Don't be a Scrooge when it comes to affordable housing
One of the biggest challenges facing our community in the coming year is not how many new stores and restaurants are needed in town, nor is it the preservation of open space and how to pay for it. It isn't the traffic that consumes us day to day and it isn't the number of new programs that we may or may not be able to provide for our local classrooms.

Above all, we must give the moderate income families who work in the community an opportunity to live in decent, affordable housing. The problem of how and where to build affordable housing perplexes our politicians and developers to no end. Everybody says we need it, but nobody wants to pay for it.

By ignoring the demand for affordable units that government has placed on each of our three local cities- Calabasas, Agoura Hills and Westlake Village- we're causing thousands of teachers, retail workers, service workers and entry level public employees to live many miles away and clog the freeways as they make their daily commute. It's a social cost that carries a high price.

One group, the Morrison Ranch Homeowners Association, has taken a vocal stand against affordable housing. (See story on page 1.) Jim Lahana, president of the homeowners association, told Agoura Hills officials that he doesn't want the city to become the "repository" for low-income housing. Lahana doesn't want affordable housing to be a part of the Agoura Village plan, saying that if you can't afford the Agoura Hills prices you shouldn't be allowed to live there. But many of the Morrison homeowners who bought their properties 20 years ago couldn't meet today's prices either, even at their reduced level.

Home prices rose much faster than salaries during the past two decades and, today, even average wage earners aren't able to make a purchase until market prices fall more in line with incomes. Low wage earners are forced out of the game entirely unless they receive affordable housing assistance.

Stereotyping lower wage earners as less educated, "fast food workers" prone to gang activity, as the Morrison president did, only exacerbates the problem. What's needed is an open-minded approach to the Agoura Village housing question, one that begins with the allocation of a certain number of affordable condominiums for qualified buyers. We hope it's part of the plan.