Banning alternative housing options in the wake of the landslides, during a continuing pandemic, lumber shortage, economic crisis and inflation is like making a wealthy homeowner’s association after a natural disaster to push out lower-income residents.
As a former Beach Roader, I am scrambling to find affordable long-term housing so I can continue to be part of this community. I’m not alone in this. Some of us can’t afford $400,000 houses. I know people who lived in yurts/tents/mobile homes on their property for several years so they could build permanent homes. Does that make us less a part of this community?
We should be helping each other in these difficult times, not clutching at our pearls. In recent months, lumber and building prices have tripled and quadrupled, making constructing regular houses even further out of the budgets of people suffering economic hardship and displacement.
Legally protecting the property values of a wealthier few (who may or may not even live there year-round) by banning someone living in a yurt, RV, or mobile home year-round on their own private property is nothing short of gentrification.
Joe Aultman-Moore