Comments by "Ficus-lovin\x27 Capybara N\x27 pals • 🌟 • 25 yrs ago" (@YourCapybaraAmigo_17yrsago) on "Economic Hunger Games | Working From Home INCREASING Debt Amidst Rising Rent" video.

My rental complex just notified us they would be jacking our rent up $170 next month. That's on top of the $1900 we already spend for a internally substandard 2 bdrm unit (exterior is nice, but we don't live in the exterior). If I was a gillionaire I guess I wouldn't care, but I'm not. Nobody in public office in CA or San Diego county cares. I'm sure they all take their payoffs from the big corporate landlords and real estate lobby. So it's all perfectly legal. No rent controls, no nothing. If you can't afford two grand just for a roof, before all other expenses, that's your problem. You must be a serious schlub. It's sad we live in a country where landlords get to aggresively gouge and take advantage of renters, causing mass homelessness in the process. It shouldn't work this way.
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@bluehero-96 it's some crap for sure. After a two year pandemic cycle they have some nerve. I'm going to fight it. I'm going to look up the specifics of rental law in this county and state, and see if I have any recourse. I'm getting ready to move to a different place locally anyhow for other reasons, but it still may be a few months. First of all it's outrageous that $1700-1900 is the norm here, it should be half that, tops, not even, but then to jump almost 10% at once is even more outrageous. People need to beware of corporate-owned complexes. If they think they can get away with gouging you, they definitely will. This needs to change.
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Agreed. My system is simple- no more than 20% of a person's net income regardless of income level AND no one can be discriminated against for having a lower income by any landlord. "Market rate" is a scam term as far as I'm concerned.
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How do you still pay US taxes if you no longer live here?? You are a legal resident of Thailand now?
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@lesliestenta3084 I doubt they would catch up to you if you just told them Fack Off. If you're living full-time in another country you don't owe the US govt nothing.
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@JW-uy2on I've known a couple people that have done that. I had considered that some years past. I had stayed there with an acquaintance briefly in the early '00s. It's many times more affordable that's for sure.
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@Mel-iy5ih hi fellow local. New study says it's the most expensive in the US comparable to incomes now. Well you don't say. My parents are still alive and do have a home here, but they live too far out to really be manageable at the moment, plus we aren't on the best of terms right now. It's really a mess. Not everyone can pull in a high 5 or 6 figure salary even if they're educated or skilled. Average wages may be higher than other areas, but that doesn't mean much if basic COL is just as high. And if course the politicos don't care, not in Sacramento and not in City Hall. They will take the payoffs ("contributions") from the developers and landlord lobby/real estate sector and give them free reign to set whatever rent price they choose and call it "thuh market" rate, which most people who are not yet in a position to own have no choice but to pay if they wish to have stable housing. Of course then they (corporate owners and some individual landlords) can claim bogusly "hey, it's just what thuh "market" chose, I mean WE had nothing to do with it!" I mean come on- like most other sectors of our economy dominated by corporate interests, IT'S A RACKET. People who live under the median income have a right to afford to live too! So as usual everything in this gddm hyper-capitalist economy is a gouge aimed at ensuring MAXIMUM ridiculous profits for the rich. And let me be clear- I'm not saying housing has to be free, or the price of a couple of sodas and hot dog. I AM saying it should be FAIR and $2000 give or take before anything else is anything but fair. Of course the deep pockets in the priveleged top 5% will do anything to keep the politicians from passing any hint of rent control. And then they wanna sit around and wonder WHY homelessness just seems to be getting worse every year. HINT- it's not JUST due to drug abuse or mentally illness- that's an easy copout for those with decision-making authority to pawn off the issue on those suffering from it so they don't have to do anything about it. AND supposedly LA did get a large grant to create more low-income/transitional housing for their local homeless- I wonder how quickly that was lost to corruption and mismanagement. I'm not up on the latest details of progress up there in that regard, but I've heard little has been done despite receiving significant additions of state funds over the last few years. As for down here well, it's just wrong. Just because others who have the means to pay for extortionary rents can and will, doesn't mean we all should have to. I'll say it again- I DON'T (usually) begrudge a landlord making SOME profit of a property they legally own IF they are fulfilling their obligations as a landlord ethically- but this has become egregious. Because of their greed, those at or below the median must be further and further squeezed, leaving barely enough for other necessary expenditures, or not enough as the case may be. I guess some of us are just going to have to keep advocating no matter how long it takes until we get changes to the law. What other choice is there? To wait until a box goes for $3000 a month? We seem to be headed there. Here's what I demand- corporate landlords do NOT get to set their own rent. That nonsense should end. As long as a household can show stable income and meet any other acceptable requirements, they will only be charged a set proportion of their income to ensure they are not unfairly burdened. I want the limit at 20%. I would really prefer 15%. If that is insufficient for a particular unit due to their mortgage, an alternative amount equal to the current mortgage plus no more than 15% can be used. I think that's the only fair way. It covers properties under mortgage, while ensuring that everyone can afford their rent. There are more radical proposals by others on the Left who want to see rent done away with all together which of course would be wonderful for people in our position, but I understand that it's very unlikely we will see anything like that in our lifetime. so therefore as an alternative to that I propose my system and I think it's pretty straightforward and common Sense. It's the only way that I see this working going forward. I'm not against landlording per se, but I AM against this kind of runaway greed that turns one of our most basic needs into this highly unjust scenario where up to 60% (maybe more?) of households are increasingly rent burdened which throws their entire existence into financial insecurity, and should just one thing go wrong, as we saw with the pandemic, and it all quickly falls apart and now people are looking at eviction, bring homeless if they don't have family to fall back on, and etc. That is not right. It is my belief that that that shouldn't to be the case. We can ensure housing security in this country but I just don't see how it's possible without serious rent control. Even if we doubled the number of housing units on hand, which would certainly be important as there is literal lack of enough physical housing in some areas, that alone wouldn't fix the cost issue, not without govt intervention, I doubt.
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JAIL TIME, SIX MONTHS MINIMUM FOR SLUM LORDS!! HIT THEM IN THE POCKETBOOK WITH STIFF FINES AND AWARD IT TO THEIR VICTIMS FOR CONVICTED REPEATED SLUM LORDING. this has to stop.
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