Apparently Maine has an adequate supply of houses.acister t1_j2b6j94 wrote
Here's a more interesting map that also illustrates how stupid it is that this country has a housing crisis. We have enough food in the world(yet half gets wasted - most of it before it gets to the consumer) and we have enough housing. It's not about "adequate supply" and they should rot for using that phrase. On a not political note, Maine also has had young people move away for generations and is a vacation hotspot (but so are a lot of places..) so it does make sense there is a high number of empty houses sitting. Aroostook is the size of a small state and when the military base downsized and then shut down the population up there is now a fraction of what it was.
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vsanna t1_j2bc640 wrote
Yup. I hate watching more crappy blocky "affordable housing" developments being built recklessly when plenty of homes sit as vacant vacation/investment property. If the legislature could sort its wording out to exclude seasonal camps that aren't suitable as is for year round residency, then maybe we could get a tax hike through and start to alleviate the problem.
acister t1_j2bcwwt wrote
I think some affordable housing is good to build but is not the answer but just a small slice of what needs to change. Reminds me of the eating bugs as sustainable protein debate. I'm for eating sustainable proteins but it doesn't address capitalisms systemic use of waste and excess. Sure if people want to eat crickets (they're really not bad), that's great but let's change the horrendous mismanagement of resources that is causing food shortage. People in Maine are scared of spicy food lol; they're not going to eat crickets. Half of food that is produced goes to waste. We shouldn't grow almonds in the desert that requires a gallon of water / almond but that is extremely profitable somehow (laissez faire).
vsanna t1_j2be52i wrote
I'd argue it's less like eating crickets (which are pretty tasty!) and more like going all in on monocultured lab "meats" instead of scaling down actual meat production to smaller, sustainable methods. But I'm a worker on a small farm, so I have a lot of time invested in that debate. Anyway, I think we're in agreement here. I'm also from Brunswick, where developers have been reined in lately from completely destroying the bay, so I am definitely biased.
acister t1_j2bjnws wrote
Yeah fair enough agree about the cultured meat analogy which I also think is disgusting and unnecessary (much more so than getting people used to eating crickets). I guess just humans thinking they constantly need "answers" to things when they're already doing things neurotically wrong in the first place (because of profits and capitalism assuming resources are infinite) is the issue. To keep riffing about diet I think it's even asking people to change their culture to be vegetarian/vegan for sustainability (which again I think is great and it is objectively the best diet as an individual and consumer for environmental reasons - I eat meat myself). We objectively should eat less meat (Americans) but should also change industry instead of expecting consumers to police industry (which will never work). Low income folks will shop at Wal-Mart and Family Dollar because it's cheaper but they also destroy rural economies, that shouldn't be on the consumer.
I do think we need some affordable housing (some) built right now just to get some folks off the streets right away, it is a crisis. But yeah it will only be a temporary band aid if we don't change how markets work or at the very least regulate markets in the interest of people and not profits (probably impossible under this paradigm).
GuppyGB t1_j2bslyc wrote
I haven't seen any housing developments. All I've heard from builders is that they're not doing developments and they're 2 years out on building homes. I'd gladly build a house than deal with these crappy homes that everyone is trying to sell for half a million. They are shit boxes built in the 70s. Hell, people are trying to sell 100 year old homes that can't even fit a fridge in the kitchen for 450k. Crappy layouts, wallpaper, old roof, old heating, gravel driveway, garage that can't even fit a modern car. This is what you'll find everywhere.
vsanna t1_j2bu4ak wrote
Lmao I gave up on trying to find an existing home and was going to build, had a perfect piece of land picked out and it got swooped, likely by a developer who also grabbed everything else that was within my range in the area. It's literally impossible to do anything. If I didn't live with family I couldn't even afford rent in the area.
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