Study: Calif. second least affordable state for renters
By Andrew Khouri, Los Angeles Times
California renters must earn more than triple the minimum wage to afford a two-bedroom apartment, underscoring a housing shortage throughout the state, a report said.
A worker earning the minimum wage — $8 per hour in California — would have to toil away for 130 hours a week to afford a two-bedroom, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said Monday.
Across the nation, minimum wage workers can’t afford a one- or two-bedroom apartment at fair market rent, the group said. The coalition’s president, Sheila Crowley, said raising the federal minimum wage would ease the burden.
Very deceptive. It depends WHERE in California one is renting. Some locales are very affordable. But if you want to live in San Francisco, you’re gonna pay. Chalk it up to high demand and low availability. That’s how it works in the real world. If you want to live in Redding, it’s a whole lot cheaper.
A state government fund for “affordable housing” sounds like just the ticket! Another black hole for middle class money to disappear into. The reason there’s not enough affordable housing is that government regulations and zoning make it cost an arm and a leg to build! Nobody’s going to sell/rent for less than it costs them to build it. Why can’t politicians leave us alone instead of always looking to steal money from one group and give it to another???
Dog. Affordable housing sounds like “Another black hole?” Really? It has been around since the Depression in the 1930’s. You know, when 24% of the American Work Force was unemployed and WWI Veterans and old folks were living in the streets. Politicians DID leave people alone in the 1920’s and look what it got us. Your Libertarian Nirvana does not exist in the real world; never has and never will.
Solution: Move all the workers into company owned housing. We will call them ‘tenements’. That will be located right next to the factories. And since it is our land, we can do whatever we want to it, and the air. And they will shop at our company owned super market with the vouchers we give them that are only good at that store.
Get out of our way, socialists! We’re going to fix the world.
R4T, go back to the history books. The politicians did not leave people alone back in the 20’s. They were just gettin’ started creating the mess we find ourselves in now.
President Wilson, 1913. Income taxes and the Federal Reserve. 1919 Prohibition started. Yeah, that’s politicians leaving people alone, alright.
Dog…i am continually surprised(I know i shouldn’t be, but without hope we become mean) at your contempt for the working person. You are one of those miserable people who claim to love America but seem to hate most Americans. Corporations rob us all blind(including you) and you blame everything on the big bad government. Pathetic. Your Libturdarian pro-business anti-government rantings are getting old. I would propose you change your name to ‘Ratula’, but rats are far more compassionate towards other rats.
Oh, to borrow someone else’s foil-(it fits nicely in my hand, though). …just how old is the ‘real’ world? Funny(not) how those who follow the Ayn Rand/Libturdarian agenda claim a Christian mandate, given her contempt for the teachings of Christ. Your Jesus is gonna have a lot of questions for you when your time comes. Sunscreen with an SPF of 666 won’t help you much. Better luck next life.
Hmmmm. And I am constantly astounded by how misguided people are in their thinking. Forcing others to pay for “charity” is not charity. It’s theft. Making people dependent on government for their support, instead of letting them learn to prosper, does them no favors. Since Lyndon Johnson’s ‘War on Poverty’ started, is anybody better off? No, I think poverty is winning that war.
We would all be better off if we were free to invest our own money as we all see fit, instead of having nearly half of it stolen by Federal, state, and local governments. And then having it filtered through layers of bureaucracy before being doled back out to those the government decides are deserving.
It’s a bad deal for everyone. And I’m sorry you’re tired of me talking about it. Maybe one day you might actually listen.
I have listened, I just disagree with your definitions of the problems AND the solutions. I would respond, but it is not necessary…you have already proven my point about the type of person you are. Sad little Rat.
How you can claim that I have contempt for working people is beyond me. I work. My friends work. We work damned hard for the little that the government allows to keep of our own money.
People of YOUR political leanings, however, appear to me to have contempt for those of us who continue to produce in spite of the odds against us. Why do you consider US greedy for wanting to keep what we earn, yet say that it’s not greedy for government to take our money and give it to people who don’t? Unfathomable.
P.S. it’s funny you all take your insult-points from the Fish. Why do you ask me how old the earth is? What does that have to do with the price of a loaf of bread? Be original, for Pete’s sake.
