HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/17/2018 Item 11, Hailer
Purrington, Teresa
From:Jennifer Hailer <jennihailer@yahoo.com>
Sent:Monday, July 16, 2018 12:08 PM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:San Luis Ranch
Dear Mayor Harmon & Councilmembers,
We moved for what we thought was a better career opportunity and quality of life here in SLO
when my husband accepted a job teaching at Cal Poly as a tenure track full time professor. We left behind
our entire family and network of friends where we grew up so this decision was not made lightly.
When we were first looking at housing, while it was expensive, some of the housing prices in outlying
areas such as Arroyo Grande, Los Osos, and Morro Bay were not out of reach. But within 2 months of
signing a contract to work at Cal Poly, housing prices sky rocketed and our options no longer existed.
In the first month here, I also accepted a full time job at Cal Poly. But even with two incomes, we were
still in a place where we could not afford to purchase a home in SLO or SLO County. We did find a
rental which was not that much cheaper of an option since as we were told numorous times by
realtors, it was at "fair market value." So this put us in a position of living paycheck to paycheck from
the very beginning. To make matters worse, the landlord put the place up for sale 2 months after we
moved in (even though we signed a year lease). In a 6 month timeframe we had to move our family
which includes our young child, twice. What should have been an exciting and more stable time in our
lives turned out to be one of the most stressful. Continuing to live paycheck to paycheck without
putting money into savings or having any extra money for a family vacation is not our idea of an
improvement of quality of life. Especially since we are in our mid 40's, both have years of working
experience and graduate degrees. There is a lot to love about living here but if the majority of our
paychecks continue to go to our mortgage and we are left with just enough to pay our bills and feeling
stressed out over it, eventually we will have to decide if it makes more sense to leave. I feel affordable
housing, like San Luis Ranch, would be the answer for us and for other families who want to continue
to work in SLO, contribute, and give back to the community. We are looking forward to San Luis
Ranch becoming a viable option for us and we would love to make this our permanent home.
Sincerely,
Jenni Hailer
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