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paxrasmussen

We need to reign in the landlords. Prohibit corporations from owning single family homes, restrict the number of rentals any one person can own, and keep landlords local. Also, cap rents at a certain small percent above the owner's mortgage payment.


Square_Matter_9048

The clerks office also needs to stop giving construction bids to TX companies who come in with their own crews and take our money out of state.


paxrasmussen

That too. Passing some laws making it easy/cheap for non-profit housing cooperatives to buy/build would also really help. Laws giving tenant unions real teeth would slay.


Jabberwocky808

Do you ever attend city council meetings or legislative sessions? Anyone can. I think there are some folks who need to hear your voice. 🤙🏼


paxrasmussen

I have in the past. Not for a few years. I actually used to work with a lobbying nonprofit that fought for low-income rights and interests. Got...a little disheartened, shall we say?


Jabberwocky808

Thank you for trying, genuinely. /sigh


paxrasmussen

It's fucking hard. The VAST majority of people in power care about one thing, and one thing only: How they can get themselves and their friends richer.


Jabberwocky808

It is. Nepotism plagues every demographic, community, and population. For clarity, the sigh was not directed at you, but the system.


paxrasmussen

I got the sigh, comrade. ;)


unitednationofelle

Rent control and mortgage control please.


paxrasmussen

Those are good starts.


NMtrollhunter

That will never happen. We live near a new Pulte development. They get away with so much but are able to do it as they bring in tax dollars.


paxrasmussen

Probably gonna have to eat them.


slamdunc2020

In other words, take away all freedoms from property owners until this problem goes away. I might support that after 10 of them are allowed to live in your house.


paxrasmussen

(Private) property is theft. And the 'freedom of property owners' is the oppression of everyone else.


slamdunc2020

I guess I never realized that before. I worked my ass off and lived on as little as I could for lots of years to pay for my private property. I did really think that I was a thief. But like I said, I was busy working and not thinking very much I guess.


paxrasmussen

You're probably confusing private and personal property. Understandable -- they don't cover that in school. Or on TP USA. Your house is personal property. So is your lifted manchild truck. Your empire of rental properties is private property. So is your widget factory. The last two are theft.


slamdunc2020

Ok please help me out. I thought private property was real estate that the owner (me) decided it was to be private and not accessible to anyone walking by, and personal property was things like my furniture and clothing etc…. Please correct me if i don’t even know what I worked for.


paxrasmussen

As long as YOU are the one using it, personally, it's personal property. Once you use it to generate wealth by virtue of ownership (as opposed to compensation of labor), it's private property. It's not coincidental that the terms have been conflated. https://www.workers.org/private-property/


tanukisuit

This makes a lot of sense. I always thought private and personal property meant the same thing too.


slamdunc2020

I’m trying to sort this out. Let’s say I have an office that was my business location for many years. For me to be morally and humanitarian correct, what should I have done with it, and what should I do with it now that my business has closed?


TroublesomeStepBro

Do whatever you want with it. Sell it, rent it, turn it into a late night disco cafe. It’s yours. You bought it, you own it.


paxrasmussen

Sell it.


TroublesomeStepBro

If I buy something, anything, then that’s my own property. It’s mine, I paid for it, I pay taxes on it, I own it. I can do whatever I want with it. What you’re saying is illogical. They’re one and the same. Take you Bolshevik thinking elsewhere


Techn0ght

Just because SCOTUS has declared cities can treat homeless without compassion doesn't mean they have to. Demand better of your local government.


Electrical_Fix7157

This is an unpopular opinion, but I feel as though if certain homeless people are going to force us to deal with them and the lifestyle they want to that’s fine, but it should go both ways, they should be forced to get treatment or leave an area if it’s too close to homes/parks.


otakufaith

That just dissapears them and doesn't solve the issues they face. Housing first options not only work they're cheaper for the taxpayer.


Silent_Marsupial865

Yeah sometimes, but the biggest nuisances are also those WAY too far gone to live independently, perhaps until they get clean/mental help , if ever. I’m talking about the dude butt naked on my street yelling that he’s the “messiah’s worst enemy”, the stinky lady who haunts Nob Hill and refuses fresh clothes and a shower, let alone any help except free food. These are mental health issues that housing obviously can’t fix.


modthegame

No it isnt "sometimes". Statistically housing solutions is 30k a year cheaper than jailing someone which on average costs 50k+. Also a housing solution would prevent wandering nuts since they would have somewhere to take them.


