Invest in affordable housing

I am writing this in response to the article "Pricing out locals?" (Feb. 2). Most motivations for investing in real estate are good. The foremost reason is to provide shelter for oneself and for our families. Second to that reason is to derive an income, a profit from the real estate. Recently with the way inflation has affected the value of our dollar, real estate seems like a safe place to store wealth to protect it from inflation. There are some who invest in real estate because they are interested in controlling the use of that real estate; for example, one might buy a vacant lot next door to your house because you do not want to see the land developed or a conservancy group might buy a section of woods to preserve its use as wildlife land. In Sandusky one might buy a home in a historic area and seek to restore and preserve the structure because restoration and preservation of historic structures and areas is inherently a good thing for society. I don't think any average, good natured person ever buys real estate with the thought that they don't want others to be able to have shelter. That said, it is important to recognize real estate is actually a finite resource and supply and demand is critical in understanding real estate markets. A metaphor for the concept I would like to impart by writing this is: if an entity or groupof entities started to buy all the clean drinking water it would be easy to see that there would be an imminent crisis if access became restricted. People should agree that everyone has a right to water. Similarly, we should agree that people have a right to shelter. What is happening in many real estate markets across the country is people are being priced out of shelter by unethical real-estate investing. What I mean by unethical is this: when one invests in real estate we have to consider how our purchase of that real estate is affecting less fortunate populations in the market. For example, in Sandusky, if your intention is to derive a profit from a real estate investment but you haven't considered the kids being bussed to school from local motels because their parents cannot find stable affordable shelter for the family, you have invested unethically. If you have considered the situation in the community and your intention is to provide affordable housing to less fortunate populations, while deriving a modest profit, that investment could be considered ethical. There are some markets where the long-term resident population is actually growing, in which case the demand may be driven by population growth. A quick google search of the population of Sandusky will show a graph with the population of Sandusky on a decline, perhaps stabilizing. This illustrates the real estate shortage in Sandusky is not because of population growth. I don't wish to villainize short-term rental investors, but facts are facts and it should be pointed out that many of these properties sit vacant for substantial parts of the year. Which makes them the most obvious problem for sheltering our community. Lisa MaczugaSandusky Editor's note: The author was a Sandusky city commission candidate in 2023.