Imagine if every mechanic only fixed one part of the car and you had to go to 10 different ones to fix 10 different things. No mechanic would be able to point to what's wrong with the whole car and can only tell you what's wrong with each part.

There is a degree of vertical integration needed to maintain a single dwelling. As an example, I wanted to replace my stove that had a broken oven. In order to do so, I needed to fix the gas line. However, I need to finish removing an old gas furnace and installing a heat pump. In order to do that, I needed to repair the broken sewer lines under the unit, and in order to do that, I needed to resolve a dispute with the city over sewer line maintenance (they admitted fault eventually).

This wasn't just a bunch of small projects that 10 people could each do one of. There were a myriad of dependencies and choices to make that would affect other parts of the house.

Funny enough, the same principle is part of why the US healthcare system is so shit because the lack of vertical integration due to the insurance system is why patients have such a hard time getting the diagnosis and medications they need. If you or a family member has multiple health issues, you may be familiar with this.

My point is, keeping a house alive isn't some group project that you can get 10 people to each do a little bit of. At the end of the day there are executive decisions that will determine the outcome of other parts of the house.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 20 points 10 months ago (1 children)

And all of that can be done either publicly or at a worker-owned maintenance organization. None of that needed a landlord.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I think that the broader point is, a proper landlord, one that actually has investment in the land they own and maintain, can allow for a more holistic approach to any given problem. If one entity is aware of the nuances of the situation, they're better able to get things moving in all of the little codependent issues that may arise.

None of this excuses shitty capitalist landlords who just buy up shit and rent it for a profit. And yes, it could be handled by the person living there instead of a landlord. Or government approved... Maintenance overseers for each individual property?

There are a myriad of ways to approach the problem besides a landlord, but the point still stands that having someone with a broader knowledge of the individual property can make repairs a ton easier.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The thing is, that managerial position has absolutely no reason to require ownership. The home can be personally owned and a local worker-owned firm can be contracted, or it can be maintained by a local public manager.

The point the original commenter was making was that somehow nobody decrying landlords had put this into thought, and that Capitalism is therefore the correct answer. You can follow their comment chains, its pretty blatant. They end up calling the Worker firm a glorified HOA and then stick their head in the sand.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I don't agree with all of their statements, particularly the glorified HOA bit (I didn't see that on this specific thread, probably elsewhere they posted), merely trying to point out that some of their statements are accurate.

I'm pretty sure I carved out several possibilities for non-landlord people who can fill out the same role. I'm just saying there's a bit of truth to having someone actually knowledgeable about the specific property facilitating maintenance.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I get that, my point is that nobody thinks housing doesn't need managers, despite the original commenter pretending that's the common stance of people decrying landlords.

[–] Ookami38@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

To be fair to the original commentor, it's pretty common for it to just be tackled piecemeal.

I rent, and just had to deal with an overflow valve leaking. There ended up being several other tangentially related things that needed to be addressed. If I was managing that, as the person who actually lives there, I'd have been able to inform the contractors of all of this stuff ahead of time. Instead I have a 255 character box to send off to some nameless person who has never seen the property in all likelihood, who will call the cheapest contractor available, and draw a 2 hour repair into a 2 week affair.

This is why I stressed that we need people INVESTED IN the properties they're trying to maintain, not just have them be another line in a spreadsheet.