I hear your point, and I wonder what the stats are on livability of these vacant homes. Cause I bet the other side of the spectrum is true too: luxury units that just sit there because the price point is so high.

But beyond that, housing as investment property alienates people from the natural reward of caring for housing. We ought to be leaving into and communicating peoples' natural desire to make home livable. Instead we rip people from it, we punish people by forcing them to switch apartments when they're perfectly happy.

So many people effectively live in in slow motion life long exile.

It would save a lot of money on demolition though. The plumbing, cabinets, appliances, doors, ducting, and everything not fixed to the frame would get removed for free and it would be very easy to bulldoze after the house catches fire from people trying to stay warm inside without paying a utility bill.

> a mentally ill fentanyl addict

In a lot of cases they wouldn't have become mentally ill or a fentanyl addict if they weren't homeless. Yes, addiction drives tons of people into homelessness, but homelessness can also cause addiction since a homeless life kinda sucks.

There’s actually a philosophy called “housing first” that says you cannot solve those other problems without housing those people.

99 percent invisible did a podcast series on the reality and nuance of homelessness. It is the best take I’ve seen and really opened my eyes on a number of things. Episode 3 covers housing first, but I would recommend going through the whole thing.

https://99percentinvisible.org/need/