Dear Editor:
If we cannot afford or maintain a single-family residence in Creswell, where will our children, parents, or ourselves live?
City council members expressed opposition to duplexes, apartments, and cottage clusters after the planning commission spent many hours studying and debating solutions for those with minimal income or seeking minimal housing.
Some of us were raised or lived in various forms of collective housing without adverse effects. The cottage cluster concept is nearly identical to the mill housing many of my generation called home. My first few years were in a 600-sq.-ft. home surrounded by a tiny plot of grass.
Low-wage workers and many widows or widowers cannot afford most of our housing, which is single-family detached residential. Early this year, a long-term resident of Creswell was widowed; she could no longer afford the rent in her home of 20+ years and reluctantly left Creswell and her friends behind. Due to her age and health, a first-floor apartment was required, which is in short supply in Creswell due to historic zoning rules.
Eighty percent of Creswell’s workers commute to other cities for work. Many low-wage workers commute due to a lack of affordable housing. Those who work here cannot afford to live here. Is it not in a city’s best interest to promote infrastructure that allows people to live and work in their hometown?
Our population is increasing, and childbirth is encouraged, but we have constrained and continue to constrain housing. Where will our children live? The council should support a variety of housing for the well-being of our community.
Ed Gunderson, Creswell
