AFFORDABLE HOUSING? YOU GOTTA BE KIDDIN'!!

I am completely baffled! What happened to affordable housing in our area of Ventura County? Southern California? The West Coast?

  Developers and District supervisors all promised to build more affordable housing and it appeared all were on the same page for the "go ahead" with plans. I took a sigh of relief knowing that I actually would be able to pay a reasonable rent and eat at the same time. Guess I was dreaming!

Have you checked local rents out lately?

  Its evident that all that talk was merely just that...empty promises to make Joe Average Person feel better and vote for those seeking office or to remain in the one they were in. Well, I am one Average Person whose fed up with it all!

   Recently, I discovered, the very apartment complex that I reside in, was sold to yet another huge conglomerate that is planning to turn this entire property(500+ units) into Luxury Apartments starting at $3000 a month. It appears GREED has taken over as well as new owners!

  Most people I know work very hard and long to support their families. They are frugal and watch carefully where their monies go. They don't want 2/3 of their salaries to go solely for rent and they don't want a Luxury Apartment. They want a decent ,well maintained, safe and reasonably priced apartment/condo to call home. Not everyone wants or can afford to purchase their own home in these days of a messed up economy. Some are trying to save for that residence they can own and invest in...but how can they?

 Its virtually impossible to pay these extraordinary rents, pay their everyday bills, clothe and feed their kids, keep up their car payments and not go insane from the effort. And certainly there is no feasible way to save money for the purchase of a house...we, the overly charged for rent, can barely pay for a bird house! But Seriously.........................

  Even those with great expensive educations and careers can't do it! Many have been laid off due to company downsizing and relocation , so now there's 50 something's out there beating down the pavement alongside college kids the same age as their own!

  I don't need to tell you about the crazy increase in gas prices or food for that matter. Everything has skyrocketed in price so naturally housing has joined in too. Many are renting instead of purchasing a place to lay their head, out of necessity and difficulty getting mortgages. Jobs are too transient and one may have to move at the slightest notice for work. The times they are a changing! ( to quote a song)

  So....what happened to affordable housing that we were promised ? Its obvious that the real estate market are no dummies....they know the need for rentals are in high demand so it's the perfect chance to raise all the rents out of the supply and demand principle...even a simple writer with no real estate knowledge can see that! So Joe Average Person is up the creek....

  With increasing competitiveness in the job market and bills surmounting, we have very limited choices about where we will call home. People are leaving California in droves and relocating to places they can actually afford.. like Reno, Arizona, Georgia and Texas to name a few. The American Dream, to one day own your own home, is becoming a fairytale for many and causing great instability in the home.

 Uprooting your family is not a pleasant experience especially with children in the picture. The once upon a time scenario where you grew up, raised a family and died all in the same location is rare nowadays. And this is very sad to me!!

  So..those of you who are not being effected by all this...you are blessed and I sincerely hope you are grateful for that! But for the rest of us struggling everyday I truly have no answers.

 There isn't enough housing as it is and now we have greedy corporations preying on the sick economy to profit from, off of the backs of the people. It would be so simple and compassionate to build housing units with rents that actually coincide with the job market and the abilities of the people to afford them.

 Money would still be made and more jobs to be had with the building of these affordable housings. The Government would and should give incentives to build these housings and it really would be a win-win situation.

So.. I guess we can all move. .get outta town Jack! But then another location will eventually start the greedy cycle and it will go on and on.. where will it stop? There are people who get paid to sit around and come up with solutions that will actually help our economy and us, the people. .right??

Oh, wait a second! They're being paid by the the very people who are raising the rents and lowering the pay and refusing to look outside of their ivory towers. How can they see the devastation when they have no concept of it??  

 So, to conclude my written tyraid...the bottom line....we NEED affordable housing even here in our communities. We need to allow persons some sleep at night without worrying just how they will juggle their responsibilities including ludicrous rents. We work hard, are contributing to the societal values while attempting to raise our children to be decent educated and compassionate human beings. Isn't that the American way?

It will get better..it MUST get better. Middle class America will resurface one day soon.

{But then again, I am known to be a dreamer, an idealist, a solution seeker.}

*****Will somebody PLEASE send that memo out to those in charge of housing in our communities! I don't think they got the last one.      Namaste!