By TONY BERETTA
Los Alamos

I use the term low income housing and not the euphemism affordable housing.  All housing is affordable if you have the income commensurate with the cost of the housing. Low income housing is for those who have low income and we have more than enough of this in Los Alamos.

The problem with low income housing is it brings into the community those with low income. We have cleaners who come every other week to clean our house. Does this mean I want them to be neighbors or even live in Los Alamos – hardly! They need to live where they can afford to live, which is not in Los Alamos.

If I sound prejudice about not living around those with low income it is because I am. Let me relay a true story regarding my experience with living close to low income housing. I lived in Sierra Vista, Arizona (population of about 50,000) a number of years ago and purchased a house in a very average neighborhood. After being there about a year, it was brought to my attention that theft in the neighborhood had gone way up. Bicycles where being stolen from yards, items left out overnight were disappearing, and even garage doors left open where being stolen from. We had a three story apartment complex behind our housing complex and I noticed S.W.A.T. there three times in less than a year.

Also, you could see what appeared to be drug deals going on next to the apartment complex.  I spoke to a police officer about crime in the apartment complex and he relayed it was the worse crime area in the entire city. The officer also informed me the apartment complex had been turned into a H.U.D. facility.  I later went over to the complex and spoke with the manager. He relayed that the apartment’s washers and dryers had been vandalized so many times they were no longer fixing them. Also, graffiti was prevalent in the hallways and the pool was constantly having trash removed from it. He said it was not uncommon to find needles in the pool. The owner of the apartment complex finally closed the unit for renovations, kicked everyone out, raised the price on renting there and did not have problems after that.  Once the low income residents were forced out the problems left with them.

The problem with low income housing can be summed up in one word “Crime”. Go to any town or city in America and see where the high crime area(s) is located. They will unquestionable be in the low income areas of the city or town. This is not a supposition on my part, but a fact. Low income residents have low income relatives and low income friends who will also be coming to the area.

If Los Alamos wants the crime to increase the best way to facilitate this is to have more low income housing in Los Alamos.