Mess buildings

From the change wiki

There needs to be a few residential buildings where people can live as messily as they want without getting told to clean up or be evicted.

Rationale

For some people, maintaining a clean home is a constant struggle that never gets easier, and can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Maybe "normal" people can't relate to this, but it is incredibly common in people with ADHD.[QUANTIFICATION needed] Rather than calling these people lazy, we need housing that can accommodate people's neurodiversity.

The problem with the status quo (for comparison)

A building is a building; clean people and messy people live in the same building complex. Tenants end up pitted against other tenants, in some cases:

Example scenario: Alice is an incredibly clean person. One day she finds a cockroach in her apartment. She tells her landlord. The landlord brings an exterminator to multiple apartment units, including Bob's apartment. Bob lives very messily and is the main source of the cockroaches; he isn't bothered by the insects, but he is very much bothered by the exterminator spraying the place, and by the landlord telling him he has to clean up or get evicted. Bob may also have to throw stuff out (which also happens to be harmful to the environment). Side note: If the landlord had just decided to ignore Alice's complaint, the outcome would have been better for Bob but worse for Alice. It's a zero-sum game, all because clean people and dirty people live in the same building. This wikipage offers a potential solution to this problem.

Economics & implementation

This section has not been filled in yet.

Naming / framing

This idea has to be framed in a way that doesn't stigmatize messy people. Calling it a "slum" or "trap house" won't do. But the term "mess building" is also kind of awkward because it's similar to "mess hall" which has nothing to do with being messy. Any other ideas what to call it?

FAQ

Aren't there already buildings like this? I've heard there are lots of slum lords renting out dilapidated buildings - why not just move there with all the dirty violent people?
Because that's not the purpose. We aren't aiming to have broken plumbing, crumbling lead paint, or neighborhood conflicts. We're just aiming for basic livable housing where people are allowed to be messy without getting evicted. Occasionally this does already exist, but it tends to not last very long (due to gentrification).

See also