“Affordable housing”

Monterey Herald—Aug. 13, 2024

The housing crisis is real. A community that cannot house its workers, its police, firefighters, and schoolteachers can hardly be called a community. The lack of affordable shelter is a problem that extends far beyond our region and local solutions can only go so far in adequately addressing this serious barrier to the recruitment and retention of employees our local businesses and institutions require. Our schools are charged with the sacred tasks of educating our children and helping us to raise the next generation. School districts are also by necessity, involved in the transportation business, the facilities maintenance business, and the sports business. Adding the business of rental property development and management to their required duties will only divert attention from their core mission of education. Our public schools should not be tasked with solving the housing crisis. I have never before voted against any ballot proposition to fund public schools but for this reason, I cannot support devoting taxpayer dollars toward sponsoring MPUSD’s entry into the real estate market.

– Arthur Simons, Monterey