<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Saundra,<br><br>Talk is cheap. Show me some examples of nice newer homes in Moscow that are in the price range of the average household income in Latah. I showed you all the listings I found. Please Saundra, if you disagree, provide us with a list of nice apartments in Moscow for under $550 a month. Otherwise your posting is just with a sour forked tongue. Your word and promise that there are apartments available that are decent and affordable for what the jobs pay in Moscow, doesn't get me an apartment. Where's the beef?<br><br>I have been to almost every apartment complex in Moscow. You can believe it or not. When I ran for student government and worked on campaigns for local offices, you cover a lot of ground. Also, being poor, I have had to check a lot of housing units. I have also done a lot of in home work with people on disability support, who live in
apartments complexes in Moscow. Moscow is not that big, especially if you been a lot of years, so anyone with a little bit of effort can see most of what Moscow offers. There is also a list at the department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Agriculture has a list of low income house, so it is not that difficult to find the affordable units. <br><br>I am not trashing owners of properties. That is your gig Saudra. I am trashing the policies that some in Moscow promote that keep landlords and others from being able to charge reasonable rates. Most of the time, it is property taxes and lack of available developed zoning for housing that keeps prices high. <br><br>I do agree there are slum lords out there. And it bothers me. But most slum lords are that way because they don't have the money to restore, repair, and properly maintain their properties, and raising rent forces their tenants into no housing or worse living conditions.
<br><br>If Saundra has a list of nice affordable housing units in Moscow, please give them to me so I can move into them. <br><br>I do not believe $700 a month for an apartment is affordable in Moscow. A minimum wage person ($6.50 an hour at 37.5 hrs week) makes only $900 a month after taxes. A couple makes $1800 both working with no kids, after rent, utilities, and phone, are paying 45-60% of their income on just housing. If they have kids, it is now impossible without cutting corners and doing without. State and federal regulations say affortable housing is only 30% of total income if they are to make enough to pay for other living expenses. <br><br>Also keep in mind, that most apartment complexes require the family to make 3 times what the rent is to move in, plus deposit and first and last month's rents. <br><br>So the couple has to make at least $2100 a month. And put down about $1800-2100 just to move in. So I disagree with your math.
<br><br>Best Regards,<br><br>Donovan<br><br><br><br><br>--- On <b>Fri, 2/20/09, Saundra Lund <i><sslund_2007@verizon.net></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;">From: Saundra Lund <sslund_2007@verizon.net><br>Subject: RE: Rent Prices Was: [Vision2020] Sen Schroeder<br>To: "'Chasuk'" <chasuk@gmail.com>, donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com<br>Cc: "'Ellen <span>Roskovich</span>'" <gussie443@hotmail.com>, "'Andy Boyd'" <moscowrecycling@turbonet.com>, vision2020@moscow.com<br>Date: Friday, February 20, 2009, 11:29 AM<br><br><pre>I agree with Chas -- while there are **definitely** houses that rent for<br>$1200/month (i.e., I saw a *very* nice house in Fort Russell renting for<br>that in June & another *very* nice house behind the arboretum in the same<br>time frame) and more in Moscow, there are lots of decent apartments,<br>duplexes, and houses that rent
for substantially less than that. I feel<br>pretty comfortable saying that since I helped several people (students,<br>non-students, and faculty) find housing as recent as last spring, summer,<br>and even into the fall.<br><br>And, no, I don't have any special connections. I was actually pleasantly<br>surprised at how much the rental market has loosened up since the last time<br>I helped folks find homes three or four years ago.<br><br>None of that means that there isn't still a need for truly affordable<br>housing in Moscow for our residents because there *definitely* is. When you<br>do the math for a couple of young adults working two minimum wage jobs, you<br>can easily see the problem of paying $600-700/month rent for a nice two<br>bedroom apartment (WSG included), particularly when those minimum wage jobs<br>*don't* include health insurance. If, for instance, you slip in the ice<br>some bad neighbor has failed to shovel for weeks and break your
arm . . . <br><br>Donovan wrote:<br>"I have been to almost every apartment complex in Moscow, and unless you<br>are<br>living in subsidized housing, you are paying at least $550 a month for a<br>large one bedroom or two small bedroom one bath, or you are living in<br>something small or nasty. Most of them are older apartments too, around for<br>my parents or when my sister was a Frosh at UI."<br><br>And, that's not true at all. Perhaps, Donovan, you are somewhat out of<br>touch since you no longer live here and haven't lived here in awhile?<br>Clearly you've not seen nearly as much as you think you've seen, at<br>least<br>more recently.<br><br>You'd do a lot better, IMHO, trying to make your case if you didn't<br>make<br>crap up whole cloth up or use the worst examples (of which there are plenty)<br>to over-generalize. Yes, there are some overpriced crappy rentals in<br>Moscow, but there are lots more, IMHO, reasonably priced decent rentals
in<br>Moscow -- I've actually seen them with my own eyes, Donovan, and recently,<br>too.<br><br>If you want to go after slumlords, I'll be right there with you; what I<br>won't do is sit silently while you try to portray the rental market in<br>Moscow as something that it's not. There's definitely lots of room for<br>improvement, but it's nowhere as grim as you want to portray, IMHO.<br><br>It is possible, you know, to advocate for change without trashing those who<br>don't deserve to be trashed.<br><br><br>Saundra Lund<br>Moscow, ID<br><br>The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do<br>nothing.<br>~ Edmund Burke<br><br>***** Original material contained herein is Copyright 2009 through life plus<br>70 years, Saundra Lund. Do not copy, forward, excerpt, or reproduce outside<br>the Vision 2020 forum without the express written permission of the<br>author.*****<br><br><br>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Chasuk
[mailto:chasuk@gmail.com] <br>Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:16 PM<br>To: donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com<br>Cc: Ellen Roskovich; Andy Boyd; vision2020@moscow.com; Saundra Lund<br>Subject: Rent Prices Was: [Vision2020] Sen Schroeder<br><br>On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 18:08, Donovan Arnold<br><donovanjarnold2005@yahoo.com> wrote:<br><br>> I am sure we have heard more. And so they wonder why rent is $1200 a month<br>> in Moscow and $700 a month in the Treasure Valley,<br><br>Rent is $1200 a month in Moscow? That certainly isn't an average, or<br>even the mean. I've never paid more than $600 a month in Moscow, and<br>I've lived in some pretty nice apartments. I'm renting a 4 bedroom<br>home now, and I don't pay $1200 a month, or anywhere near it.<br><br></pre></blockquote></td></tr></table><br>