The one percent’s ultimate hypocrisy: They won’t move into high-rent apartments because ..........

The one percent’s ultimate hypocrisy: They won’t move into high-rent apartments because of the homeless displaced by high rents


Over the summer, Fox News and the New York Post joined forces in the noble journalistic endeavor of shaming homeless people in New York City. The New York Post sent more than a dozen reporters to follow around just one homeless man and plastered a picture of him on their cover. Twice. The O’Reilly Factor’s Jesse Watters braved treacherous spots like Penn Station to ask homeless people about their drug habits while looking vaguely disgusted. Joe Scarborough ranted self-righteously (and inaccurately). All of this was most likely a not-very-subtle attempt to tie visible homelessness to the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Although conservative media outlets conveniently discovered the city’s homelessness crisis when the progressive Mayor entered office, homelessness in the city has steadily increased since the mid-2000s. Today there are close to 60,000 people sleeping in city shelters, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, and an unknown number of people sleeping on the city’s streets.

And it’s not a huge mystery why. Advocates for the homeless attribute the spike to two factors: Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s homelessness policy, which, through an impressive feat of magic oligarch thinking, involved taking rental subsidies away from poor people. And the massively high cost of housing in the city. Rents have increased by 32 percent since 2002 citywide –– 90 percent in some parts of town. The average rent in Brooklyn is well over $3,000. Meanwhile, New York City’s minimum wage is $8.75. Unsurprisingly, evictions are up. ..................(more)

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/18/rich_people_are_scared_to_move_into_high_rent_apartments_because_of_the_homeless_displaced_by_high_rents_partner/