I pay over half of my monthly income toward housing. Most people I know do too. We owe it to our seniors, our essential workers, and our young families to find new and better housing solutions. And I believe we can do this while protecting homeowners’ hard-earned wealth if we prioritize the following goals:

• Diversify our housing stock so that essential workers and young families can purchase starter homes and retiring seniors can downsize affordably.

• Protect existing homeowners' equity with cost-effective investments in transportation, infrastructure, small business development, and environmental restoration.

• Push for more cross-regional planning and cooperation in housing development, paying particular attention to the flow of traffic and availability of public transportation.

• Streamline permitting and planning processes, collaborate with the State to reduce redundancies, and reward water-wise construction with reduced tap fees.

• Ensure that local real estate investors can fairly compete with multinational corporations.

• Provide assistance so that both our retiring seniors and young workers can make energy-efficient upgrades, replace costly appliances, and maintain healthy yards and lawns.

• Explore funding models for development that keep costs low for developers without forcing taxpayers to shoulder the burden.

• Protect renters' rights, provide accessible information for renters in the languages spoken in our community, and provide temporary assistance to needy families.