The issue of affordable housing is again raising its head in the council chambers of most of the communities in the Yukon.
What baffles me is that not one politician has proposed what the word affordable means. In other words, what do they think the rent for a bachelor, one-bedroom, two-bedroom etc. rental unit should be? There is a greater need out there for those who are seniors, disabled, social needs then for those who are working.
Has any politician ever looked at some of the spending habits of some of those that are crying out for affordable housing? These people all have cell phones, probably smoke, maybe use marijuana, drink alcohol, and some of the other vices that are available.
Is it not time that when an employer says his employees cannot find affordable housing that the employer suggests to the employees maybe you should rent with someone else for a short time until you get established? I know that I did, when I started working and was away from home.
If the politicians think that landlords are getting rich, then why haven’t these landlords built more units to get richer? It is because it is not as lucrative as these politicians think it is.
I am a landlord and I have young tenants who are renting from me, like the place they have, a one-bedroom apartment for $900 per month including utilities, and are willing to work two jobs so that they can get ahead.
We will always have complainers who think people are ripping them off, and we will never satisfy any of these, and I do not want them as a tenant. I sincerely hope that this issue dies. Let’s allow the people who have taken the interest in trying to resolve it, resolve it.
Daniel Steyn
Whitehorse