In Evicted, Desmond writes that low-income people looking for housing or work are often assumed to be "more or less ‘rational actors’ who recognize trade-offs and make clear choices." Through his research, however, he saw people wear out from long, fruitless searches for decent apartments or jobs. The people he encountered could better be characterized as "’exhausted settlers,’ who accept poor housing in a disadvantaged neighborhood or a dead-end or illicit job after becoming depleted and disheartened from trying and trying and failing and failing."
Shelter should be a basic right. You can’t do much without it. It starts there.
The fact that private companies can be landlord and never have to answer anyone about anything, should be completely illegal and never be allowed ever again.
There should be some kind of teaching and self-reliance over services for buildings: I’ll cut the grass around and I’ll teach the teenagers how to do it. Don’t charge me shit. Same with clogged toilets etc. The money saved should be re-invested by the landlord into heavier work, in partnership with the state, the city (sewer increase so that toilets don’t overflow).
The problem with everything being “solved” with money is that no one gives a single fuck. That leads to the stronger getting away with everything and the weakest losing everything, ending up in the streets.
It frustrates me to no end that we know and have all the solutions in the world and we just let people rot. Goddamn.