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Comment by linuxftw | Hacker News Reader

Socialized housing only creates slums. Tenants have no incentive to keep the place nice, government rationing of maintenance ensures they degrade faster than the government is willing to spend to keep them functioning. Anyone that can afford better moves out. Eventually (not that long), only destitute remain.

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Berlin has a few city-owned housing companies [1] that provide above average service. You'd be much happier with DeGeWo than with Akelius.

[1] https://allaboutberlin.com/guides/find-a-flat-in-berlin#hous...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore

Relevant quote "In 2008, Singapore was lauded by the United Nations Habitat's State of the World's Cities report as the only slum-free city in the world"

> Socialized housing only creates slums. Tenants have no incentive to keep the place nice

> destitute

It sounds like you're one of those people who looks down on marginalized groups for no reason. Stop poor-hating.

I think that very much depends on whether government owner housing is a last resort for the poor or open to wider sections of the population.

Sometimes that happens, but not always. Take the Barbican centre in London as a very well known counter example.

It's a part of the City though. Not sure it's comparable.

This is an unhealthy opinion because it goes too far into either extreme.

This, 100%. Then a new generation grows up in said slum with its attendant effects on their development and the cycle worsens

I'll take social housing over the homeless problem you get in countries without large social housing stock 100x.

Maybe some % of people just aren't going to break the cycle. I'd still rather they aren't homeless and causing decay on the streets.

That's why Vienna mixes subsidized housing and regular housing, often in the same building. They also allow families to stay in their housing or purchase it as long as they pay the higher rate related to their rising income.[1]

The problem in the US is that there is no gray area for subsidized housing. As soon as you hit some magic number, you lose all of your benefits. The people who game the system to stay under this number are not stupid, but acting rationally because they know their new job may not stick around. They would rather have housing security than take a chance at losing everything and living in the street until their tax return shows that they are poor again.

[1] https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/2019/09/housing-basic...

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