LETTER: Housing levy proposal: Where’s the data?

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My husband and I are full time residents of Port Townsend. We have multiple concerns about the proposed affordable housing levy by Jefferson County.

First and foremost is that if affordable housing is truly a community problem, why is only one segment of the community being asked to pay for the solution?

Are you choosing homeowners because the perception is that they have a surplus of money?

Also, since everyone is eligible to vote, how easy is it for people who don’t own property to vote yes for something that has no direct cost to them?

Another concern is the speed to get this done. The information available thus far does not represent a complete plan or detail how this would actually solve the problem. People work and they are also on vacation this time of year. Is the rush so that people who disagree with the proposed levy have no time to have their voice heard?

Property taxes have already risen recently to fund the new school and as the city brings properties up to their assessed value. This is having an impact on those in the community living on fixed incomes, which includes seniors and the disabled. They already may be forced to sell their homes because they cannot keep up with escalating property taxes.

In The Leader article there are multiple statements about how this “should” work with no hard data to back them up. This indicates that these ideas are based on feelings or perceptions, not data. If we commit to finding a solution to this problem, we need a complete plan and hard data to back up it’s components.

The entire community needs to contribute to the solution, not just those that own property.

LEE JENKINS

PHILIP N. JENKINS

Port Townsend