Blue states are taking notice of San Francisco's rising crime and homelessness crisis, and similar Democratic legislators are trying to tackle affordable housing in their cities.
Democrats in particular are looking at the effects of the pandemic, which caused housing costs to soar and businesses to relocate. In San Francisco, homelessness remains one of the city's top issues coming out of COVID-19, spurning a revolving door of crime and drug use.
There are several factors that can be attributed to homelessness, such as health problems, drug use, and domestic violence. However, a lack of affordable housing remains the primary instigator of evictions and homelessness. This contributes to the large population of homeless people in California — 30% of the nation's homeless population lives in the Golden State.
For example, Washington state and Vermont have banned single-family zoning, a rule that eliminated the presence of duplexes, fourplexes, or six-plexes. The new regulation aims to alleviate the rising cost of living burden on families unable to afford their own homes. “When I think of San Francisco, I think of it being an example of the most restrictive land use, which results in it only being accessible to people that have significant wealth in order to be there and to live in that city,” Washington Democratic state Rep. Jessica Bateman said.
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