A growing number of Americans are ending up homeless as soaring rents in recent years squeeze their budgets.

According to a Jan. 25 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, roughly 653,000 people reported experiencing homelessness in January of 2023, up roughly 12% from the same time a year prior and 48% from 2015. That marks the largest single-year increase in the country’s unhoused population on record, Harvard researchers said.

    • hark@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      This is why it’s a bad idea to stick your name onto whatever is the current state of the economy.

    • fenynro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You cracked the case!

      It wasn’t anything like coordinated rent increases from large groups of landlords using a pricing app, it wasn’t a worldwide pandemic disrupting the market, it wasn’t America keeping housing as an investment vehicle instead of a means of sheltering humans, it wasn’t decades of wealthy investors buying housing to convert into rentals.

      Nope, all of that complexity can be tossed out the window because one single man is to blame: Joe Biden. All in his first term as president too!

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        It wasn’t anything like coordinated rent increases from large groups of landlords using a pricing app

        Which Biden has no interest in doing anything about. Why isn’t he using the bully pulpit to name and shame enemies of his administration?

        it wasn’t a worldwide pandemic disrupting the market,

        It’s been years since you and the rest of Democrats gave a shit about COVID, so it’s hypocritical to blame the ongoing pandemic.

        Perhaps if Biden didn’t give up entirely on public health then the ongoing economic problems caused by COVID could be addressed, but instead we don’t even talk about it like it’s still a serious issue and ignore the ongoing wave of deaths. We are still having excess deaths far above the pre-pandemic period, but I bet you don’t even wear a mask to the store. What a joke.

        it wasn’t America keeping housing as an investment vehicle instead of a means of sheltering humans, it wasn’t decades of wealthy investors buying housing to convert into rentals.

        Both problems are something Biden helped establish over his long tenure as a Senator.

        Nope, all of that complexity can be tossed out the window because one single man is to blame: Joe Biden.

        Liberals in every country do this thing where they use complexity as a way to mystify and obscure the consequences of their party’s actions and inaction. Somehow the President is powerless and problems come from nowhere. No one is to blame, except maybe the red team.

        • fenynro@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          It’s interesting to see the assumptions and projections you put onto me. All I’ve said (or implied snarkily) is that the housing and homelessness crisis that we’re seeing in America is a multifaceted issue, and much larger than trying to simply blame one man.

          For what it’s worth, I have no love for Biden and think he could be doing a hell of a lot more from his position, as could the rest of the corporate Democrat party, as could literally any Republican with a spine, but unfortunately we’re stuck with a party that won’t act and a party whose only purpose is to block the other.

          I still don’t think you can distill the housing issue down to just ‘Biden bad’ though, so you should really do some introspection and see if your anger towards Biden might be blurring your viewpoint a little bit

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            Consider that, maybe, the assumptions and projections that you put on to me. When did I say Biden is to blame for everything? When did I actually distill the housing issue down to just ‘Biden bad’ except by glibly mocking their PR teams attempt to spin good economic news as “Bidenomics”. Remember, they’re the ones that made up that term. I was just referencing it.

            • fenynro@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              When did I say Biden is to blame for everything?

              I mean, sure, you didn’t type that exact sentence but when you provided an itemized list of why Biden is to blame for each item in my original comment, it’s not a huge leap of logic to think you blame Biden for these things.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                I was just listing things Biden played a role in. Things he is partially to blame for, because he has not done everything he can to fight back.

                Obviously he’s not the king of America and can’t just be blamed for everything, but I refuse to just say he’s blameless because of that.

        • stembolts@programming.dev
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          11 months ago

          Both parties are neolibs.

          It’s just a duopoly.

          All of your critiques apply to both parties.

          I’m left so I hate right.

          I’m right so I hate left.

          So boring.

          Introduce ranked choice voting.

          We could hate omnidirectionally.

        • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Do you think you make any sort of sense with this way of writing? You are slamming Biden because you don’t know who is a actually responsible. It’s greedy landlords and the corporate overlords that run housing.

          Biden runs the country. Not the whole housing market. If anything he helped it with his administration relieving college debt and made it more affordable to many Americans that don’t need to pay off debt.

          You make zero points and I just throwing mud to make Trump the only choice.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            Biden runs the country. Not the whole housing market.

            He definitely could interfere with the housing market to a much higher degree. He could also make better use of the bully pulpit to attack greedy landlords and corporate housing by name.

            He will not.

            When Trump wins he will make everything worse and Biden is doing everything he can to make sure he loses.

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              He could also make better use of the bully pulpit to attack greedy landlords and corporate housing by name.

              Biden: “You landlords are terrible and charge too much! Here are your names!”

              Landlords: “Cool. How are you going to be able to stop us?”

              Biden: “…”

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                Landlords: “Cool. How are you going to be able to stop us?”

                He supposedly loves unions, right? How about he starts throwing his support behind tenant unions and rent strikes? How about he tells the millions of Democrats to take political and economic actions against landlords and real estate companies? “Here are your enemies and these are their companies, you know what to do.”

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  I think you may be misunderstanding who has all the money and all the high-priced lawyers in this equation.

