Help for Renters Arrives

And you could lose that job tomorrow. I wouldn't get too smug there, guy.

I still don't expect the government to pay my rent.

Whatever happened to personal responsibility?

If you get laid off, you get unemployment. And if you can't find another job, maybe you should move somewhere you can find a job.

Or at least somewhere you can afford.

"Or at least somewhere you can afford."

Because, you know, places people can afford are like where all the jobs are. Oh, and I forgot, packing up and moving someplace is always free! Pffft.

Sounds to me like you have a great support network. I bet your parents will be there to bail you out once your unemployment benes run out and you still haven't found a job. You need to keep in mind that for a lot of people in this country, day to day life is the equivalent of an economic ass rape at the hands of banks and other corporate interests enabled by our own government. Not everyone has unlimited resources at their disposal once they stumble and fall upon hard times.

So to clarify:

"those on the verge of eviction" = "a bunch of deadbeats"

and helping them raises prices for everyone else.

gotcha.

If you are on the verge of eviction it is because you have not paid rent for some period of time and have not taken proactive measures to find a way to live within your means. So yes, such an individual is a deadbeat.

Contributing $$ simultaneously increases the number of people in the rental housing market (increasing demand) and reduces available housing stock for additional people searching for housing (decreasing supply).

Thank you for that analytical response. I'm sure families who choose to buy food and diapers before rent appreciate your perspective. Shall we call them deadbeats as their possessions are put out on the street?

Before, during and after!

§8 is not the same as this. Subsidizing someone's rent for a mere 3 months does not equate to deadbeats. Have you all forgotten that we are in the Great Recession? The people who need this money aren't people who have been living for years without getting a job. It is single-mother families that have to go live in GG Park.

Oh, also. I once worked at HUD. Do you know why §8 housing failed? It takes years for someone to actually move up on the waiting list to get §8 housing--usually about 8 or more years. Once you are on §8, you do NOT want to get off of it, because an 8 year wait period is pure insanity. Then, when they do get §8 housing and HUD pays for their rent, something might happen, like for instance, the landlord raises the rent by 100 dollars, which frequently happens here on an annual basis. That person cannot pay rent until HUD adjusts their §8 status which could take months. So what do they do to make up for the extra cost of rent in the interim? Well, they could just not pay rent. But many get a second job. Uh-oh. Once you get a source of income higher than a certain amount, HUD cuts off all the money. That person then does not even make close to enough money to pay rent, and they get evicted, and they don't have §8 now. In a sense, the long waiting period combined with the benchmark of monthly income makes staying on §8 with one job the rational choice. In my opinion, the federal government should pay the landlords what IT thinks is the best rent, not what the landlords ask, as long as it is reasonable. Then you wouldn't end up with these situations, and hopefully the waiting time would be reduced significantly so that there is an incentive to going off §8.

So next time when you want to call someone a deadbeat just because they have §8, please think again. Yes, there are some deadbeats on §8, but not everyone who has §8 is a deadbeat. Many are working their asses off and still cannot make enough money to pay rent. If that is inconceivable to you, it is probably because you are educated and can get a job that pays for more than just your rent. Our education and social system has failed these people. While many of them may not be the easiest people to sympathize with, never forget that our system failed them. Try not to marginalize them further from society. The more society ignores a problem, the more it will come back to haunt us all.

I was a renter from 1980 until '97 when I became a homeowner. All of us have been on both sides of this fence. I just get tired of people thinking that just because you own your own home you have deeper pockets than anyone else, when, in fact, we're worse off a lot of the time. No one pays to have my plumbing fixed or my leaky roof repaired. I'm not complaining, by any means - I CHOSE to buy my house THAT I COULD AFFORD. All I'm saying is all this bailout bullshit is just that - bullshit.
I got laid off and can no longer afford to pay my mortgage - I'm moving. Am I bitter? Sure I am. I love my place and worked really hard to get it and keep it the way I liked it. Do I expect the government to bail me out because I've had some bad luck. FUCK NO. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? Or, for that matter, pride.

It's a long story, but I'm moving to Italy. I was born and raised here and there isn't anywhere else in this country I would live (that I could afford). I have cousins in Pisa, so I'm gonna take whatever I make on the house (which won't be much) and head to Tuscany. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I guess. At least I can look at it as an adventure and not a downsizing drag.
I'm still bummed about having to leave the City. Going to Pisa takes a little of the sting out of it, though.

I've been unemployed for 8 months. I'm 47 and have been working since I was 15. This is the first time I've collected unemployment.

If nothing else, you live up to your moniker.

Not only have you been taking a government handout in the form of a mortgage interest deduction for 12 years;

Not only are you about to take a huge government handout by selling your house at a time when the government is giving an $8,000 tax credit to home purchasers (which has the direct economic effect of raising the value of your home);

Not only are you about to take another huge government handout by selling your house at a time that the Federal Reserve has given handouts to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars to banks to reduce mortgage interest rates to historic lows (which has the direct effect of raising the price at which you can sell your home);

But you're also taking a government handout in the form of unemployment.

And yet, after gladly taking each of those government handouts, you have the gall to say "I fucking sick of paying for everyone else" [sic]. Fascinating.

You've missed the point entirely. The issue isn't how much it costs to own vs. rent. The issue is whether homeowners receive handouts from the federal government in the form of mortgage interest deductions. And there's no question that they do. And for any homeowner in the Bay Area who bought or refinanced in the last 10-20 years, that handout is substantial and far, far exceeds the standard deduction that most renters take.

Lest you have any question about the differences in tax burdens between homeowners and renters, perhaps you should read a bit. Maybe start with Ezra Klein, Warren Buffett, or Paul Krugman.

Anyone who's seriously studied tax policy flatly disagrees with you. For example, James Poterba,a professor of economics at MIT and Todd Sinai, professor of real estate at Wharton School of Business concluded that "the tax savings for households earning more than $250,000 is 10 times the tax savings for households earning between $40,000 and $75,000. And, renters, of course, don't get any of the subsidy, but they pay for it by paying higher taxes on other things."