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Comment by alexashka | Hacker News Reader

Do you really think the solution to homeless people is to just build more buildings and give it to them for free?

Hint: if you announce to the world that you're doing that, there'll suddenly be a lot of homeless people coming from everywhere to partake in your generosity.

As an aside: I'm in need of money, how much are you willing to give me? You'd be resulting in a social problem by not giving me money. Let me know how much you're personally invested in solving social problems.

If you think it's an absurd ask, I agree. That's exactly how I feel about the homeless. If you can't afford Toronto, go live somewhere else. It's not a God's given right that you get to live in the 6th most expensive city because you want to, anymore than I get to take some of your money because you happen to have more.

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Pretty sure the parent poster wasn’t talking about giving building housing and giving it away for free.

> they still mostly use a 1960's era city plan that forbids dense residential development in most areas.

I big source of homelessness is... well... simply being priced out of living somewhere.

> If you can't afford Toronto, go live somewhere else. It's not a God's given right that you get to live in the 6th most expensive city because you want to

I don’t think most people live where they do out of some sense of entitlement. They just live there because that’s what they once could afford or where they found work. Losing one’s home can also mean losing one’s job and ultimately homelessness. Bad city planning only worsens income inequality and the only ones benefitting from this are landlords and speculators.

Moving is also extremely expensive and isolating. If you can't afford housing, you can't really afford moving either. They can either stay where they have social and charitable connections and maybe irregular work to a place where they have none of that with a much smaller job market. Plus, if you have no home, job or other creature comforts, it's kind of nice to at least be somewhere familiar. It's not surprising people get stuck where they are.

Ha placing homeless people on mass into very small towns doesn’t help. My small town had a major influx of homeless from the big city and we didn’t have the resources or opportunities to help them.

Also you seem to be responding to things the original poster didn’t say.

Did I say for free? No, I didn't. The idea is that you allow anybody to build more supply, and the price comes down.

Did I make any mention of spending to solve the problem? No, I didn't so quit putting words in my mouth.

Making economic migrants of everyone is not a good solution. Believe it or not, some people have roots in their communities. Not to mention cities are where jobs and amenities are. What, is everybody going to move to Barrie all of a sudden? Terrible idea and 100% lacking in empathy or good sense. Oh also I don't know if you noticed but the housing crisis is national now.

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