At the same time however, there is a shortage of affordable housing if you even have a decent paying job, much less the often sub-minimum wage jobs available to wetbacks who can't even speak english yet.  They don't even at least have the forethought to just import unmarried single who could triple and quadruple up to afford a 1 bedroom slum or efficiency studio in a section 8 motel, they are shipping them in complete with the kindergarten kids in tow.  This to insure that there are still more workers to take low paid jobs in the pipeline a decade from now.

Where is this influx coming from?  Besides the usual suspects down in Central & South America, you of course also have the war refugees from Ukraine, Iraq, Palestine etc rolling in by the boatloaad.  We are not talking small numbers here, MA a relatively small state already boasts 7000 families, expected to be up to 7500 by the end of the month.  This of course just as winter begins to bite in the Northeast.  One can only guess how many are debarking in NYC tonight, since it is the traditional first stop for the tired, hungry & poor population of useless eaters necessry to keep the capitalist system running.

At some point here this shit is just gonna break, and they will not be able to gloss over it with a few million thrown at motel slumlords to put some roofs over these people's heads.  The clock is ticking.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/massachusetts-migrant-crisis-gov-healey-oct-16/45547842

'We do not have enough space' in Massachusetts shelters, Gov. Healey says

RE

Back from the East Coast to Homeless in the far west of the Last Great Frontier, with Winter beginning to set in but not quite yet baring its full white icy teeth, Anchorage is finally implementing its plan for the Homeless population.  Although a smaller estimated number than Mass-of-we-could-give-2shits, their budget is concommitently smaller as well.  They also of course predictably have underestimated the numbers even publicly, and I can about guarantee the actual number of unreported and uncounted is near double the published count.  So, they already have a waiting list with no place to put them, and are scrambling to figure something out before the sub-zero nights come rolling in along with snowfall measured in feet and nor inches.  48 dead already this year, so we're on track to set a new annual by Dec 31st, but the winter toll between now and the Ides of March is the really interesting one to watch.

Fortunately, I remain comfortably housed in my $16,500/mo Dorm Room for Cripples at SNIF University, which so far Medicaid continues to reliably pay on time, although I have had some suspicious "impromptu" chats regarding a discharge plan from the supervising doctor and the asst Social Work director so I'm never feeling very safe, with the Sword of Damocles always hanging over my head that I'll be given an ultimatum about getting out of here for someplace cheaper to house my crippled ass.

Still not freezing to death as a homeless cripple on the streets of Anchorage, Alaska.

RE

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/10/18/as-officials-begin-moving-anchorages-unhoused-to-winter-shelter-a-long-and-growing-waitlist-sparks-alarm/

As officials begin moving Anchorage's unhoused to winter shelter, a long and growing waitlist sparks alarm

RE

Quote from: Knarf on Oct 20, 2023, 05:45 AMIF one happens to have a car they can sleep in...

I've always advocated for Van ownership if you are sliding off the economic cliff, and prior to getting evicted from your last apartment if you do own a car, trade it in for a van before you pay your last couple of months of rent.

Vans can park in all the same spots as carz, but unlike RVs don't totally advertize that you live in it as long as it looks like a mom's soccer van or a flower shop delivery vehicle.  Vans provide much more comfortable sleeping space and more room for storage of extra clothes, a hibachi grill, a computer work station etc than a car does.  Also you can have a toilet bucket/seat combo and piss jug for privacy for your excretory needs during the nightime sleeping hours.  After you poop into the bucket lined with a plastic shopping bag, you go dispose of the poop in the nearest dumpster.  Trucker use this trick all the time.  OTR tractors have nice sleeping berths but no mini bathroom like RVs usually.

