• Woozythebear@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    “The United States boasts approximately 15.1 million vacant homes, a staggering number that accounts for 10.5% of the country’s total housing inventory.”

    There are enough homes for everyone

    • Jimmyeatsausage@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I’ll get the trains ready to forcibly move the unhoused to where to where an empty house is…you wanna start rounding them up, or are you still busy finding them a job they’re able to do so a bank will let them buy one of those houses?

      Edit: the situation isn’t as simple as you’d like it to be. If it were, it’d been solved already.

    • enbyecho@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Ok, that’s great. So are we confiscating them? Or are we forcing the owners to rent them out, and if so who’s paying? I’m serious - how would you approach this?

      • Woozythebear@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Landlords get 2 years to sell and after that if they still haven’t sold they go to auction and get whatever money comes from that.

        And to counter your 2nd argument I don’t give a fuck how bad they get screwed. They should have thought about that before they decided to become leeches on society and profit from basic human rights.

        • enbyecho@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Landlords get 2 years to sell and after that if they still haven’t sold they go to auction and get whatever money comes from that.

          Are these just empty houses or all rental properties? Who are they selling the homes to? How will those people pay for them? Could those buyers, say, then rent out a room to help with the mortgage payments? And you say you don’t care, but should people who put their money into a home and left it empty, say because of a divorce or some medical problem be penalized too? What about people who rent out a home that they inherited and don’t want to sell because it has sentimental value? I assume in your mind this is a blanket forcing of people to sell or even forfeit an asset they paid for?

          They should have thought about that before they decided to become leeches on society and profit from basic human rights.

          I’m curious if your “leeches” characterization applies across the board. Logically if you think people who rent out physical spaces this should apply to anyone who rents out something of value… say their labor or a taxi driver or has a business where you pay to borrow something. Wouldn’t those be “leeches” too?

          I agree that housing is a basic human right, but unfortunately most of the rest of the world doesn’t. And that means we don’t have mechanisms for dealing with this and I’m troubled with some aspects of your ideas - it would be unfair to many. I know quite a few people who could only afford to buy a house by renting out a room or by creating an in-law apartment, backyard apartment and so on. They are landlords but I’m struggling to think of them as leeches. Would you call them all leeches?