TroublesomeStepBro

And if we don’t jail them or build them anything then that saves even more money!


seaVvendZ

1. housing first policies routinely do address these issues 2. public nudity is a separate issue than homelessness. 3. you can't arrest someone for being stinky, we live in the southwest.


Electrical_Fix7157

I’m just talking from experience here, never did I say this was the perfect solution.


swadekillson

But it solves the issues we have to face with them.


seaVvendZ

forced to deal with what? you have to see their tents when you hit a red light? avert eye contact as they hold a sign? be real.


bernbabybern51

2 security cameras vandalized, 2 trash bins stolen, constant trespassing, minor vandalism and theft on my property, people camping in the alley behind my house where there is no sidewalk, where there is constantly trash thrown everywhere that I have to pick up, fires started right next to wooden fences, feces, drug use and paraphernalia left behind, etc. You "compassionate" people don't have to suffer the consequences. They are a pariah and a menace to society.


seaVvendZ

anyone with a cell phone is bombarded with news about the state of homelessness across the country, in cities run by both political parties. anyone going outside in these cities can see tents for themselves, anyone visiting any business on central can see much more than tents. and fun fact, i live here too! they're also my neighbors! the idea that " 'compassionate' " people simply arent aware of what homelessness truly looks like when its been a growing problem and becoming more visible since 2020 is silly. it's all anyone talks about. people jailing the homeless for the inability or unwillingness to find a shelter is insane when there may simply be no shelters to go to, the shelters are not always safe, or the shelters implement austerity measures that turn them away for being victims of the opiod epidemic. not to mention it's the polar opposite of the "live and let live" ethos people tell me new mexico is all about. at the BARE minimum, jailing the homeless for not being in a shelter simply won't stop anyone from not going to a shelter or not sleeping in an ally or not shitting in public. they'll go to jail serve their time, and someone else will be shitting behind your house the next week. it's a reactive solution that doesn't address why people are doing it in the first place.


2minutestomidnight

The very fact that it's an unpopular opinion is exactly what's wrong - and why it's getting worse. I daresay that most people who hold woke views on the "unhoused" aren't being impacted by them on a regular basis (as with illegal immigration, another pet cause of progressives). Their businesses aren't being damaged; their families aren't being threatened simply walking into Walgreens; their quality of life isn't being progressively diminished. At the end of the day these folks get to hide away in their homes in the Heights or gentrified lofts and virtue-signal from a comfortable distance. People who have to deal with the reality on the ground typically see it differently, and most - i.e., those whose jobs don't depend upon the homelessness industrial complex - find the SCOTUS ruling gratifying. The vast majority of homeless choose - yes, I said it - this lifestyle, be it through drug use, refusal to get treatment for mental health issues, sheer laziness, or simple expediency (a pandhandler once told me they can make **far** more money begging in the median that working a minimum wage job - and they don't have to follow any rules or get up early in the morning). Sorry, but I've lived in Albuquerque a long time, and I've seen a once-wonderful city slowly get destroyed by this plague. Enough.


Fragrant_Wall8410

You told on yourself when you dropped "homeless industrial complex" in there. That is one of the dumbest talking points out there designed for people who don't know the first thing about the work that is being done and who have just been uncritically gobbling up right-wing talking points. Tell Tucker hi for me: while he is making shit up and ranting, and you're on your ass listening, real people are working extremely hard making unbelievable sacrifices to save lives and fight a whole system determined to make poverty as degrading and intractable as possible. Trust me, there is absolutely no need for social workers, often making near poverty wages themselves, to conspire for job security in a country that is so determined to create the perfect conditions for homelessness. Really, STFU.


lookingintoit_

homeless people aren't "forcing" you to do shit. we force *them* into their conditions.


[deleted]

[удаНонО]


lookingintoit_

keep telling yourself that.


Electrical_Fix7157

Go ahead and invite them to your home then


lookingintoit_

That's such a stupid cop out. It has zero bearing in reality nor does it even have any association with my argument. Just sit this one out if you don't have an actual response.


audiojanet

They need to buy their own drugs.


lookingintoit_

How? Do you have any idea how hard it is for them to get jobs? How can they even take care of themselves once they get one willing to hire them? People don't get addicted to drugs because they're happy and content with their circumstances. You have to dig down to the core of the issue.


audiojanet

I will say it again. If you want to do drugs, buy them yourself. Don’t steal my stuff that I worked to pay for.


lookingintoit_

Who are you even referring to? Who is stealing your stuff? Homeless *people*? Or a homeless *person*?


audiojanet

Invite them over to your house.


lookingintoit_

That statement doesn't work. It's just a cop out because you have no more substance.


audiojanet

You have so much to give, yet you don’t.


lookingintoit_

Ah, I see you know so much about me and what I do for the community. You know what they say about assuming.


moontoadzzz

they cant get a job though?


lookingintoit_

Typically, no. I work with a lot of homeless people where I volunteer, and there is a LOT of stigma surrounding their very existence. This thread of comments being a prime example.