I kept a van bugout machine right up until this last move into the SNIF.  It just became too big a pain in the ass keeping the battery charged up since I never used it.  Although in a pinch I probably could still drive using my left foot, getting in and out by myself was close to impossible.  So now, if I lose my last fixed domicile living arrangement, I will die when the next winter sets in, a frozen cripple living on the streets of Anchorage Alaska.  So far, it looks like I am good for this winter though.

https://vandwellers.org/

RE

How about booking them into AirBnBs?  The Homeless  Hilton!  Beverly Hills 90210 Homeless?

Seriously, as a mixed use facility with tourists, the problems are obvious, but there is no reason an entire hotel couldn't be booked by the city.  Corporations do this all the time for conventions.  They get a reduced rate on all the rooms.  The city would have to take out insurance for damages.

https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4275376-la-will-destroy-its-tourism-industry-if-it-turns-its-hotels-into-homeless-shelters/https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/4275376-la-will-destroy-its-tourism-industry-if-it-turns-its-hotels-into-homeless-shelters/

LA will destroy its tourism industry if it turns its hotels into homeless shelters

RE

We have all been treated for quite some time to all of the impromptu Tent Cities that homeless and migrants have set up in various major cities as well as along the Rio Grande as they await their interviews for entrance into the Land of Good & Plenty.  Until now however the only ones that were officially run by Da Goobermint were the ones directly surrounding the Border Crossings.

The combined problem of locally grown homelessness and rapid influx of migrants from war zones and failed states has now become so large that major cities like New York and Phoenix are opening up official Hoovervilles, the name for the Tent Cities that sprung up under the administration of Herbert Hoover, POTUS at the beginning of the Great Depression.



I have long been in favor of creating designated spaces for legalized camping in tents and cars & RVs as an alternative to the regular sweeps and cleanups of locations, where the residents pickup and move somewhere else for a while, then eventually move back, rinse and repeat 2 or 3 times over the winter months making problems for everyone since they don't have anywhere better for them to go to.  You can make the encampment disappear for a while but the people do not disappear.  Not yet anyhow.

So OK, now they are trying the legal tent cities method, with 2 problems.  On the one hand, the Human Rights advocates types do not consider such living arrangements worthy of human habitation since they lack such amenities a hot & cold running water, flush toilets and central heating.  The prospective residents don't like them because they are dropped down in the middle of nowhere without so much as a convenience store nearby, plus restrictions against alcohol.  This means you can't even have a beer at home in your tent space!  That really is inhumane treatment!

With their current configuration, I do not forsee these Hoovervilles to make much of a dent in the homeless situation.  Right now in NYC where empty commercial real estate is in hefty supply, I think renting out some of these buildings and converting them for residential living would be a better alternative.  That won't happen too soon either.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2023/11/13/phoenix-structured-campground-open-for-homeless-population/71524369007/

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/investigations/migrant-crisis/controversial-tent-city-shelter-opens-to-migrant-families-in-nyc/4855588/

RE

Quote from: RE on Nov 13, 2023, 12:02 PMWith their current configuration, I do not forsee these Hoovervilles to make much of a dent in the homeless situation.  Right now in NYC where empty commercial real estate is in hefty supply, I think renting out some of these buildings and converting them for residential living would be a better alternative.  That won't happen too soon either.

Finding an appropriate name for homeless encampments would appear a good reason to re-elect Trump to the presidency. Designating these Trumpvilles would be an amusing and ironic tribute to the master builder.

Quote from: moniker on Nov 14, 2023, 06:04 PM

Quote from: RE on Nov 13, 2023, 12:02 PMWith their current configuration, I do not forsee these Hoovervilles to make much of a dent in the homeless situation.  Right now in NYC where empty commercial real estate is in hefty supply, I think renting out some of these buildings and converting them for residential living would be a better alternative.  That won't happen too soon either.

Finding an appropriate name for homeless encampments would appear a good reason to re-elect Trump to the presidency. Designating these Trumpvilles would be an amusing and ironic tribute to the master builder.

