I just finished reading the Guest Viewpoint column written by Laura Jean Schneider in the Feb. 16, 2022 issue of The Leader. It is a lovely and evocative piece of writing that describes her response to a very challenging problem – here in Port Townsend and nationally. I am sorry for The Leader and the community for the loss of her skills and perspective to Arizona. And I agree with her opinion that the way to really solve our shortage of affordable housing is none of the near-term solutions she mentioned – ADUs, home-shares and the like.

But here’s the thing. People need a place to live now — not just in a couple of years when the land has been acquired and prepared, the infrastructure is in, the permitting process is complete, and a home has been built. 

And the actual building has to be done by people qualified to do such a thing, who need to have been attracted to our community to build the homes they are prepared to build – likely one at a time. 

And we need the homes to be “affordable” (whatever we mean by that) in an age of huge demand, rapidly rising material and labor costs, and a shortage of workers. 

So in the interim, we need to do every creative thing we can imagine to help take the pressure off the people who are doing all they can to live and work here. This is proven to be a creative community that tackles its own problems and I hope people will continue to create a variety of solutions to address it.

Steve Moore
PORT TOWNSEND