User:The Lightning Chronicles/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Link to article: California housing shortage

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
My written research proposal topic is about how community unity was achieved through the unhoused community of Skid Row in Los Angeles, primarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as analyzing both the negative and positive relations post-pandemic. Due to this, I chose to look for an article explaining homelessness in California. Though this article does not specifically outline my chosen area of Skid Row in Los Angeles, I found it pertinent to use this opportunity to learn more about the logistical background of why California has such a high amount of unhoused populations - which may be explained by the limited amount of units available for such an increasingly high population. Due to this, I found this article on the 'California housing shortage' would be perfect to providing me with the basic knowledge on the subject. To me, getting a fundamental understanding to such a widespread issue can help guide my research smoothly. Moreover, I can use the knowledge in the article to help me understand why marginalized, low-income families in Los Angeles like mine continue to face such a challenging housing crisis yearly. In doing so, I hope to use my research to bring more awareness to the issue with my deeper expertise on the topic guiding this goal. As for my thoughts on the article itself, I initially had the preliminary impression that it would not cover so many issues within the main topic. Seeing the article title made me believe that it would explain general information about the housing crisis in the state, rather than go into detail about the main points entailing how this housing crisis has worsened throughout the years.

Lead Section
- In reading the introduction to 'California housing shortage,' I was immediately able to identify the overarching topics it was going to cover. I believe the opening sentence was incredibly clear in stating how this housing crisis has only begun worsening from 1970, and was even more informing in its real-time comparison to 2018 with the claim that despite having such a high population, California has not sufficed enough housing units for its booming population. The introduction clearly and concisely summarizes the main points about why this housing shortage is so prominent here, especially in regard to its housing unit production with such a high demand. Considering how this topic has so much background information, I found the author was able to summarize everything in an informational and clear manner. The content was straight to the point and outlined many problems within the bigger issue. Moreover, it was completely reflective of what was covered in the body of the article.

 Content 

- Everything in the article was relevant to the topic. However, in the introduction it is stated how California is 49th in its housing units for CA residents out of all of the states. This information was provided based on data from 2018, and I would like to see the current information about most of these topics, though I have found the numbers have remained relatively the same based on other research articles I found outside of Wikipedia. Other than this, most of this information is more recent in later sections, which is understandable because many efforts to close this housing shortage have been more persistent over recent years. Overall, every section of the article intertwined with one another. The article has a strong structure going with its inclusion of a background, multiple causes, effects, quantifying the shortage, and its responses. Regarding any equity gaps, I found the article equally represents historically marginalized populations for the most part. For example, the article includes resistance efforts such as Not In My Back Yard, and a summary on how displacement has deeply affected marginalized communities like Riverside. Still, it could improve in including more content in sections such as: environmental impact, affordability, and homelessness - especially since they are huge results of this widespread Californian issue. To add on, I would like to see more content on how these equity gaps have directly affected certain ethnicities and lower-class communities. In doing so, the authors would be able to maximize the effects of this housing crisis to its audience, which should be included in such a detailed article.

 Tone and Balance 

- From what I read, I do believe the article was relatively neutral on the most part. However, I mentioned that from what I noticed, there should be more content on the direct results of the California housing crisis, especially because so many communities have been hit from various standpoints. In this sense, I do feel that these marginalized populations are underrepresented in the article. To fix this, I believe the author should include more data from multiple populations and communities in California that have experienced the effects of this housing crisis, as a means of fully conceptualizing what this has done for Californians.

 Sources 

- Most citations in the article do work, but many have been removed such as:https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/values.html. Another source I checked that did work was: https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2017/01/04/california-needs-to-build-a-staggering-number-of-homes-and-we-are-way-behind/. Based on the information provided in the Pasadena article, I determined there are various similarities in the claims made here and in the article. For example, the Pasadena article explains how "California will need more than 1.8 million additional homes by 2025 to keep pace with the state’s ever-growing population" (Smith, 2017). Likewise, the Wikipedia article states how California needs to heavily increase its housing units to catch up with its population in its introduction. As for whether or not each fact has an appropriate and reliable reference, I am unsure of because some information is based on sources like the U.S. Census Bureau, and others on sources like the New York Times - which may be biased. Moreover, not every single fact or definition was quoted, like "Localism." Still, it should be noted that the sources do come from many standpoints, which is good because it limits bias, but bad because it could also enforce it in certain topics.

 Talk Page 

- In the Talk Page, I found the article was rated C-Class on its quality. What this means is that this article still needs a lot of information to cover. Its content is either irrelevant or not there, even though it should be. This makes immense sense looking back, especially because some content I was unsure as to why it was there. However, because I am still learning about my topic, was unsure if my judgement was correct. Moreover, I do believe important information regarding more content on marginalized communities should be included. Thus, this article is useful to anyone who simply wants a basic background on the housing crisis, but not to someone who may want to write a paper on it like me. Currently, the article was reviewed by WikiProject Articles for creation, as well as WikiProject California. Regarding its importance, the article has not been rated. Lastly, the way in which Wikipedia discusses this topic differs from how we have talked about it in class, in the sense that too many topics are brought up but not all are thought upon enough. There is information missing, that makes it sufficient enough to read, but not sufficient enough for it to be fully credible.