I watched with dismay on Dec. 12 as the SLO County Board of Supervisors decided to take no action on the SLO County Title 29 Affordable Housing Fund. In the face of an ever-worsening shortage of affordable housing, the board, by a 3-2 vote, chose to do nothing. This, despite overwhelming public comments that favored increased funding for affordable housing. Once again, the board majority of Lynn Compton, Debbie Arnold, and John Peschong rejected the advice of their own Homeless Services Oversight Council, rejected the advice of nonprofit housing leaders, rejected the sound and well-thought-out advice of an independent nexus study, and rejected public comments that ran in a ratio of 3-1, to increase the in-lieu fees that help to fund the construction of affordable housing in SLO County.
Time and again, the majority, led by Compton, talks the talk but refuses to actually do the right thing to get more affordable housing built. They clearly side with wealthy developers over the people who work here and struggle to pay for and even find decent housing. So, I’m calling out the conservative majority on the board: Why is it that time after time, they choose the interests of the few and the wealthy over the interests of the many working people, the poor, and the homeless?
I’m guessing I won’t get an answer from any of the conservatives on the board, so let me surmise the answer. It’s because their decisions aren’t based on good policy. They’re based on ideology, an ideology that says, “What’s mine is mine, and I won’t share it. Because if you are poor, homeless, or a working stiff, that’s your fault and your problem, not mine.” These three make bad policy decisions based on ideology, not facts. They then chicken walk their way back to a rationalization and justification of their bad decisions that have no factual basis, and benefit primarily the special interests that fund their campaigns for election.
I applaud the voices of Adam Hill and Bruce Gibson. These are the two supervisors who speak to the facts. They speak truth to the power. These two battle every day on behalf of the people of SLO County, both for those who “have” but care about a more equitable society, and those who “have not,” and need champions like supervisors Hill and Gibson to represent their very real needs.
William Alexander – Atascadero
This article appears in Dec 21-31, 2017.
And where shall all these affordable people work, where the never ending supply of Poly kids already don’t? Which giant manufacture base will you be relying on to support jobs and careers? Where are the vast fields of farms, ready to accept workers by the droves, to pay them squat wages, so they can live in affordable housing?
And what shall the housing consist of? Massive blocks of high rise projects? Huge acreage spreads of single level apartments? Hundreds, or thousands of tiny bungalows filling the precious open space? Tell us all how the already overcrowded infrastructure will handle all this affordable living? How many bridges are you willing to construct over the 101, to connect every side street in the city?
Remember when Ernie Dalidio wanted to build “affordable housing” on his land, and certain leftist board persons destroyed that idea, because the board didn’t want the “…entrance to SLO to be crowded with ugly homes”?
SLO is a destination city. We have no fantastic natural event to draw in tourists, no gorgeous valleys to charge outrageous park prices to ogle at, nor vast forests of unique trees and fauna to pretend to be quiet in. We are in close access to a few nice beaches, and the Madonna Inn. Some people even think Hearst Castle is worth seeing at least once. Oh, and sea lions, we got sea lions.
What we have, is a community that has grown of wealthy people looking for a nice place to retire to, or to live in to raise their families. That desire created the market for expensive housing and land (and the city council and land development boards encouraged). The market alone, decided that SLO is worth paying exorbitant prices for houses that would 1/4 to 1/3 the cost anywhere else. As soon as someone…SLOCBS…attempts to control, alter, or legislate that market, affordable housing will be the least of your financial worries.
Mr. Medzyk forgets, or doesn’t know, that Cal Poly and Cuesta are also “destinations” for tens of thousands of students each year, who are taught and cared for by thousands of faculty and staff; and let’s not forget those who teach and care for thousands of other young people in our county at the K-12 level. Most of these teachers don’t make nearly enough to afford a mortgage; for many of them, even making rent payments is a challenge. As one who has served on hiring committees for full-time, tenure-track jobs at Cuesta, jobs that pay $50-60K per year, I can tell you that we often lose excellent candidates because they realize that they will never be able to afford to live here.
If you do meet a teacher who is also a home owner, they have probably taught and lived in this area for at least a couple of decades, when prices were much more affordable, or they have a spouse with a substantial income. As is the trend now across America, both of our local colleges hire mostly part-time faculty (“adjuncts” or “lecturers”) to teach classes, faculty with Masters degrees and PhDs who are lucky to make $30K per year. Hiring part-timers saves the colleges a bundle of money in wages and in benefits, as part-timers usually don’t qualify, but it creates another stratum of the economic underclass. Teachers are only one group of public servants who struggle to afford housing–as a renter or homeowner–in this area.