Gov't Orders Kanye To Destroy Homeless Shelters on His Land Because He Didn't Ask Permission To Build Them First - Report
When Kanye West announced he was building the prototypes for homeless shelters on some land — his unused land — the media was practically ecstatic.
The U.K. Guardian, the official paper of five out of five Jeremy Corbyn supporters, hyped up the project with a piece titled “Can Kanye West solve America’s housing crisis? Maybe …”
“The first images of a housing community proposed by Kanye West have emerged as the construction of prototype homes appears to be under way in Calabasas, California, not far from where West lives,” the piece began. “The dome structures, which were reportedly influenced by the homes on the planet Tatooine in Star Wars, will eventually be used as low-income housing if all goes as planned, West said in a recent interview.”
Well, congratulations, U.K. Guardian! Your ideological friends in California — you know, the ones who run the state and have run it into the ground while they’re at it — have reportedly decided the experiment doesn’t meet building regulations because he didn’t get the proper permits on a huge estate abutting nothing of value.
“Aerial photos of the rapper’s 300-acre Calabasas project show at least three of the ‘Star Wars’-inspired structures reduced to rubble,” the U.K. Daily Mail reported.
“The photos did show a smaller dome that was still standing, although that one will reportedly be demolished soon, according to TMZ.
“Last month it was reported that West’s structures would be dismantled after he fell foul with building regulations.”
This is great news, inasmuch as homeless people would have been sleeping in experimental homes that didn’t meet building regulations as opposed to park benches that did. Say what you will about the shelter from the elements that they provide, those benches are pretty darned sturdy. Shame about those armrests:
Armrests for comfort. Totally not to stop homeless people lying down…
byu/theobanger inHostileArchitecture
So, why did the experimental homes get torn down?
Well, according to the Mail, “West built the futuristic structures earlier this year to create a one-of-a kind community that dismantles the class system within the housing market and shelters the homeless — but he reportedly didn’t obtain a building permit.”
Except West built them on a sprawling, 300-acre property he calls the Yeezy Home community. (One of West’s many nicknames for himself is Yeezy; don’t judge when it comes to the property name, as we pretty much know how Ye rolls at this point.)
RIP, Kanye’s YEEZY Home prototypes. We hardly knew ye:https://t.co/Tu9qZVWkOw pic.twitter.com/1lhuyRdTgY
— Highsnobiety (@highsnobiety) September 10, 2019
By the way, if you think this is some kind of aberration just because Kanye is Kanye, no, it’s not. This doesn’t just happen to mercurial rappers. California, with a massive homeless problem, is aggressively vexed at any innovative solution to that problem that falls outside of the purview of state government.
Elvis Summers, a musician in South L.A., crowdfunded $100,000 to build tiny homes for the homeless in Los Angeles. They were solar-powered and cost roughly $1,200 to build.
And Los Angeles shut him down like he was Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as this report from Reason in 2016 explains:
“The tiny houses provide immediate shelter,” Summers said. “People can lock their stuff up and know that when they come back from their drug treatment program or court or finding a job all day, their stuff is where they left it.”
But tents on the sidewalk are a better solution, apparently. Don’t you understand California Building Code §1124-602.b, you plebeian?
In Los Angeles County, there are 60,000 homeless people. According to the Daily Signal, that’s up 12 percent from last year.
Say what you will about Kanye Being Kanye and the fact that he’s basing these homes in part off of a fictional planet in the Star Wars universe. He’s also trying to do something about homelessness. That puts him one up on the government in the state in which he lives.
“I’m going to be one of the biggest real-estate developers of all time, what Howard Hughes was to aircrafts and what Henry Ford was to cars, just the relationships I have with architects, my understanding of space and sacred proportions, just this new vibe, this new energy,” Kanye said when he launched the initiative. “We’re gonna develop cities.”
Overambitious? Sure. But it’s ambition.
What’s California’s government done? They’ve demolished a bunch of homes because apparently the permits weren’t there — when they were built in the middle of the desert. You would think that, given the state of homelessness in the Golden State, they would be more accommodating.
Instead, they view any private solution to the homelessness crisis with the same suspicion they do any private solution to the affordable housing crisis.
Kanye can afford to stay there and minister to those left behind in the ruins of a once-proud state.
The rest of you, heed my advice: Flee. Flee immediately. And for heaven’s sake, if you end up in a state like Texas, realize what party wrought the destruction that brought you there and vote accordingly. Don’t ruin another state.
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