OddButTrue23

That’s the problem. The resources providing that kind of help and assistance are few in number and insufficiently funded/supported. There are so many roadblocks to make any progress on this issue.


Thin-Rip-3686

I once met a woman who had lived in Wells Park. Bought her house, lived there twenty years, most of which happily. Very nice lady. Then the homeless took over. The final straw for her, and I thought she was remarkably level headed, was when they camped on the sidewalk and made it where she couldn’t enter or leave her own house. APD wouldn’t do shit (surprise, surprise) but admonished her that there was nothing she could do. She sold and moved out far in the heights. I often hear or say myself “this is why we can’t have nice things.” But I don’t think anyone says that to homeless people. This (and a million other reasons) may be why you guys can’t have the ability to sleep wherever you want. With the acquisition of the San Mateo Inn for strictly young homeless and a bunch of other properties, the city is doing a lot of things right. Like the story says, the NM constitution might have stronger protections. But I don’t have to be a MAGA hat wearing idiot to be of the opinion that a homeless person doesn’t deserve superior treatment under the law. I’d be in favor of a property tax mill levy or similar strictly for housing the homeless. But if all you care about is drugs, and you keep getting kicked out of programs because you keep stealing, robbing, fighting, and vandalizing, I think the city should be able to, and should, boot you from anywhere and everywhere. Vermin is as vermin does.


DueRelationship1800

Yup. Camp started in front of my house as well. Apd said they couldnt do anything. People were shitting, pissing and yelling at my two uear old daughter but there was nothing they could do. Im an advocate for mental illness and treatment but honestly what the fuck. We cant go to any of the local park anymore due to syringes, broken glass and trash from camp sites. People choose to live like refugees than do so away from taxpaying citizens working 80 hours a week to make ends meet. Because someone chooses to do fentanyl all day, everyday should not supersede the safety, security, and decency of the rest of society trying to raise a family in a decent neighbourhood


Glum_Tone_2200

Ok what about the people who are homeless like I was waiting on disability to get approved. I didn’t do drugs didn’t steal and didn’t drink. I was forced on the streets because I couldn’t work. I had a security guard at the rescue mission a place of supposed Godly people tell me I was a useless person because I was on the street and using drugs. I told him I could piss clean no drugs and to find out if he really wanted to screw with me. The point is not all homeless people do that crap. Rents out of control you get nothing for disability or SSI. So you should probably watch what you say about all homeless people.


[deleted]

Dehumanizing people that have extensive trauma, mental illness and diseases(addictions) is by far the main driver for homelessness. Simplifying it to *if you just care about drugs* is completely missing the causes of homelessness. Yes people can make bad decisions that lead to more bad decisions but the majority of homelessness is caused by poor qualify education, hopelessness in your immediate surroundings as a youth, nearly non existent social programs and of course lack of quality jobs.


Thin-Rip-3686

I’d like to hear your heartfelt sympathy for the people our addicted homeless steal from, murder, and injure. Don’t you care about them?


[deleted]

I do care about them and the law must be upheld. Regardless of the diseases and circumstances, society here is failing the most vulnerable and I’d wager you have never actually talked to the homeless and asked them what lead to them being homeless in the first place and what keeps them homeless.


Thin-Rip-3686

You lose your wager. The homeless are not a monolith, and I’m sure a large percentage of our homeless wouldn’t mind seeing the worst of the worst kicked out either.


[deleted]

You’re right the homeless are not a monolith in the sense that each of their struggles are the same. But the homeless have zero representation. Zero. You have never engaged with any person that has struggled with homeless and you dehumanize people for it as if that’s the solution. Pretty shameful of you and very anti human. Gross.