Why did it use a 2 bedroom apartment in this study? If it’s one person, they should be looking at a 1 bedroom, a studio, sharing an apartment, or maybe buying a mobile home.
It still could be not enough money, but maybe use the appropriate sized housing, and look at all options.
Dawg you need to watch the reboot of Cosmos.
If you can convince someone that the earth is only a few thousand years old, you can probably convince them of anything.
@dogula-Because in your demonizing of the government(which I am quite critical of as well) you continually offer ‘the person’ and ‘the environment’ for sacrifice on the altar of gangrene economics, absolving corporations of any accountability or responsibility to the people and places whose resources they profit from…whose values you emulate. You seem to assume that the the invisible hand of the market and trickle down economic systems work. They don’t. Anyone who still insists that it does is willfully blind to the truth all around them. That’s why.
You are assuming things about MY THOUGHTS that you cannot possibly know. You know what they say about people who assume. . .
Anyone who insists that government is the best way to solve social problems, that government is benign and has our best interests at ‘heart’ is willfully blind to the truth all around them. That’s why.
The world is imperfect. But voluntary exchange and free market solutions are much better than force exerted by a bloated, power-mad government.
If private citizens are not to be trusted, how can you trust a massive government that is made up of private citizens?
uh gee, duh, um…what do they say about people who assume? That is really original. To address that-your implications are pretty clear based on your words, unless what you say is not an indicator of your beliefs. Are you advocating ‘corporate states’? Having computers make hard choices regarding social and environmental policy? Lots of books and movies made on both of those themes-none of them end well for us. How can I trust a government made up of private citizens? I will tell you how….carefully, with caveats, checks and balances and with, as Reagan said to Gorbachev…’trust but verify’. Unregulated market forces are just as pernicious as unregulated governments if not more so-they are just more mobile-they can run from their toxic garbage. They are not beholden to a PLACE. As you said people are not perfect. The best we can do is to hold them accountable, regardless of their political stripe. We will continue to have a government. The question is always ‘who gets to name things?’ Microsoft? Exxon? Comcast? Walmart? Twitter(for god’s sake)? I would rather have an imperfect government than a multinational corporation deciding on, say, where and how nuclear waste is stored, or the value, price, accessibility and purity of water.
Dog. Again, you have no grasp of American History. The 1920’s saw: Republicans lower Taxes on the Rich by Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, laissez faire and the anything goes mentality, massive over speculation by Banks and Wall Street investors in almost every commodity and huge growth in income disparities between rich and poor (sounds familiar to the Great Recession huh).
Prohibition was a reaction by some to Americans switching from Beer and Wine to cheap hard spirits and the destruction those hard spirits were causing.
Thanks Goodness FDR was elected four times to fix the mess.
FYI. Poverty rates are much lower now then before LBJ’s War on Poverty and the elderly are much better off now.
However, if you do find that Libertarian Nirvana Zip Code, Country or Continent, let me know. Otherwise, enjoy the fruits of all the previous Progress that has been made in this Country, since we both agree it is the best.
R4T~You went to American public school, right? Fairly recently, within the last 20 years? Am I right?
That would explain your acceptance of the propaganda you just spouted.
It would take way more than this board to educate you to what really went on in 20th Century American history.
Dog. Really? More insults when you are out smarted? Typical, attack the messenger and not the message. Ok, well at least I am not dwelling and living in the 14th century like you.
Lord almighty I sure would LOVE to be edumucated regarding the TRUTH as to what REALLY went on in 20th century history! Maybe you could teach a class on it. If I can’t borrow a tin-foil hat from CJ or Bitter for it I can try to make one!
‘You went to American public school, right? Fairly recently, within the last 20 years?’
That is a pretty wide net. I wouldn’t get all excited if you are right.
And you talking about education is laughable. You criticize them for buying the propaganda in schools. You fell for the ‘earth is a few thousand years old’ bit. That doesn’t put you in a position to be judgmental.
Last time I checked you thought that because they use the same name, Republicans, they were the same party the entire time. You lack credibility on the subjects of history and propaganda.
So who really has the education deficiency