Throw the bums out. (Springfield, Fall River: oceanfront, for rent, insurance)

[pennyone]

Section 8 vouchers are also meant to overcome the inherent trend toward economic segregation, but only with limited success. This is also the real and unspoken reason why many are so against it. They have the NIMBY mentality and do not want "those" people to move into their towns and cities. Milton, the town I grew up in, is rife with NIMBY. The residents generally votes very liberally....so long as affordable housing is built in another town or city. Once affordable housing is proposed in Milton itself, the issue of "traffic" becomes a life/death struggle for the town folks. Strange. I always laugh when I hear that about Milton or any other high end places.

Miu's comments may sound arrogant, but she is at least honest about her views.

[Cape Cod Todd]

I'm all for giving help where it is needed but so many use welfare not as a crutch but as a wheelchair that they can roll through life with.
Do you ever listen to Howie Carr? It is absolutely disgraceful what is going on in this state and the lack of concern by our elected is even worse.
No one should be able to buy drugs, alcohol, cell phones or get tattoos with their EBT cards but they do.
I have heard in Florida they tried to do drug tests for the welfare folks and it was a mess and cost a fortune so they stopped doing it.
There needs to be some serious change around here to keep this ship from sinking but people are too tired and too frightened to step up and do something. Besides there is so much corruption and abuse where do we begin??

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by mikelizard860

Total nonsense. Section 8 just means you pay 30% of your income in rent. So a single person making minimum wage at 37.5 hours a week would pay AROUND 350 bucks a month/all utilities included for a 1 bedroom. That's all they can afford at that wage level. Why should they have to work 100 hours a week just to barely get by? Sounds like slavery would be a better deal Never used to be like that. We are the richest country in the world.
You don't pay a living wage(enough to afford fair market rent) to a large percentage of people. This is simple fact. Section 8 therefore is a necessity. When you don't have affordable housing, you create a welfare state or you become like hong kong where people rent "cages" to sleep in. You already see this in nyc where the middle class have been pushed out. Landlord greed. We are a service economy. If everyone goes to college, you'll still end up with a large percentage in service jobs. And we've decided those jobs are low paying. All of MA is expensive. You can't find an apt anywhere in the state for 30% of income when making minimum wage. People who works normal hours at low paying service jobs who aren't lucky enough or on the waiting list for vouchers usually live with parents or friends/roomates. They are not truly an independent adult living on their own. It's very difficult to make it due to the obscene rents being charged. An adult working a full time job at mcdonalds should be able to afford their own apartment and have a little money to save. This is impossible with current wage to rent ratio in the free market. Therefore Section 8 is a necessity. There shouldn't be any shame in working at a job like mcdonalds for long term if that is the best that they can do. It's an honest living and the person should be treated/paid fairly. There seems to be a growing culture of uncaring/greedy snobs.

I never said people should go homeless, or live with 15 other people in a floor of a 3 decker. Section 8 is a bad program. It inflates the housing costs on everyone else (so now "middle class" can't afford the rents in many neighborhoods), kills incentives for landlords to properly care for property, and destroys neighborhoods. We need to accept that it is a broken program and replace it with something better, and what we really need is more housing.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by miu

Then those people should stay living with roommates or family. No one is owed having their own apartment...

My parents taught me that the good things in life required planning, effort and hard work. And as a teen I knew that if I worked minimum wage jobs as a career that would greatly limit my options. And as a woman, I also knew that having children without a committed partner or with a partner who only worked a low paying job would trap me in a poverty cycle.

There should be time limits to Section 8 vouchers. We shouldn't reward people who make unwise life choices.

Even people I know without degrees or skills make well above minimum wage. Minimum wage earners seem to be exclusively teens and illegals.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by mikelizard860

So you think that giving someone a section 8 voucher is just as good at getting an md? haha lmao. Hard work is clearly rewarded and giving section 8 vouchers doesn't change that. I know which one I would choose!

The problem is that much of today's "affordable housing" is nicer than where I live! What are my rewards? By subsidizing a select group of people, the rest of us are getting screwed.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by Morris Wanchuk

Who is going to pay for all these proposed drug tests?
Sounds expensive

Will it cost more than a voter drive for 500,000 welfare recipients (priorities people)? You also have to account for the savings from weeding people off the system (who fail).

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by massnative71

Even people I know without degrees or skills make well above minimum wage. Minimum wage earners seem to be exclusively teens and illegals.

Yes very few people make that because it's a complete joke. They might as well not even have a minimum wage. Most service jobs pay just a little above minimum wage. It's still below the poverty line and nowhere near being able to afford a free market apartment. I certainly wouldn't rent a 1000 month apartment to a single adult making 9.50 an hour. That's not even close to the 30% line. That's an eviction waiting to happen.

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I never said people should go homeless, or live with 15 other people in a floor of a 3 decker. Section 8 is a bad program. It inflates the housing costs on everyone else (so now "middle class" can't afford the rents in many neighborhoods), kills incentives for landlords to properly care for property, and destroys neighborhoods. We need to accept that it is a broken program and replace it with something better, and what we really need is more housing.

Yes the best answer would be go get apartments to reasonable levels that are in line with the wages. Landlord greed unfortunately has prevented that. A few huge real estate management/holdings/construction companies basically set the price in the area based on getting as much money as they can while keeping the vacancy rate at an acceptable percentage. They make sure not to build anything new that would affect this. Keep the demand up. Smaller landlords price their apartments based approximately on what the large complex's are charging.

These companies in Massachusetts have decided not to provide housing for lower income people. They can't be bothered. They'll just meet the middle/upper middle/upper class market demand and not bother with anyone else. Therefore they keep the housing stock low enough to just house people with middle/upper income's. In places like Cleveland and surrounding suburbs where there are less people making a lot of money like in Massachusetts, rent is much cheaper because they're willing to create affordable housing for lower income people since there aren't as many higher income people to get money out of! A lot more people making 100k plus in boston than cleveland. This effects real estate costs obviously. Of course there is zero trickle down effect to service workers. The income gap makes it harder for people at the bottom. An apartment is 4 walls and a bathroom/kitchen. The prices they charge in ma are outrageous.

The profit of some of these construction/real estate holdings companies is enormous. Greed is at play here obviously.

[Boston_Burbs]

What I don't get about this high rent complaining.. why not move to a cheaper area? Yes, it is sad to have to leave your friends and family.. but instead of the government is subsidizing a person to stay within their comfort zone.

Wages in the Western part of the state are not that much lower, yet rent is half of what it is in Eastern, MA.

[mikelizard860]

Originally Posted by Morris Wanchuk

What I don't get about this high rent complaining.. why not move to a cheaper area? Yes, it is sad to have to leave your friends and family.. but instead of the government is subsidizing a person to stay within their comfort zone.

Wages in the Western part of the state are not that much lower, yet rent is half of what it is in Eastern, MA.

Why should someone have to move halfway across the country just to live in a ****bag little apartment? Are you kidding me? Why can't we agree that somebody working a full time service job has a RIGHT in the richest country in the world to be able to afford an apartment in the entire state of MA. I could see one little area like manhattan in NY being overpriced due to high demand on a small heavily populated island, but this lack of affordable housing is ubiquitous throughout the whole state of Massachusetts. Maybe if all the service workers left, then suddenly people would realize how important they are. All wealth is created by labor.

I can't believe how selfish some people are. Hell we(as well as other countries) had slavery in our history so that says something about people.

Maybe this is our future: If you want the top cage, you need a college education to be able to afford it lol
Living in a cage ? and paying rent too? The dark side of Hong Kong's property boom - PhotoBlog