Let the Poor be Poor!

Andrew Atkin:

One of the nastiest things you can do to poor people--believe it or not--is not let them be poor. That is, force them to invest their resources in ways that you think is best for them, yet not what they think is best for them.

Housing is our great modern example. Auckland council outlawed the use of sleeping capsules, because in their 'superior wisdom' they decided that poor people should not be allowed to live that way. How nice. 

But there's a problem with that. People who wish to sleep in capsules are probably not rich, and if they're single and want to share a room with others, in exchange for saving say an extra $100 a week, then those capsules could have been great for them (they won't hear their roommates snoring). But again, that option was taken away by bureaucrats who decided that they know their priorities better than they do.

-A lot of it is image. Auckland council doesn't like poor people looking poor, because it makes their failure to provide affordable housing too naked. They would rather reduce the overt image of poverty, even if they make people existentially poorer for it.

Another example. I have a friend who several years back flatted with someone that she liked as a person but hated living with (to the point of tears), and she did so because she had no other choice due to costs. As a consequence she lived in poverty. Her basic need for privacy was badly undermined. She needed her own space and she couldn't have it. One [theoretical] option for her would have been freedom-camping close to work, in a nice setting in a good caravan. That would have been far better and much cheaper for her at that time. But no. That option was (and is) not allowed to be practical due to local regulations. She was not allowed to be poor so she had to be poorer - just like with my capsule example. 

When it comes to housing we have a national emergency in New Zealand. We've created true poverty and on social and material levels. We can do so much today to remove the hardest edge of the housing crises by simply relaxing regulations, so as to allow New Zealander's to build temporary alternatives that work for them personally - especially if they have little money.

A good idea amongst others is to create new camping zones that make caravan living easy and private. How? Just create designated park-up areas on the city fringe, in nice settings, coupled with electronically-locked pay-to-use showers, toilets and wash-house for people who might need it, and allow strong social controls to be established to keep "difficult" people out. 

It would also provide a lot of supply relief for housing. That would impact the entire rental market for everyone - reducing costs. When you don't have children, caravans and campervans can be surprisingly livable. And there are tens of thousands of Auckland renters with no kids.

Also, let people put simple China-import cabins on their properties, front or back of the house, classed as mobile homes, to expand the capacity of existing rentals without creating undue overcrowding.

Work with alternatives - don't suppress them. Let the poor be poor until we sort the construction cost of housing out. Surely this makes better sense? Better than forcing them to live in their cars or give up all disposable income, at least.