            • GladiusB@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You can what if all day long. And it’s not fact. It’s fantasy. So you don’t make sense in two posts. Keep going. Your whole account can look like a lost soul in a cult.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                A cult of what? I’m just criticizing Biden! You seem to think the president is powerless and nothing that has gone wrong is his fault.

                Is there literally anything you would criticize him for?

    • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Well, at the moment, the other option is Trump. We all know we need better politicians in general, but are you suggesting things would be better with him?

        • zeppo@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Problem is absent major reforms in every state, that’s not how voting works. Third parties playing spoilers in the first-past-the-post system has been documented and evidenced many times. Whichever bloc has greater unity or no appealing 3rd party candidates will win. So you could end up with Trump being elected with 35% for Biden, 25% for West, and 40% for Trump. Run-off or ranked choice could fix that but we don’t have that.

          • blazera@kbin.social
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            11 months ago

            Whichever bloc has greater unity

            Ive got unity with the progressive candidate. Who also endorses that ranked choice we both want. Biden and Trump represent a conservative bloc.

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              11 months ago

              That would be great but voting for them this round isn’t a practical choice. We have to somehow get voting reforms then support the candidates we actually prefer. That would start at a local/state level.

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                  11 months ago

                  Before there is comprehensive voting reform it won’t work at all. It’s more likely to get whatever candidate you least support elected.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            So you could end up with Trump being elected with 35% for Biden, 25% for West, and 40% for Trump.

            And then the country would collapse. Do you actually think America would survive that?

            • zeppo@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              How would the country collapse? Because Trump got elected and ruined it the rest of the way, or because the left/social liberal/Democrat vote was split between the D candidate and a 3rd party, like people keep suggesting we should do? Not sure what you mean.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                11 months ago

                the left/social liberal/Democrat vote was split between the D candidate and a 3rd party, like people keep suggesting we should do

                Has anyone in this thread even done that? I know I haven’t. I haven’t told anyone how to vote.

                Not sure what you mean.

                The largest protests in American history happened under Trump. If he came back into power despite everything with such a small plurality, the citizenry would become ungovernable.

                • zeppo@lemmy.world
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                  11 months ago

                  I’ll just ignore the first part since you’ve obviously spent half the thread condemning Biden.

                  Anyway, so people should have been out there going wild protesting Al Gore and Hillary Clinton losing the popular vote, I guess. However, that’s the way the system works, as bad as it is. I’m sure some people would protest but my example (which isn’t even realistic since it ignores the electoral college) would be interpreted as Trump winning by 5%.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        I have not told anyone how to vote in this thread. Y’all just crawled up my ass about it because I blasphemed.

        If you choose to vote for Biden despite hating him, I understand. But don’t try to silence criticism.

        • tsonfeir@lemm.ee
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          11 months ago

          I’m not concerned with them. I’m engaging in conversation with you. Are you able to answer the question?

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            I literally did answer the question: I have not told anyone how to vote. That necessarily means I’m not suggesting Trump is better. 🙄

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                  11 months ago

                  I’m a little confused why you’re being so aggressive when I’m just asking clarifying questions about your comment.

                  Don’t you that think maybe Biden, who I’m not saying is a great guy, took office during a free fall and can’t be expected to take on the full blame for what was already bound to hit the ground?

    • zeppo@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Weird how people who are ‘I’m so COMMUMIST!!’ reserve their criticism for US politicians closer to the left and don’t bother saying shit about Trump or the Republicans in congress.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        It’s weird how you make things up to get mad at. The BLM uprisings were full of communists, did you forget about that? We were the ones who sided with the People’s demand to defund the police, before liberals betrayed us by trying to frame that as reform the police.

        Your confusion comes from thinking liberals are close to the left. They are not. They are capitalist, imperialist, anti-communists.

        Also, I am not telling people how to vote. I am criticizing Biden. Am I allowed to do that, or is that blasphemy?

        • zeppo@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          ‘defund the police’ and ‘abolish the police’ were very poorly slogans which scared off more people than they attracted.

          US Liberals are a LOT closer to leftists than Republicans are… that’s the entire point. Generally they support socialized healthcare, labor unions, worker protections, consumer protection, social safety nets, helping people in need, police reform and many other topics leftists support, while conservatives oppose every single one of those.

          Criticize Biden all you want but if it helps get Trump elected, good job I guess.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            11 months ago

            ‘defund the police’ and ‘abolish the police’ were very poorly slogans which scared off more people than they attracted.

            I want my enemies to be scared.

            • zeppo@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You missed the point by a mile. Your slogan is supposed to attract people who would support the policy changes you want, not your ‘enemies’. Saying ‘abolish’ and ‘defund’ didn’t attract the centrists and moderates you’d need to enact changes, which is why ‘reform’ was actually a better choice.

    • mr_robot@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      You say that like Trump’s biggest legislative accomplishment wasn’t a massive tax cut for the wealthiest Americans.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        That’s not true, he also accelerated the decline of America and turned many of America’s allies against us.

        Also he had that handsome hamburger party that one time. That was pretty funny, probably his favorite day of being president.