In a small college town, with zero homeless and tons of university facilities the students recently pushed a ballot measure. They wanted to fund a homeless shelter (there were no homeless) a women shelter, and an LGBTQAAIP2S+ shelter. The city already owned about a dozen homes that were empty that they would use for temporary housing for something like a women shelter. The ballot measure raised property taxes rates 2.6%, which translated to about 35% increase in the amount of property taxes paid. It was ridiculous, and was rejected by the city which is why the students pushed it as a ballot measure.
It passed. Rents on a 1 bedroom went from ~$950 to $1350, and now students are writing letters in their news papers complaining about rent costs. Thankfully, I live outside the students voting area.
They tried to pass a massive school bond here a few years ago that would have increased our property taxes by about 35% as well. Fortunately it failed, but they have already promised to put it back on the ballot again. They still managed to pass a smaller college bond last year which bumped up our taxes.
We have a lot of homeless here because the community provides housing, food, and other services for them. Almost all of them are transients, not locals, and they gravitate here because the town caters to their needs. In contrast, a similar sized town just down the coast from us has almost no homeless population despite having a very small economy, and the reason is that they don’t cater to the homeless like our town does.
In a small college town, with zero homeless and tons of university facilities the students recently pushed a ballot measure. They wanted to fund a homeless shelter (there were no homeless) a women shelter, and an LGBTQAAIP2S+ shelter. The city already owned about a dozen homes that were empty that they would use for temporary housing for something like a women shelter. The ballot measure raised property taxes rates 2.6%, which translated to about 35% increase in the amount of property taxes paid. It was ridiculous, and was rejected by the city which is why the students pushed it as a ballot measure.
It passed. Rents on a 1 bedroom went from ~$950 to $1350, and now students are writing letters in their news papers complaining about rent costs. Thankfully, I live outside the students voting area.
They tried to pass a massive school bond here a few years ago that would have increased our property taxes by about 35% as well. Fortunately it failed, but they have already promised to put it back on the ballot again. They still managed to pass a smaller college bond last year which bumped up our taxes.
We have a lot of homeless here because the community provides housing, food, and other services for them. Almost all of them are transients, not locals, and they gravitate here because the town caters to their needs. In contrast, a similar sized town just down the coast from us has almost no homeless population despite having a very small economy, and the reason is that they don’t cater to the homeless like our town does.