While BO was POTUS we called them Obamavilles, but Bidenvilles just doesn't have a good ring to it.  Trumpvilles is excellent, particularly due to the real estate irony.  However,  that is not a good enough reason to vote for him. lol.

RE

While I sit languishing on Waiting Lists to move back to an independent living situation,  I have been pondering the question of WHY this housing is in such short supply, because it is clearly desperaately needed.  The problem trickles down to the vast number of immigrants currently being shovelled into Hoovervilles because no housing is available for them either.

Is it really true that there aren't enough housing units available for all these people?  I don't think so.  I think the problem is that since real estate is a For Profit bizness, empty units are not being made available because if the rents are lowered to what people can afford, the assessed value of the property would be lower than the mortgage, which would mean that the banks who hold those mortgages would be insolvent.  So the apartments are not rented, just listed at the unaffordable price they need to be rented at to pay the mortgage.  The bank and the builders do not have to realize the loss as long as they maintain the fiction that the apartment can be rented at the luxury price they projected when they approved the developer's loan to build it 10 or 20 years ago.

If you go on Zillow or Rent.com or Apartments.com, in any neighborhood anywhere there are hundreds of 1 bedroom apartments available at whatever the neighborhood considers "market rate".  So for instance here in Anchorage on Zillow alone there are 207 1-3 bedroom apts listed for between $1-2000/month.  The problem is that the current 1000 or so people on the Shelter waiting list can't afford $1000/mo, many of them have $0 official income, they subsist on food stamps and money earned in the drug trade or pawning stolen good or odd jobs that pay cash.  Even for those who get a SS check or a check from ther native tribe, it's only a few $100s/month.

However, if there are 1000 people with basically $0 in income, there are  10,000 people with income of $1000/mo, which is not sufficient to get approved for an apt that lists at $1500/mo.  Property mgmt companies will not approve you if the rent is more than about 40% of your monthly income.  This class of people is actually huge, because the average SS recipient in Alaska is $1348 for disability and $1614 for retirement.  Since most people in this class also only have SS as their income, you are talking at least half of all retired and disabled people cannot afford market rate rents.  Given the population as a whole is ageing, that's a lot of current Alaska residents.  The same is true for all the people living down n the lower 48.

Quite clearly, something's gotta give here.  I believe this must be declared a National Emergency and Force Majeure implemented over the Real Estate market nationwide.  All properties commercial and residential currently unoccupied should be inventoried and then distributed out with 1 year leases for free.  This will take everyone off the streets immediately.

Once the immediate problem is solved, the long term problem should be addressed.  Since private developers won't build affordable housing, a Goobermint home building company like the WPA should be assigned the resposibility for building single and double occupancy units in every major city equal to or greater than the number of immigrants that city is expected to accept each year.

All these new housing units will be paid for by a wealth tax of 99% on all Billionaires.

The private real estate market will be allowed to adjust down ward once there is free public housing available for everyone.  Insolvent banks will not be bailed out and all their remaining assets taken and their stockholders bankrupted.

Problem solved. 

RE

Quote from: RE on Nov 14, 2023, 07:17 PMWhile BO was POTUS we called them Obamavilles, but Bidenvilles just doesn't have a good ring to it.  Trumpvilles is excellent, particularly due to the real estate irony.  However,  that is not a good enough reason to vote for him. lol.

RE

Thanks for the compliment RE! Bidenville sounds like Bougainvillea, a nice looking plant likely not found in a homeless camp.

Can't we find a better candidate than this NY conman?

Quote from: RE on Nov 15, 2023, 06:32 AMThe bank and the builders do not have to realize the loss as long as they maintain the fiction that the apartment can be rented at the luxury price they projected when they approved the developer's loan to build it 10 or 20 years ago.

This is a good observation if true because it is similar to banks not having to recognize a loss on low-interest bonds they hold if the bank says they intend to hold them until maturity. Of course saying you intended to hold until maturity and actually intending to do so are two different thing.