Affordable Housing Official Gives Up On Finding Affordable Home(NOT ONION)

[matcom]

<snip>

Lyle Wray knew it would be tough finding a Ventura County home within his budget when he accepted a job as an affordable housing advocate last year.

What he didn't count on was being priced out of the market himself.

After looking at housing within reach of his $80,000-a-year salary, Wray, 54, has given up and is heading to a similar job in Connecticut.

The former Minnesota resident knows he will be trading midwinter hikes for mornings shoveling snow. But houses in Ventura County are so costly, he has no choice if he wants to become a homeowner, Wray said.

"This is the most beautiful place I've ever lived in and the weather is fantastic," he said. "It's paradise. I just can't afford to live here."

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-me-housing18mar18.story

[veganwitch]

1. try finding something when you make considerably less than that

[liberalhistorian]

5. BINGO!

I was just thinking the same thing. How many of us actually have jobs that pay that much, or can even HOPE to have a job that pays anywhere near that much?

[7th_Sephiroth]

10. there are some of us who make that much (or more)

i have gone through alot of hard work and study, now i make damn decent money ($80-$100k) i know it sucks and it should be a crime, but please dont go out and say that everyone who makes that kind of money doesent care or is a repub or something cause its not true

[liberalhistorian]

11. No, No, NO NO,

that is NOT what I was saying at all! I'm sorry if I wasn't clear enough. And I've gone through a lot of hard work and study, too, I have a B.A. AND a paralegal certificate and can't find anything over 25k a year, which is, frankly, bullshit considering my education and employment credentials!

And now my boss decided he needs more of a legal secretary than a paralegal, and is bringing back his old legal secretary because he's not "utilizing my skills the way they should be." Well, I'm a single mother, I don't have the luxury of waiting for a job that "utilizes my skills", I MUST have a STEADY income!

I don't have the luxury of waiting months for another job, as well, which is what it usually takes, and I cannot bear to go through that whole no-job-no-money thing again like I did four years ago. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I suppose I can always drive the car off the cliff, and that way I won't have to worry about the car payment I won't have and the kid I can't feed and clothe.

[NightTrain]

13. Could you possibly be a little more patronizing?

Lisa (a/k/a liberalhistorian) is on the verge of losing her job, and she has a 13-year-old son to support. So you'll just have to cut her some slack if she's unsympathetic toward the plight of those who make six figures a year.

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. sounds like Long Island

No affordable housing here either...and the highest tax rate in the country.

Also the most segregated too.

Woo Hoo!!

:(

[skippysmom]

3. Irony is just so ironic

When are the powers that be in this country going to wake up and realize we have a real affordable housing crisis going on?

Edited to add that I grew up in "fashionable West Hartford" and LA must be pretty bad if that town is "affordable"!

[liberalhistorian]

4. Because THEY don't have that

problem! So to them it doesn't exist. It's the same thing with health care, the people who are in the position to actually do something about it are the very ones who don't have to worry about paying for it. So not only do they NOT see a problem, they refuse to do anything about it for the rest of us!

[skippysmom]

6. Precisely

Here on Cape Cod we have an awful affordable housing crisis -- yet no one will do anything about it because it doesn't affect them -- either they make a lot of money, or they bought their houses before the boom and are just watching the value increase. (Of course, then they just bitch about their rising property taxes.)

Plus there is tremendous snobbery -- no one would want affordable housing near them. They may have to live near poor people -- or God forbid, people of color.

[dryan]

7. Little affordable housing in Central Florida

In Central Florida (Orange County in particular - home of the former Secretary of HUD Mel Martinez) there is very little affordable housing.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Cry me a river...

...I'm in the same damn boat.

Of course, if I made $80k HERE, I could buy a pretty decent place. :P

[Donkeyboy75]

9. Really, it's hard to get past the market setting the cost of homes

When I was in Seoul, I remember that most people there lived in these enormous 40-story apartment skyscrapers. They looked like the projects in a major city, except they were well-maintained, and there were tens of these buildings built right next to each other. Not asthetically pleasing, but still it makes housing affordable by maximizing available space. I think we'll start to see this sort of thing.

[NightTrain]

12. And he thinks he'll find affordable housing in goddamned Connecticut?!

LOL! Good luck, dude!