HomeMy WebLinkAbout7/11/2017 Item 1, Ayral
Purrington, Teresa
From:odileayral@gmail.com on behalf of Odile Ayral <oayral@calpoly.edu>
Sent:Monday, July 10, 2017 8:17 AM
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Housing (Item 1)
Mayor Harmon and Council members,
A couple weeks ago, on my street in the Foothill neighborhood, a 1200-square-foot ordinary house with weeds
for yard sold for $700,000 to an investor from San Francisco. Immediately, without doing any improvement to
the property, the investor put the house for rent for $3,500 a month. Of course, families can't and won't pay this
amount of money to receive so little, therefore students will rent the place. This scenario has been going on for
several decades, and now my neighborhood, previously known for its affordable houses that attracted new Cal
Poly faculty and staff, has become a web of student rentals. New faculty have to look for housing in
surrounding cities because you don't go far on an assistant professor salary.
It is fashionable these days to speak of "affordable housing" and "workforce housing," but the building that has
taken place until now has not done one iota to improve the situation. New two-bedroom apartments close to Cal
Poly rent for $4,000 a month, condos on Sacramento Drive sell for at least $700,000, and I expect that--with the
exception of the handful of units affordable by design--most residences in San Luis Ranch, Avila Ranch and
Froom Ranch will reach similar prices once the hidden costs are accounted for. One good thing about Avila
Ranch is the condition that owners have to live for 5 years in the residence they buy. This will at least keep
investors at bay for five years. But then, the uphill cycle will start again.
Like the Councils that came before you, you are overlooking the elephant in the room: Cal Poly. As long as
you are not willing to confront this topic, you will never solve the housing problem in SLO because student
pressure is what is pushing prices up, and families out of the city. None of you witnesses this daily assault
because you don't live on the north side, but the result is the same for everyone. Five students can afford to pay
high rent but a family can't, and investors can buy an overpriced house but a family can't. And when outside
investors buy here, rents go up and home prices go up whether you live in the north or the south. These
investors suck money out and barely put any in, so the city loses on all counts.
In the last avalanche of mail you received regarding San Luis Ranch, a resident wrote: "We must compete with
an obscene number of college students, who are quickly outnumbering locals." Competition is the
key. Eliminate one (competition from the students) and we could return to the days when rents and house prices
were more reasonable. However students did not create this situation, Cal Poly administrators did. They
dragged their feet on building dorms, accepted more and more students, and were surprised to discover the
adverse impact it had upon their workforce. Their solution? Build high density faculty housing on campus
right in the face of a once lovely neighborhood (!) But the Trustees are equally at fault. SLO is far from their
minds. If Long Beach and Sacramento had the same ratio of students, Long Beach would have 215,000
students and Sacramento 217,000. I am sure the Trustees would never let things deteriorate to this point in their
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cities. Finally, the various City Councils of the last 30 years bear a huge responsibility because they did not lift
a finger to alleviate the situation. I hope you don't intend to join their ranks. So please, follow Santa Cruz
footsteps. Go to Long Beach and confront the Trustees, explain our plight, demand not just more dorms, but
especially, a reasonable ratio of students versus residents. If you can obtain this much, rents and house prices
will go down, investors will look elsewhere to exploit people, and local residents will be eternally grateful.
Sincerely,
Odile Ayral
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