Letter: A housing fantasy

In researching the proposed housing component I have discovered that 15 percent of the units are to be set aside for low income housing. This means those who earn $32,000 to $56,000. The other 80 percent is to be for what this area considers median income earners, that is currently those who earn above $ 85,000.

Taking into consideration the salaries of what is advertised to be our target population for this site our "nurses ( $ 50,000 to $ 60,000 depending on specialty, seniority and facility), police, fire fighters ($40,000+ to ? depending again on seniority, employer and rank) and teachers" $ 37,000 (please allow for the fact that these are approximates not concrete amounts) most of these "median units" will still be out of reach and therefore unaffordable.

To be fair, those who are down sizing from larger homes can afford to purchase a smaller residence in the available housing market so it would be more appropriate to breakdown the ratio in the following manner:

25 percent to be available for low income population.

75 percent for the middle class population ($40,000 through $70,000)

I believe that our city is only as good as those long time residents who have stayed through the bad times as well as the good, those people who protect our safety and health, those who serve our resident's and our tourists. I strongly feel that this idea would truly allow our non profit workers, teachers, fire fighters and police officers to have the chance to live in the community they serve where currently the dream of home ownership (The American Dream) is pretty much only a fantasy.

Lesa O'Mara

Redwood City