Which reminds me of one of those "great moments in Social Science". The discovery of the primary aspect about life in the slums that produces such high crime rates there. "Street hood" isn't a particularly high paying occupational choice. That's where the rents are cheapest, so that's the only place they could afford to live.
” That’s where the rents are cheapest”
Not true. After 18 years As an inner city slumlord / citywide co-chair of numerous Alinsky organizations / fulltime inspector for property insurance and researcher for UNCLE SAM’S CABIN, the facts I have seen are that rents are often higher for those on welfare.
The old welfare plans, and now Section 8, create a ceiling. That ceiling always becomes the floor and never the ceiling.
Several things are true.
Smart landlords seek out good tenants. Smart tenants seek out good landlords. Smart home buyers seek out stupid sellers. Smart home sellers seek out stupid buyers. There is an extremely wide variance in both rents and sale prices of housing.
Enough tenants and home buyers are willing to pay extra for prestige address, cosmetics and fluff that it skews the price from what others would consider intrinsic values: quality of local school, quality of the housing unit, and especially price.
The result is that stupid people on welfare who think their rent is no concern because it is paid by Santa Claus end up in high priced slums where they don’t get their money’s worth.
On the other hand, the working poor who don’t take welfare often get some of the best deals on housing ... the most for their cheap rent. That is because they value their money more as it takes them 80 hours a week to earn what the middle class earns in 40 and the welfare class earns in 1 hour waiting in line at some bureaucrat’s office.