Acceptable-Poem-6219

Acceptable-Poem-6219 OP t1_j8sh14x wrote

Reply to comment by PaulPierceBrosnan in Zoning Change to Fight Homelessness by Acceptable-Poem-6219

I think those are all reasonable concerns. And I agree that this alone won’t end homelessness in Worcester. That said the homeless population in Worcester has increased dramatically (the Housing Authority states its gone up 60% since the pandemic began) and the cost of living continues to rise and we remain short on emergency shelter beds.

This type of proposal would give us another tool in the toolkit and make it easier for case managers to address the issues of the residents who need treatment or other social services.

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Acceptable-Poem-6219 t1_j72myd9 wrote

Reply to Life in Worcester for young professionals? by carboncopy222

Moved here four years ago from Houston and couldn’t be happier. As far as bang for your buck in Northeast urban areas, it’s hard to do better. Great mix of food, some beautiful parks and hiking trails, good people, and if you get sick of it you can always take a day trip.

As other posters have said the biggest downside is public transportation which is barely existent (buses run every hour and they’ve cut service on Fridays because they don’t have enough drivers). Commuter rail is alright and will get better once they finish the project at union station.

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Acceptable-Poem-6219 t1_j3x8gvd wrote

Reply to Proposed zoning change would allow 'in-law' rentals to help housing crisis, homeowners by moisheah

This is good but doesn’t go far enough. Many of our surrounding communities allow ADUs by right. This approach speeds the process because you don’t need to get your project approved by political appointees on the ZBA who may kill or delay a project if a few nosy neighbors show up to complain. The city should allow by right, set strong uniform building standards for ADUs and use their inspectors to make sure they’re enforced.

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Acceptable-Poem-6219 t1_j0gvoum wrote

Reply to comment by Acceptable-Poem-6219 in The potential locations included the Denholm building, the RMV on Main Street, Becker College buildings, the Salvation Army, a former Gentleman’s club ... by jpm01609

So if we built no market rate housing to accommodate the 20,000 people who moved here in the last 10 years rents would go down? I totally agree the rising cost of living is the #1 problem in Worcester and I’m well aware of the market rate developments going in the city. I also totally agree we need more affordable housing to reduce the number of people that are cost burdened, but there is no city in the world that can afford to publicly build the scale that’s needed.

My point is that if Los Angeles can spend over a billion dollars on see the problem get worse, we need to learn from that and see that there’s more going on than a lack of political will to spend on affordable housing. I used to live in Houston which is one of the fastest growing and most diverse cities in the country and it has managed to cut its homelessness rate by 60% over the last 10 years by improving city/nonprofit services and making it easy to build housing of all kinds.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html

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Acceptable-Poem-6219 t1_j0gblt1 wrote

Reply to comment by outb0undflight in The potential locations included the Denholm building, the RMV on Main Street, Becker College buildings, the Salvation Army, a former Gentleman’s club ... by jpm01609

The housing market is interrelated. The same rules that make it difficult and expensive to build market rate housing make it even more difficult and expensive to build affordable housing. More affordable housing creates spaces for people who are currently on the streets. But if we don’t build new market rate housing to keep up with population, then more people become homeless as rents go up and the growing number of renters fight over the same amount of housing.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/01/homelessness-affordable-housing-crisis-democrats-causes/672224/

Relevant quote “In their book, Homelessness Is a Housing Problem, the University of Washington professor Gregg Colburn and the data scientist Clayton Page Aldern demonstrate that “the homelessness crisis in coastal cities cannot be explained by disproportionate levels of drug use, mental illness, or poverty.” Rather, the most relevant factors in the homelessness crisis are rent prices and vacancy rates.”

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