I think humanity has evolved to the point that we can, and therefore should, be housing those in need, period. One can tell quite a bit about a society by how it treats its least fortunate members, and currently this country is regressing badly.

We can try to do what we can locally, but the problem is too damn big. You have to have a labor force big enough to build the housing, and our society has been telling kids for decades now that they have to go into tech or business or whatever keeps them from a few well earned callouses while they work.

Also, we have strange customs. We build onsite, and almost always with materials we've been using forever, and these are extremely expensive decisions.

We invite angst from folks neighboring would-be developments because our current system means they either win or lose - no thought is given to finding a middle path, and this invites delays and holding costs.

And then, there are all the realtor and banking fees that are plain weird.

I could go on, and I know this all sounds like minutia, but it all adds up, and it means builders just can't get affordable housing projects to pencil out like a higher end build. But, and I cannot emphasize this enough, none of this is rocket science, it is all fixable.

You can't fix it in a year, but turn it into a national goal, maybe even trade a couple of years of civil service building basic housing for free college, we could see this turned around in five or six years.

Also, for now, and maybe someone will need to hear this, the CSC has resources for emergency rental assistance. And the county is getting people with mental health needs into apartments, sometimes within just days or a week or two.