It’s more than just paying rent, though. Parking tickets go up any time the city needs to make a buck. Wheel taxes disproportionately impact those least able to afford them. Beach tokens are discriminatory and truly burdensome on coming-up families. All of these issues need to be addressed as part of the crisis because affordability doesn’t just mean having a place to live; it means living there and thriving there as well.
Like the health crisis and climate crisis we’re in, the affordability crisis doesn’t play favorites either. Creating affordable family housing isn’t the whole picture, and we need to help folks stay in the homes they’ve got and not get priced out of town. Moreover, we need to make sure that there’s care given to our senior community who are especially affected by this.