[zeth___]

>Soviet housing never worked. More to the point the wait lists for apartments was measured in years (ripe for corruption). The buildings were shoddy and depressing (hope you like grey). Urban planning was haphazard and may or not may have corresponded to where people actually wanted to live.

And yet there was no homelessness in the USSR.

If that's a system that doesn't work, sign me up for two.

[zo1]

You'd be surprised at how humans "make a plan" when it comes to those things, as long as family/community is not broken. Either way, there probably was some homelessness, but we'd have to look at actual records/stats on it.

But the USSR was just one system of social housing. Have a look at what's happening right now in South Africa with what they call RDP housing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_and_Development...

Sounds good on paper. However it has so many problems:

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2017-03-16-gover...

http://www.corruptionwatch.org.za/cracks-exposed-in-rdp-hous...

http://www.cplo.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/BP-432-RDP...

[dragonwriter]

> Either way, there probably was some homelessness, but we'd have to look at actual records/stats on it.

Since it was a subject of official denial, records and stats would likely be hard to find.

[kofejnik]

> And yet there was no homelessness in the USSR.

Just stop, you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

Source: grew up in USSR, 4 people in a 10 sqm room.

[simonbarker87]

Wasn’t the lack of homelessness and unemployment because both of those were designated as a crime and so you got sent of to a work camp?

[kofejnik]

More or less so. Plus, you also could not just decide to go to Moscow (or other city), you needed "propiska" (residence permit). And those born in countryside didn't have passports until _1974_ so had no freedom of movement at all.

Seriously, I cannot find polite words for people praising USSR

[dang]

Please don't take HN threads into ideological flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[cc81]

>And yet there was no homelessness in the USSR.

Was there no homelessness or did the state just say that? Just like there are no homosexuals in Saudi Arabia or Chechnya?

[macspoofing]

Honestly, there probably wasn't. It's not hard to 'solve' homelessness if you can forcibly send the homeless to work-camps or institutionalize them. Done and done.

[macspoofing]

There was also no unemployment. Clearly that is a system worth emulating.

[Consultant32452]

>And yet there was no homelessness in the USSR.

>If that's a system that doesn't work, sign me up for two.

Okay, step one is to starve millions of Americans to death in order to reduce demand. What's step 2 again?

[dang]

Please don't take HN threads even further into ideological flamewar.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html