It's About Liberty: A Conservative Forum
Topics => Economy => Topic started by: LadyVirginia on October 23, 2011, 04:41:25 PM
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LINK (http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/oct/14/good-idea-turning-government-owned-homes-rentals/)
Should unoccupied bank-owned homes held by the government convert to rentals?
That's one idea to address the nation's housing backlog, said HUD Assistant Secretary Mary J. Miller this week at the CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) Institute this week.
From her prepared statement:
We think there is an opportunity to address the backlog of unsold homes by creating a process for moving real estate owned by the government to new private owners, with a particular interest in creating rental options, as we see more demand right now for home rentals than home sales.
Sure, the government does such a bang up job of being an employer, I'm sure they'll be a great landlord too.
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Oh good. Now every neighborhood can be host to Section 8 housers. Just what I want 'round here .......
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Gov't already are slum lords, so this makes sense.....LOL
Instead of rentals, i'd prefer to see them all auctioned.
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The thought has crossed my mind recently that this government is only a step or two away from confiscating foreclosures for redistribution to its favored class. The thought was amplified a few weeks ago when THIS THREAD (http://itsaboutliberty.com/index.php/topic,3341.0.html) about banks demolishing foreclosures in order to ease market pressure was under discussion.
The visuals are ripe for demagoguery. Greedy banks taking people's homes when they're down on their luck; more and more people desperate for a place to live; greedy banks destroying serviceable homes in order to make the remaining ones more profitable....
How many steps away are we from the would-be dictator using some regulatory leverage to prevent the demolition of such homes, and demand that they instead be forfeited to the government to redistribute? Then how many steps are we away from the government determining which mortgages in a bank's portfolio fall into a category that would "ease market pressure" should they be confiscated?
A couple years ago I would have thought such things utterly unthinkable in America. Not any more. We're there.
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On the subject of not thinking. Don't think about all the soldiers home for Christmas without a job.
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And the mechanism to implement this latest stupid idea is what again? Executive decree?
Time to load the muskets yet?
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Sure, the government does such a bang up job of being an employer, I'm sure they'll be a great landlord too.
I detect a wee bit of snark in that sentence. I wonder why? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini%E2%80%93Green)
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Heh, forgot about that little disaster, good dig MNHawk!
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A small excerpt:
Though Chicago has had a number of notorious public housing projects, including the Robert Taylor Homes and Stateway Gardens on the South Side, and Rockwell Gardens and the Henry Horner Homes on the West Side, Cabrini–Green's name and its problems were the most publicized, especially beyond Chicago. Cabrini–Green often gained press coverage for its chaotic New Year's Eve celebrations when gang members fired guns into the air causing police to block off nearby streets every year.
Several infamous incidents contributed to Cabrini–Green's reputation. In 1992, seven-year-old Dantrell Davis was killed by a stray bullet while walking to school with his mother. In 1997, nine-year-old "Girl X," was raped and poisoned in a stairwell, leaving her blind, paralyzed and mute.[7] Members of the infamous street gang, the Gangster Disciples, who controlled most of Cabrini–Green, were ordered by the gang's leaders to find the person responsible for the crime and brutally assault him. The attacker, Patrick Sykes (who was not a gang member), was later apprehended by police and sentenced to 120 years in prison.[8][9]
An unanticipated result of the steel fencing installed to secure the previously open gangways at Cabrini–Green was that it became difficult for police officers to see through the steel mesh from outside; in 1970, two policemen were killed by snipers.
In 1981, gang killings that killed 11 made national attention.[10]
In an effort to demonstrate a commitment to making the complex safer, then-Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne moved into a fourth-floor apartment with her husband in 1981.[11] Backed by a number of police officers and a substantial personal bodyguard detail, she stayed for only three weeks. This incident, too, contributed to public perception of Cabrini–Green as the worst of the worst of public housing. As a security measure, the rear entryway of the unit Byrne stayed in was welded shut. This had the unforeseen impact of creating a fortification for gang members when Byrne left. Many other gangs copied this technique in other units
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I read article about Cabrini-Green some 20 years ago so I don't have it any more but its thesis stuck with me. The author of the article believed that the high-rise style of Cabrini-Green was designed to destroy the sense of community/family that the poor area had. He investigated the backgrounds of the architect and others involved and found a strong link to their belief in "controlling" and "managing" populations. Their designs had the effect of changing the dynamics between people. Putting people into high-rises had the effect of cutting them off from each other. Whereas before they maintained a sense of community (they landscaped their homes, kept an eye on the troublemakers, etc) afterwards they couldn't.
What it turned out to be, I believe was what it was intented to do. Just like Chicago today is exactly the way politicians there want it to be.
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And speaking of copying the worst ideas of the stupid, we have low-income high-rises here in Minneapolis that the locals lovingly refer to as "the crack stacks".
::)
Stupidity begets more stupidity...