HOUSING: Headed toward crisis

Spokane has a homeless problem. One of the reasons Spokane has a homeless problem is that rents are going up at an alarming rate and middle class families are being forced out of their apartments and cannot afford to purchase homes.

Coeur d’Alene will soon face a similar problem. Retirees and people who have lived here all their lives are now being priced out of rentals and home ownership. Every day I get a card from a Realtor wanting to sell our home. I want to sell it. However, before I sell it I want to buy a home close to services, in one of the three towns, but I can’t find one in my price range. I want and need a small condo or small house.

For every huge expensive housing project approved, the county should require affordable housing to be built for families, retirees and single people. This would be 800- to 1,000-square-foot condos, houses and affordable apartments. What is so difficult about this?

The end product of continuing to build only high-end houses is that we could end up like Sun Valley with no one to wait tables, clean our office buildings or perform any of the jobs that pay lower wages. Sun Valley’s restaurants had to close for want of waiters. Is this what the future holds — high rises, huge houses and empty storefronts for want of employees?

DONNA HARVEY

Coeur d’Alene