"Mark Steckbeck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>" wrote: > An interesting news story affirming my contention that zoning > restrictions contribute to homelessness is the push by a few northern > Virginia state lawmakers to enact a state law outlawing residents from > sleeping in any rooms of their homes other than their bedrooms. Their > reasoning is that poor people (read: immigrants) tend to rent single-family > homes and then pack them with roommates using every room, including the > kitchen, as bedrooms. That is pretty lame, but probably true. Though, around Northern Virginia, the biggest beef is that all the immigrants who pack themselves into homes each own cars, often making on-street parking difficult for neighbors. Feel free to blame the lack of good public transportation ... As draconian and indirect as "bedroom" zoning ordinances are, why do they cause homelessness? This just means that people who want to work can't afford to live in the district of enforcement. Therefore, isn't it more likely that they'll go elsewhere for work, rather than go homeless? I can tell you that in recent memory, the only homeless person I've seen in Northern Virginia is this well-fed Vietnam vet who works the I-395N/Seminary Road off-ramp. One might argue that zoning restrictions in Northern Virginia cause homelessness _elsewhere_, but : * No. Va. is special in that it has one of the highest costs of living in the US. * No. Va., even during this economic downturn, is hardly the only place that has an open job market. So I disagree with your contention that zoning restrictions _necessarily_ cause homelessnes, even if they are overbearing and ill-conceived. Sourav ------------------------------------------------------------ Sourav K. Mandal [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.ikaran.com/Sourav.Mandal/ "In enforcing a truth we need severity rather than efflorescence of language. We must be simple, precise, terse." -- Edgar Allan Poe, "The Poetic Principle"
