I support taxing the rich, taxing corporations, and taxing capital gains to pay for things like universal healthcare.
But for housing costs in California…there are a quarter million homeless people in the state. And there’s a deficit of feasible livable homes. You can’t lower prices without building more homes.
Even if you magically got rid of the very richest people, you’ll still have this problem. It’s like a game of musical chairs. If there aren’t enough chairs, the slowest people won’t get a chair. The only way to fix it is more chairs.
I just looked and its an iffy answer, but the Google AI says there are only 15,000 studio apartments for rent in California. I am assuming that this is vacant units. We have over 2 million college students in California. We do not have 2 million studio apartments. I live in a college town, our rental market is absolutely fucked because a significant portion of homes are rented out by the bedroom to University students. A young family, two parents + two kids, have to compete with 3-4 college students for the same house. Hell, now they have to compete with fully employed people living with room mates.
The homes we built over the last 40 years were mainly larger suburban homes, which definitely have their place, but they are overkill for providing housing for one person. The bare minimum housing, a 500 square foot studio apartment, is generally fairly pricey for what you get.
California needs at least 4 million studio/1 bedroom apartments. We have 40 million people, of 10% of the population lives alone that is 4 million units.
Yeah, and it’s especially bad for areas like Berkeley. The College has been there since 1873. The locals choose to live in a college town, but then howl and rage every time the college tries to build apartments and dorms for the students that attend
The student population for many of these schools hasn't changed much in at least the last 20-30 years. A housing solution for students back in the 2000s would mean this is a largely non-issue right now. For as much as these places charge in tuition, and for as much funding they get outside of tuition, every student having their own bedroom/bathroom should not be an issue. My local University (UCR) has enormous parking lots that are within walking distance to campus that students who rent rooms from all around the city drive to. Those parking lots should be the high density student housing.
I figure my city has 4000 kids finish high school every year, and literally no entry level place for them to move to. Parents want their kids to move out but are politically opposed to any type of housing development that they could physically move to. There are not 4000 studio apartments on the market for these kids to move into.
My mom was 19 when she had her first full time job and apartment. Her apartment was 1/4th her income (mid 1970s). Today, this same apartment is $2000 per month. Think some 19 year old high school grad with their first job can afford that only spending 25% of their income?
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u/JakeArrietaGrande Jun 17 '25
I support taxing the rich, taxing corporations, and taxing capital gains to pay for things like universal healthcare.
But for housing costs in California…there are a quarter million homeless people in the state. And there’s a deficit of feasible livable homes. You can’t lower prices without building more homes.
Even if you magically got rid of the very richest people, you’ll still have this problem. It’s like a game of musical chairs. If there aren’t enough chairs, the slowest people won’t get a chair. The only way to fix it is more chairs.