Record number of Americans are homeless amid nationwide surge in rent, report finds
Record number of Americans are homeless amid nationwide surge in rent, report finds
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I moved to Seattle at the start of the plague (perfect timing I know). I don't have first hand experience from the before times but for sure the last couple of years the amount of homelessness has gone way up. Apartments here are raising rent like wild. They're definitely testing the line for how many people they can lose to increased prices while still coming out ahead with the people who remain. Once the work from home or fired tech workers move out in full force it's going to snowball I think. I wonder if Seattle is going to collapse similar to how Spokane did back in the day after manufacturers moved out...
Turns out the large property management companies have been colluding on this for years, skirting the law because "it's an algorithm bruh"
Yeah I'm not sure which algorithm the complex I'm in uses but it is definitely using one. All the listings on their website change prices every day, sometimes by just a few dollars a month sometimes it swings wildly by hundreds of dollars
My partner and I are close to securing a lease in SF and we explicitly picked places that appeared to be owned by a person and not a giant corporation to avoid this BS.
Our current landlord and property manager are both amazing. They tried to get someone out at 8pm when our hot water heater broke, and our rent wasn't raised when our lease went to monthly. If not for wanting to live in the city we'd have likely stayed here for many years.
I definitely prefer dealing with actual people if I have to have a landlord. Specifically I kinda like the landlords that just don't give a fuck because I like to repair and maintain things myself and you can get away with a lot.
I don't think it's skirting at all. Using math to collude on prices is still collusion. It's just as illegal as a bunch of companies saying the price is X.
lived in Seattle for close to 20 years now and I can confirm that the city (especially downtown) is a giant mess - pre 2020 it wasnt that bad - there were issues but not like now. hopefully it collapses like a burning building asap.
As much as I want things to collapse too I don't think that's a good thing. A lot of the people who built up Seattle and it's culture got priced out, if things collapse the tech workers are all going to leave (more than they already are). Tons of desperate people will be left and the city will do an even worse job at maintaining the infrastructure.
Maybe it needs to burn down to get built back up better but I wouldn't say I'm hopeful for it because that could mean decades of hardship for people who don't deserve it. If this does all go sideways though and I haven't left the country by then, Seattle is my ride or die in the US. I feel so at home here and I'll be in the dirt trying to bring life back to the city.
