— by Marc Cohen and Eleanor Hoague —
We all agree: Orcas is a wonderful island, a place to relax and get away from it all, a combination of culture and nature, day-to-day living and extraordinary events. We are lucky to live here.
A whole host of people are the cogs that make our island’s wheels turn. They live and work here, but it is difficult if not impossible for them to find affordable housing. Their ability to move forward, to find a permanent place to live becomes more and more elusive. We all have friends who fall into this category.
They rent the places they live in because purchasing a home is just a little beyond their reach. We need to do something about this lower- and middle-income housing crisis, before we lose even more electricians, plumbers, teachers, gardeners, salespeople, clerks, receptionists, artists, construction workers, etc., etc.
Let me tell you about one family in particular who are friends of mine. The husband and wife work 6 days a week–he does maintenance and she is a housecleaner and mother of 3 great kids. These are folks that you and I would be lucky to have as neighbors. They have been renting for the last 7 years, and have saved up enough for a modest down payment for a home of their own. But because housing in San Juan County is the least affordable in the state of Washington, they continue to have to rent. There simply are no homes that they can afford to buy.
Yes for Homes has an answer, in the form of a referendum on the ballot in November. This referendum proposes a fund which will be available to organizations and builders who have viable proposals for building lower- and middle-income housing. The money for the fund will come from a one-time excise tax, applied exclusively to the purchase and sale of property.
It is not a property tax. It is a fee that amounts to one half of one percent of the purchase price, and will be paid almost entirely by the buyer. For a $350,000 home, for example, it would increase the buyer’s mortgage payment by about $8 per month if the fee were added to the mortgage. And it is estimated that by the end of its first year, this fund will have about $1.2 million. This money will be used entirely to help create affordable housing for qualified buyers.
Let’s make the San Juans a home for the people who work here. It really is in everybody’s interest.
