Sunday, September 06, 2015

Eureka's Low Cost Housing Plan

The Times- Standard reports the Eureka Housing Authority is asking the city to participate in a plan to upgrade the low cost public housing in the project just south of the Eureka Mall. This won't be renovating. It will be tearing down the old apartments and building new ones in their place. 

This is a surprising development. Tearing down the old apartments a few at a time and moving tenants into new ones as available. Most homeowners do renovations as they can afford. I'm not sure I've ever heard, barring some disaster, of someone tearing down their house and putting up a new one in its place. Whatever. When it's only taxpayer money, I guess it's fair game.

This is the sort of thing I think about when plans are floated for a legal campground or some other sort of free housing for the homeless. Doesn't seem like too big of a deal, at first. Then all sorts of requirements and expenses start coming into play. Before you know it, it costs a lot more than you'd first imagined and becomes a way of life for those being housed.
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I actually had occasion to go into some of those apartments to meet a couple different girls through some dating service they had up here back in the late '70s. I'm not suggesting all apartments had the same sort of cases in them, but wouldn't be surprised.

The apartments those girls lived in were a bit of a shock to me in their lack of normal living amenities. Maybe a couch, but not all that much else in furniture. Little to no carpeting, or much of anything else. What really got me was that the girls didn't seem to think much of it. That was their home, their lifestyle. That's all they knew.

Quite an awakening to the other side, and I wasn't too well off myself at that time. Maybe it's different now. I saw one of the girls years later. She'd moved into public housing in Arcata. That place didn't seem so barren. I recall it did have carpeting, but she still didn't have a couch.

6 Comments:

At 10:19 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"I'm not sure I've ever heard, barring some disaster, of someone tearing down their house and putting up a new one in its place."

It's pretty common in parts of the country where land is valuable and is being occupied with a worn out house. In fact, I've seen a few teardowns in Humboldt over the years. There's a mobil home teardown happening right now on H36.

"Whatever. When it's only taxpayer money, I guess it's fair game."

Lots of cheap apartments are, get ready for this, cheaply built. Refurbishing a POS building may not be as cost effective as knocking it down and replacing it with something that is more efficient to heat and maintain. By the time one goes into one of these old buildings, replaces doors/windows/bathrooms/kitchens/etc. it can be cheaper to crush and rebuild.

 
At 12:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is one of the reasons, out of many, that I have to agree with those who support free space for the homeless, vs monopolies of governments & developers. Shanty towns can be pisspoor tin & rust, or shanty towns can be organized and built by the homeless with community volunteers leading the way. Kept to the mean basics of life, the homeless new skills, recuperate, move on when ready to pay for privileges such as monopolized government housing with all it's strings attached.
Calearth.org, is one idea. The Cob cottages industry, another.
Every human has the right to shelter, but nobody has the right to force others to pay for fancy monopolies.

 
At 8:38 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The strings:
HUD thuggery
http://www.democratsagainstunagenda21.com/the-way-we-see-itour-blog/thug-politics-hud-vs-westchester-county-new-york

What is a-21, how it works. http://beforeitsnews.com/new-world-order/2014/01/media-advisory-un-and-hud-grants-promote-agenda-21-sustainable-communities-how-it-works-902.html

Us to accept 8000 refuges, (already have border problems). http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/25/434576046/u-s-to-accept-up-to-8-000-syrian-refugees-next-year

O' finalizes plan to command rezoning of neighborhoods for integration.
http://netrightdaily.com/2015/07/obama-finalizes-racist-plan-to-redraw-your-neighborhood/

 
At 8:52 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Social equity= you no good to worrky, slave, you no good to live.
CDC preventative care = you have preventable disease, you are an intentional burden, & will not be covered by ACA. A few "preventative" diseases, include: diabetes, heart disease, cancer, ... Getting deathly sick before the age of 81.
Also includes "preventative" issues, such as: drowning, sports, recreation, ...
Don't believe me? Google CDC preventative diseases.

 
At 9:01 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

CDC, chronic disease = preventative disease.

 
At 9:08 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trip back in time. How & why medical is too expensive, especially for senior citizens who can't climb stairs in stack & pack communities.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/under-the-influence/

The "cost" of cancer. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cost-of-cancer-drugs-60-minutes-lesley-stahl-health-care/

It's always about money. All roads lead to Rome.

 

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