The city may be struggling to house these migrants, but I’m sure there is a strong incentive to keep normal housing units unavailable so friends of politicians can fill their low demand hotel rooms and supply catering at very favorable rates.
Most people turn their lights off at night?
More importantly, near everyone arguing for change in zoning aren't saying that zoning should be abolished, just changed. So, Houston is not a counter-example.
I don't think so. The problem is simply to many refugees for the infrastructure/system to absorb. Do we build 10's of 1000's of housing units for future refugee's and immigrants every year, where are the funds for these units procured?
My grandfather slept in a park on a bench when he arrived after WW2 as a DP. No one provided him with anything, he had to look for work, find a way to feed himself and finally he managed to split a room in a rooming house with 2 other people. He said the bed they slept in was always warm because someone was getting up to go to work and someone came home from work and was going to sleep. Many families lived the same way. What's interesting is they had no social assistance or help of any kind. Today there is a belief these types of people should be provided with everything. It just isn't plausible.
Living standards were lower back then and WW2 USA was far less wealthy than it is today. Now it can afford to provide humane present-day conditions to people until they can find work and housing themselves. Just count the money the US spent on the war on terror and the war on drugs, it's more than the GDP of some countries.
Refugees don't want hand-outs, they want opportunities to work and provide for themselves. If you deny them decent opportunities and humane living conditions from the start, they're guaranteed to turn to crime to survive, then everyone looses.
[1] https://old.reddit.com/r/lostgeneration/comments/fgkb83/its_...
[2] https://old.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/439mr8/e...
[3] https://www.apartmentlist.com/rentonomics/rent-growth-since-...
You can’t just cherry pick things that have become more expensive and ignore the many things that are cheaper when making such a general assertion.
Here is a better source for your reference:
In comparing household incomes of the middle class in the United States in 1980 to today, we conclude that real incomes for today’s middle class are somewhat higher than they used it to be, particularly for households headed by two adults. It is also clear that failing to adjust for demographic shifts in the population relating to age, race, and education can indicate a more positive outlook than is truly the case.
We find, as in prior research, that prices in housing, healthcare, and education have risen more than middle-class incomes and so are relatively more expensive. However, we also find that these price increases are offset by relative price decreases in transportation, food, and recreation, among others, making real middle-class incomes slightly higher than in the past.
https://www.clevelandfed.org/en/publications/economic-commen...
You mean the average american was wealthier in 1977. The USA of today is wealthier than the USA of 1977, just that the wealth in more unevenly spread. Maybe fixing wealth inequality is something to look into, but who am I kidding, we both know that aint gonna happen.
Isn't that what American citizens want, those same opportunities. Perhaps, they also deserve what you want to give to refugees.
(see eg https://news.cornell.edu/media-relations/tip-sheets/expedite... -- 6 months before they can even apply for a work permit!)