HomeMy WebLinkAbout6/28/2018 Item 1, Hailer
Tonikian, Victoria
From:Jennifer Hailer <jennihailer@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, June
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:San Luis Ranch, June 28, 2018
Dear SLO Planning Commissioners,
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. 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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