Village Matters

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Painful Cost of Rising Home Prices

By Ann Christoph
By Ann Christoph

Our neighbor had a garage sale for the second weekend in a row. After 10 years in the small board and batten cottage, she has to move. Her rent was just increased to $2,800.

There are many ways we hear the pulse of the community. Garage sales are one. Another way is being involved in community projects like the community garden. Until we started the garden I had no idea who lived behind most of the doors lining our little streets. Over the six years we’ve had the garden, we’ve met so many on a personal level. Their stories are part of a much larger community story, a story that perhaps one wouldn’t hear without the friendly contacts that the garden opens. Gardeners have come and gone with the changes that happen in their lives.

One gardener was evicted from his long-term apartment so that the landlord could rent it via Air BnB. Another had to give up his apartment and moved to San Clemente where he could find a place he could afford. Two gardeners who lost their housing are still here in Laguna, but only because they have relatives or friends who have properties they are willing to rent to them at a reasonable price.

Rising property costs are at the root of the problem. We have a human tragedy unfolding as teachers, artists, tradespeople and salaried workers–people with normal jobs and incomes who did not buy a house 20 or more years ago—are no longer finding housing they can afford in Laguna.

The community as a whole suffers as the trend toward our city as an elite enclave of expensive properties accelerates, and the functioning of our town as a complete community declines.

The city has a Housing and Human Services Committee that concentrates its efforts on homelessness. This month they will be sponsoring a citywide food drive, a toiletry and sock drive, and a panel discussion on Nov. 14.

There is also a Senior Housing Task Force that has developed creative strategies, a virtual village concept to help aging people remain in their own homes by providing the kinds of services available in assisted living facilities.

But chronic homelessness and senior living are only part of the spectrum of housing problem. What is termed work force housing remains unaddressed.

We have had recent task forces on the possibility of widening Laguna Canyon Road, and another on developing an ordinance to restrict trees in favor of views. We have on-going projects to revise the specific plan for downtown, the canyon, and develop another plan for the village entrance. Much effort and expense goes into these projects, which to the people who have to leave town because they can’t find a place to live must seem irrelevant and superficial.

Will we have the will and fervor to concentrate efforts to come up with ways to make housing affordable for all members of our community?

When I talked with my neighbor again she was trying to remain positive. “Maybe I can find a room in someone’s house,” she said wistfully.

 

Landscape architect Ann Christoph helped establish the community garden in South Laguna.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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