this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
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‘Not in my backyard’ pushback blocking much-needed affordable housing, experts say (www.thecanadianpressnews.ca)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] Lauchs 14 points 2 days ago (16 children)

It's tough. My inner progressive is "fuck those NIMBYs, people need affordable housing!" But I also bike past two different sets of affordable housing twice a week for soccer.

One is near our soccer field and playground. The playground is mostly kid free these days as there are all sorts of needles and other paraphanalia strewn about. Meanwhile, there are usually people smoking hard drugs right by the pitches. Most of us don't leave our bikes at the parking rack as you can come back to a stripped bike or having had the spokes kicked, presumably as punishment for locking our bikes.

The other one is a little out of the way of most people. The street by it is still littered with refuse and drug paraphanalia and for some reason, they seem to occasionally move rocks into the street (as I painfully learned one day when not paying enough attention.)

If I had kids, I'm not sure I'd want that around my kids either. I know people who live in the same area as one, in what is otherwise a nice part of town. Some of the girls are afraid to go outside alone at night in their own neighbourhoods, and frankly I don't blame them. I'm a scaryish looking dude and keep my head on a swivel, headphones off whenever I visit.

I don't know what the answer is but I don't blame the NIMBYs for feeling like they do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You have a very balanced take, it's refreshing.

Poverty and drug addiction is a very difficult problem I believe can be tackled by UBI and safe injection centres together.

I have the same gripes about the Montreal Metro, I think it's unsafe outside of commute hours because of the drug users and homeless people who take shelter within. It's not their fault, it's a societal problem, but the end result nonetheless is that people get assaulted frequently on the metro.

Being poor is expensive, both for the individual and for society, and studies show that if you give someone $200, they'll spend it on food and drugs. If you house someone, they'll feel like they have no autonomy and go back to the streets. If you give them $25k a year with no strings attached, most will try to find housing they like, buy food they like and solve their addiction and mental health issues, and go on to live fulfilling lives.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/basic-income-gives-money-without-strings-heres-how-people-spend-it/

And, best of all, if done and funded correctly, employers get to save $25k a year on employee paychecks as it'll be presumably garnered off of corporate taxes for all of society to enjoy. Unfortunately, companies are "people" and would protest against this as it'll end up being slightly more expensive in the short term.

Pushing poor people away just makes them someone else's problem.

[–] Lauchs 2 points 1 day ago

Thanks! I go back and forth on UBI... If nothing were to change and you could direct it entirely to the homeless etc, probably the easiest policy answer in a strictly "solving this problem" sense.

But, the second order effects are what kind of throws me. I've known a good number of stoner/harder slackers. I wonder how many people scrubbing toilets and floors or dealing with psychos late night at McDonalds wouldn't swap their job for a guaranteed $25K a year (or whatever it ended up being for basic necessities, noteworthy most studies only look at giving a small amount of money, 1K etc.) And we'll ignore any inflationary pressures at the bottom end of the market) I think of my buddy from high school who is still bagging groceries, living in his parents basement essentially waiting for them to die and then he'll inherit the house. Breaks my heart to watch but he'd be on that 25K in a heart beat. I can't imagine he's alone. So, at that point you either have to drastically increase the wage for almost every job (or suffer wage compression, which the middle class tends to hate) and eat a bunch of inflation.

I don't know what the answer is, I just know that UBI is one of those ones where I have difficulty seeing it being implemented and more difficulty not seeing it spiral into absolute sketch town.

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