HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/17/2018 Item 11, Vrajich (2)
Purrington, Teresa
From:Milan Vrajich, Jr <milanvrajichjr@gmail.com>
Sent:Tuesday, July 17, 2018 8:22 AM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:San Luis Ranch
Dear Mayor Harmon and Council members,
I am 35 years old and have been married for 15 years now. I have two children, Daughter who is 8 and a 5 year old
autistic son who I love dearly and I have lived on the central coast my entire life. For many of families much like mine
who struggle to make their way financially in any career unless it’s a really high paying job, it’s difficult to find housing
that is affordable. For the many reasons most of my family members and some close friends have moved out of this
state and out of the area. In a market where it feels that there is a lot of greed and housing been extremely expensive
for a family such as mine. It’s hear heart breaking for even having a thought of moving out of this state. This is my home.
I want to live here and unfortunately i can not tell my job to pay me what I need.
I’m sure you have read many stories regarding affordable housing an the importance of it so i will be brief in saying that
this project NEEDS to go through and I hope that my family can be so lucky to afford and continue staying here on the
central coast. For the past 10 years i have struggled with providing for my families and every time i seem to get paid a
little more it’s never enough. More money gets taken from me from taxes and as my children get older more expenses
are needed.
We currently live in a two bedroom apartment in Atascadero. I work in San Luis Obispo and to find houseing in SLO that i
can afford for my family is a joke unless i want to live in a studio and pay an arm and a leg for it while my family probably
risks the chance of living next to college students who want to party it up. My wife and I use to live in SLO as apartment
managers and when our daughter was born it was in the heart of SLO’s college scene so there wasn’t an option for us to
choose where we could stay and rais our children. Our daughter was paying in the front when some college kids decided
it was a good idea to shoot BB guns at the fence that our daughter was playing at on the opposite side not realizing that
she was on the other side. Parties at night and people drunk storming around the window and sometimes fights
between lovers and even love making going on that would wake us up. We had to leave SLO because we couldn’t afford
anywhere. Everyone seemed to be raising the rent and wanting more money. WE moved to Atascadero where the rent
was cheaper. But the apartment management company raises our rent every year because legally they can and it
continuously gets to a point where we won’t be able to live and enjoy life.
Having affordable houseing and having somewhere families can live and raise their kids is super important for this
community. I feel the college kids have taken over a lot of areas that families possibly once occupied but have moved
out or away because of cost of living. It shouldn’t have to be that in order to live on the central coast you have to be a
doctor, dentist, lawyer or some other form of work that pays to where you can choose where to live. A lot of us have
the jobs we have and work really hard to make it work an make it so that we don’t struggle.
Once again i hope my family can make it into such a community as this one. I WANT to have a place for my family. I don’t
want to struggle anymore to find a place to live. We need help in this area for affordable housing and shy away from
making it only affordable for the wealthy who end up buying a lot of these places and then flipping them around for high
rent.
Thank you for taking the time to read this letter. Wish you all a wonderful day.
~Milan Vrajich, Jr.
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