For years I have been hearing that California has a “housing crisis.” Where is this growing demand for housing coming from? It appears to me that what California actually has is a “population crisis.” The marketing forces imposed on locals by an ever-increasing population of nonnatives is driving up the cost of existing housing and making it almost impossible for those of us who were born here to find a home and stay here. Transplants with “deep pockets” are responsible for the “housing crisis” on the Central Coast, not a “housing shortage.” There would be plenty of housing if they just stayed away.
Fueling the artificial “housing crisis” are our local politicians, who focus way too much of their energy on growing the tourist trade. Instead of apartments, we get hotels; instead of homes, we get weekend rentals. They are selling us out—literally.
If our local leaders really wanted to solve the “housing crisis,” they would take steps to end the profitability of owning a second or third house on the Central Coast. Why should local families go homeless while houses sit empty waiting for weekend visitors? Why not convert some of the hotels to apartments? Why should permanent residents have to choke on particulate matter just so weekend visitors can drive air-polluting ATVs around in circles on the sand? Why should another forest of air-cleansing, oxygen-producing California native oaks be sacrificed to the god of lucre for a tract of houses that none of us now living here can afford? What about our demand for sufficient water, open space, clean air, and less traffic pollution?
If politicians really wanted to solve the “housing crisis,” they would require residents, and potential residents, of the Central Coast to obtain a certified copy of their birth certificates. Then have them find the box that indicates “place of birth”… and tell them to go there!
Lisa Casillas-Siemsen,
Orcutt
This article appears in Aug 17-27, 2023.
Wow. These hotels aren’t being built without meeting zoning guidelines. The answer isn’t to restrict private property rights. There is a ton of undeveloped property on the Central. Government needs to remove the barriers including the high cost of fees and permits as well as limit the ability to the local NIMBY’s to slow the projects. Hotels are built because they are more profitable. If home builders could make more profits they would build less expensive units. You can’t make folks spend their $ the way that you insist.
The idea of requiring residency documents to enter SLO is intriguing. I am sure that you, in turn, would be a good sport about having to get a visa to visit the San Francisco Bay area, Monterey or Santa Barbara, areas which also suffer overcrowding. “Your papers, pleeeeese”
Wait, I thought people were leaving good ole Cali. I’ve carried a simple driver’s license my entire life and that has always been good enough. Let’s keep it that way. This letter will be filed in the round basket.
Strange that Mrs. Casillas-Siemsen has had prior letters published imploring the public to stay “wide awake” as the nation slips back into Jim Crow style segregation. Wonder why it’s somehow acceptable to build a border wall around SLO County and make Santa Maria commuters pay for it.
https://www.newtimesslo.com/opinion/everyo…