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Well, my senior years are not different, at least not yet (63). I do agree more subsidized housing is needed for low-income seniors, but there is this term I am increasingly hearing, "housing with dignity", which basically means housing with maximum extortion from taxpayers. People in need asking for a tax outlay should be mindful of the fact that they are getting a handout, which should be adequate, not whatever they are trying to snatch under the guise of "dignified". And it is not even the poor folks themselves (who, if they are in genuine dire straits housing-wise, are in fact glad to have any housing), but political activists who use poor people in housing distress for promoting certain political agenda.
Many seniors are widowed or single, and even if they are an empty-nester couples, I don't see why they would not be ok living in their own room in a communal setting, if they are truly housing-distressed. Buildings akin to residential hotels of the early 20th century (see Tudor City in Manhattan), could generate a lot of housing with relatively limited money. Many units in Tudor City are basically medium-sized rooms with small bathrooms. They usually have a nook with a small fridge, hotplate, sink, and one kitchen cabinet above/one below the sink. My home condo in the heart of Boston is built on the same principle, and I enjoy it very much. My condo is valuable because of its fantastic location, and my building is not extremely large, but mega-buildings with hundreds of such units could be built inexpensively anywhere.
Reno had a bunch of weekly motels like what you described downtown and they got away with letting them deteriorate badly while still collecting a high weekly fee. People got trapped because they couldn’t save enough money for a deposit on apartments that would end up being cheaper. They became drug havens and unsafe but kept poor people off the streets. They also became rat infested and fire traps and people died in fires.
Eventually a wealthy man started buying all the motels and tearing them down. His plan was to build luxury apartments and condos but years later they are still empty lots. This man owns 2 casinos on 4th street and is buying up all the properties between downtown and his casinos. What you describe is fine as long as the buildings are maintained for people to not live in squalor.
Some of the apartments that are heavily subsidized here have 2 bedrooms and why 1 person needs that when they can’t pay market rate is beyond me. Lots of things are wrong with how we do and don’t help people. I am glad that I am not poor.
Reno had a bunch of weekly motels like what you described downtown and they got away with letting them deteriorate badly while still collecting a high weekly fee. People got trapped because they couldn’t save enough money for a deposit on apartments that would end up being cheaper. They became drug havens and unsafe but kept poor people off the streets. They also became rat infested and fire traps and people died in fires.
Eventually a wealthy man started buying all the motels and tearing them down. His plan was to build luxury apartments and condos but years later they are still empty lots. This man owns 2 casinos on 4th street and is buying up all the properties between downtown and his casinos. What you describe is fine as long as the buildings are maintained for people to not live in squalor.
Some of the apartments that are heavily subsidized here have 2 bedrooms and why 1 person needs that when they can’t pay market rate is beyond me. Lots of things are wrong with how we do and don’t help people. I am glad that I am not poor.
I am not exactly sure of what you are saying. Buildings "deteriorate" because tenants vandalize them and fill them with crime. Then all of that is somehow blamed on lack of maintenance. If people leave pizza cartons accumulating for months in their units, or fall asleep on drugs while water from the open faucet is running on the bathroom floor, the resulting rodents and water damage are not due to "lack of maintenance". Again. people in subsidized housing should be cognizant of the fact that they have to do their part too if they want to live in a "dignified housing". I guess I am now indeed talking about some things/behaviors that are absent from lives of people who have $5M - but throwing more money at these things/behaviors has done nothing so far to change them, ie, vandalism and lack of safety in public housing is not a matter of money. But as I already said, that goes mostly for general public housing - senior subsidized housing is incomparably cleaner and safer. No teenage criminal gangs roaming the building with weapons and urinating in corridors.
...In the pattern for these articles, the WSJ features vignettes for a selection of people that fit the focus criteria. It begins with a graphic that was somewhat revealing to me (mainly as I don't look at these stats often) - only about 3.2% have retirement savings of 1M and more and only 0.1% have retirement savings of 5M or more...
Those articles amuse me. There are several million retirees doing quite well with retirement savings nowhere even remotely close to a million dollars.
Those articles amuse me. There are several million retirees doing quite well with retirement savings nowhere even remotely close to a million dollars.
I think the point of the WSJ article was actually in agreement with what you are saying: people who retire with $5M do not live substantially better than several million retirees who are doing quite well with retirement savings nowhere even remotely close to a million $. I think the article actually illustrates very well the same thing that you are saying.
Is a 'sunset' beach better than a 'sunrise' beach?
I think of sunset beaches as generally being West Coast beaches [the West Coast of Florida, or the West Coast of the US], etc.
It's preference but sunset are more expensive than sunrise so there's that.
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