Many of us with crazy, busy lives can barely involve ourselves politically, often only as much as getting ourselves to the voting booth after skimming readily available info on issues and candidates before we cast a ballot. Even this act of political involvement must be praised over and above apathy and complacency. I have been complacent.
I thought there were powerful watchdogs looking out for the needs for affordable housing for folks on low and/or fixed incomes. And now, what affordable housing we have in Lake County is about to be wiped out by Code Enforcement”s reinterpretation of zoning codes. These actions will empty out motels, hotels and other resorts that, on occasion or frequently, provide housing for low-income people. I am no longer complacent.
Now I research and find only bark and no bite in the form of the California State Department of Housing and Community Development. It is enough for any county to only promise ? and the “do” need not come forth. The state demands a thing called the housing element within the also mandated general plan. That”s the section that the county has to show plans for providing and encouraging low income housing. And it is enough to plan to build new housing for low income while on the doing side of things ? shut down already established affordable housing, i.e., resorts that have been providing for low income tenants for 10 to 45 years or more.
At an Aug. 27 meeting of the planning commission, Rick Coel pointed out that the housing element of the general plan needs to be updated and staff will be submitting a draft to the board of supervisors.
The county is supposed to draft an update of the element every four or five years and then post it. Citizens of Lake County should be encouraged to voice any objections. I bet there are a few of us now who might have some objections to closing all the mom-and-pop motels and tossing the present tenants onto the streets. How many under the bridge spots do we provide in lieu of kitchenettes and RV sites? If we close small motels by making unreasonable demands upon them ? evict your tenants and subsist on nonexistent tourists only, do my tenants sleep in cars? ? pitch a tent? ? mooch on a friend? ? or get out of town? Are we that heartless? Does this truly express the soul of Lake County ? throw out the poor and make room for the rich? It doesn”t express my soul.
Veronica Fisher (El Dorado Motel)
Lakeport
