By ANNA DILLANE
Los Alamos

Good morning Council members, 

I have just received clarification from Dan Osborne that this proposed $4 million investment in “affordable housing” not only doesn’t focus exclusively on the truly lower income Community members, that it also does not include utilities.

I voiced my concern before that this proposed $4 million investment does not in fact address the actual need, and let me reiterate that now.

I have been low income. However, I would qualify now as a store owner of a successful business for 22 years. The simple fact that AMI is calculated on the inflated salaries of the laboratory skews the numbers beyond normal people’s earning capacity in Los Alamos. For the housing you propose, I should not qualify! My employees should qualify for that housing and I should not be able to take up a unit that the County has paid $4 million to  guarantee. 

I want to be really clear about this. I don’t need to be educated about the ins and outs of this plan, the way that affordability is calculated, the federal guidelines, or any other justification for the current plan. I do not support the current plan. I beg you to put the County staff to work to come up with a $4 million investment plan that would actually address the issue. I strongly encourage you, the Council, to ask the difficult questions as you consider this proposal. In my (educated) opinion, any plan that does not include utilities is a failure.