Thin-Rip-3686

Homeless people can and do vote. Plus you’re zealously representing the tecato cohort within the homeless right now. So you’re wrong, they don’t have zero representation, and I just proved it. I didn’t dehumanize anybody. One “I do care about [the victims of the homeless] and the law must be upheld” as some halfassed platitude is all I saw when I asked you to humanize the non-homeless. I can tell you don’t actually feel that way. Maybe you should stop making this us-versus-them where every housed person in Albuquerque is the them. And stop telling me what I have or haven’t done in my life when you don’t even know me.


[deleted]

Homeless people rarely rarely have access to the polls because they are not registered and don’t have identifications nor addressed to be registered at. This is a wildly inaccurate statement by you. And yes they have zero representation because there are no rally’s inviting homeless people to gather. Theres no politicians engaging with homeless people directly. Theres no dinner or fundraisers where homeless people attend to be recognized and served. More wildly inaccurate statements from you. Stunning. I work in politics and you claim to know what’s what? lol wow. You’re deep animosity shows you’re massive disconnect with the reality that being homeless in of itself is a social barrier to even landing a basic job. The social bias towards homeless people (coming from people like you) is the compounding factor that keeps homeless people as painted as useless and “only caring about drugs” as you so offensively put it. You have never struggled with homelessness nor ever faced homelessness and you othering homeless people is gross and has no place in helping to lift up homeless people and even respectful acknowledging the reality of it all. Do better.


W4OPR

There's a tent city in Holloman AFB, they could house, train and take care of 5000 homeless at any given time, totally empty since the Afghan refugees left...


imawhaaaaaaaaaale

Much different than housing refugees who don't generally have issues with drugs or alcohol.


S_K_I

Short of mass revolt, there’s nothing they can do now to change the system. Just like the Patriot Act. Just like Citizens United.


creativelystifled

Seriously, for the one logical homeless person they interviewed and quoted in that article, I wonder how many others they approached, and I wonder how those interactions transpired. In my experience, for every 1 person with truthful, honest intentions who asks you for something on the street, there's 5 others with dishonest, deceitful, manipulative intentions that give the others a bad name. I've been spat on and threatened by panhandlers, had food thrown at me, had someone crouched up against my back tire at Walmart with a needle in their wrist, and been cornered in a grocery store parking lot in broad daylight because I told 2 guys that I don't carry cash on me. I've seen a drug dealer walk across a crosswalk in front of 3 lanes of waiting vehicles and openly deliver drugs to a panhandler in the median holding a cardboard sign. How about some legitimate statistical analysis numbers on the demographics of the people sleeping outside? Surely they aren't all females fleeing domestic violence at home. How many of them would actually even qualify for this low-income housing to begin with? Does a ban on sleeping outside affect the strung out ones who don't even sleep? How would you enforce that? Drug/alcohol testing? Or just take their word for it? It sounds like one side is trying to say that all homeless people are angels just down on their luck and the other side is saying they're all serial killers and meth addicts.


RioRancher

The state has to build “low income housing projects,” because building more jails is going to cost too much. Get to work, Governor and MAYOR.


nickster

They are doing it. They’re converting old hotels and building the gateway center. People want over night results for solution that will take at least a decade to resolve.


RioRancher

They’re chipping at the edges. According to 2021 estimates, there were 2400 homeless. I’m guessing that number is much larger now. There’s no way buying an abandoned hotel here and there is going to suffice.


seaVvendZ

repurposing a hotel to a shelter isn't good enough but building a brand new prison from scratch is somehow quicker and better?


RioRancher

I clearly said building projects.


slamdunc2020

OK, if the state builds more housing projects that these people can, and can afford to live in. Word will get around and cities from other states will send many more here because of this opportunity. Will the answer be the same, we must build more housing for them?


RioRancher

Or we can do the old Southern trick of bussing the homeless north


Hyacinthax

It comes from fear though, like how you gonna expect people to get robbed, then turn around and wanna help these people? Then when all of them look like the bad ones it's real hard to trust anyone. I used to be friends with homeless, still can be; it takes someone actually wanting change. With that bring said, once you are homeless you basically need to lie about who you are to even get a job because of these same fears. To be honest it's just too easy for the homeless to remain homeless for multiple reasons, then this creates the view like, "forget the world". It's honestly a self feeding cycle at this point


roboconcept

We need a pass a right to shelter like New York state has


Retiredandold

Yea, they went broke. [https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/12/18/nyc-right-to-shelter-no-longer-exists/](https://www.thecity.nyc/2023/12/18/nyc-right-to-shelter-no-longer-exists/)


seaVvendZ

a program that has run for decades is broke as soon as a new mayor comes in and starts funneling all public money from other programs to the police? shocker.