The human right to adequate housing is a noble aspiration. And if communism and socialism have contributed nothing else to humanity, they have at least proven that determined governments can actually provide housing for all.
Not only that, like Ginger Rogers keeping up with Fred Astaire, the USSR managed to do it while dancing backwards — at the same time engaging for decades in a ruinously expensive Cold War.
Presumably, if commies could do it dancing backwards, free-enterprise neoliberal capitalists can do it even better. IF they ever set their minds to it. But will they ever?
In California, a critical first step has been taken: facing up to the actual cost of adequate housing for all. That’s permanent housing, not a collection of tent cities with toilet blocks and showers, or lockable tiny houses — full privacy with room to swing a kitten.
So will the next step be a forward one — How can we meet these costs?
Or will it ultimately prove to be backward — OMG! Way Too Difficult, Way Too Expensive, More Tents! More Tents!
Getting to the point, for better or worse, just how much might it cost to completely eliminate homelessness in America’s greatest state of housing crisis? Read more detail of actual estimates in as well as the procedures that might be funded, at Bloomberg: How Much Would It Cost to End Homelessness in California for Good?
