Finding affordable housing difficult

It is shameful that Flathead County has allowed this problem to arise. I watched houses that are not newly built go from reasonable to "you want how much?" I'm talking about houses that are 20-plus years old costing as much as a new home; in some cases more. The problem with some of the houses is they have not had an uplift of any kind for years and if you were to buy it you would have to have thousands of dollars extra to do the repairs. This is a bad situation throughout the entire valley.

One other issue I see the newspapers skip over is that young people are not the only ones suffering this issue. Have we forgotten the seniors who are now on fixed incomes? These incomes are below $20,000 yearly, and a lot of us have way less. The resources constantly mentioned have unrealistic financial limitations or other reasons for not being eligible. And, by the way, the waiting list for housing is two to four years. That is what we have been told more than a couple of times.

I write this on behalf of all seniors seeking clean, mold-free and bug infestation-free housing.

Scott F. Smith

Whitefish