Compassion is one brick in housing fix

Follow the eyeballs.

In the past week, the three most-read stories on cdapress.com and the newspaper’s Facebook page were all about housing.

Nothing else came close.

An officer-involved shooting and the report of a heinous sex crime against a 7-week-old infant — the latter including an unfathomable $20,000 bail set for the two suspects — generated less than 10 percent the Facebook audience garnered by last Saturday’s story, “Home sweet home? Not for everyone.” Typically, the worse the crime, the more digital eyeballs.

Welcome to the most riveting — and increasingly gut-wrenching — issue in our midst: Housing.

You know the general narrative. Here in the fastest growing state in the union, and that includes both population and real estate prices, housing costs have eclipsed many people’s ability to pay. This paragraph from the Home Sweet Home story pretty much says it all:

“As of October 2021, only 24% of Kootenai County households could afford to purchase a median-priced home in Coeur d'Alene. Five years ago, 75% of households would have been able to buy a home.”

Here’s the full story, in case you were one of the 18 people who missed it: https://bit.ly/3u254JL

But rehashing painful housing stats and gawking at satellite-level readership numbers isn’t the focus of this editorial. The goal today is to rally support among people who might actually be willing to do something about this dilemma.

For more than a year, a coalition of concerned citizens — politicians, business people, retirees, planners and other professionals — has been gathering data and banding together to address some of the most serious challenges of the local housing crisis. The volume of work has left some observers frustrated by what they perceive as a snail’s pace of progress; there’s a perception that the efforts are burdened by bureaucracy.

The fact is, this issue is so massive and complicated, quick fixes are impossible. Many communities across the country are facing similar challenges. If this were easy to resolve, don’t you think somebody would have developed a paint-by-numbers blueprint by now?

Change is only going to occur on an increasingly effective level if more people become involved, and that goes beyond brainstorming and perhaps even some personal sacrifice. A change in attitude among many who already live here is essential.

Until we develop an understanding that hardworking people who reside in apartments or mobile homes are neither inferior nor unwanted, we’ll have a housing problem exacerbated and perpetuated by moral corruption. If that sounds harsh, so be it. This outright discrimination against those who can’t afford a half-million dollar roof over their heads is abhorrent, and it flies in the face of Idaho values.

In the weeks ahead, specific and practical workforce housing projects will be brought to the community’s attention. We encourage citizens to scrutinize them rationally — and with a little compassion.