Many cities in California have a dire housing shortage, not enough homes for everyone. The state's solution? Hand out a free $40,000 to homeowners so they can transform their garage into a living space for someone else to live there. That's right, the state's solution to not enough housing involves people living in the garage. Something that's already very common in many parts of the state due to the high number of low income immigrants. Except the state now wants to encourage this. California gave us $40,000 to turn our garage into a tiny home. There was a lot of paperwork, but it lets us live next to our grandkids. Kelsey Neubauer kneubauer@insider.com , Business Insider, August 28, 2023 Is it really appropriate for the state to be paying for this type of thing? Isn't this the type of thing that the homeowner should be paying for? $40,000 is more money than most low income working people earn. This money is going to be coming from taxes, and the state already has some of the highest taxes in the country. And what effect on neighborhoods is this policy going to have? Is it going to result in overcrowding and worsen parking problems on the street? In some neighborhoods a lot of households cement over their front yards and install a big tall fence and gate because it is not safe to park their cars on the street, with the high crime rates. This often makes these neighborhoods look unsightly and unpleasant. Many California neighborhoods have a parking problem, because the homes are so jam-packed full of people living there, that it can be challenging to find anywhere to park on the street. There are too many cars in these neighborhoods and not enough parking spaces. Converting more garages into living spaces is only going to exacerbate these problems, and lead to lower quality of life for others living in the neighborhood. This seems like a desperate and idiotic solution. If the state thought it was a good idea for people to live in garages, fine. But they are making this a government policy and actually providing grants to pay for it? By providing these grants, the government is going to be essentially subsidizing people to live in garages. This almost seems like insanity to me, and does not seem like the proper role of government. It's the Leftist mentality, always thinking government has to provide a specific money for something if they think it's a good idea. It should be noted that a lot of these grants are most likely going to be directed towards Hispanic-owned homes who are going to be renting out their garages to illegal immigrants, since living in garages is common amongst this demographic group. The phenomena of living in garages is probably going to be concentrated in Los Angeles county, other parts of Southern California, such as Santa Ana and San Diego, and San Francisco and Oakland.
