Our world is filled with nebulous terms that really don’t mean much.
Over the past several years, Highlands, Cashiers, and all of Western North Carolina have been flooded with one such term – workforce housing.
What started out as a noble idea, promoting low-cost housing for people in the working class, has become a political football that is about as meaningful as any other buzzword.
If you read the column penned by Highlands Mayor Pat Taylor in last week’s edition of The Highlander, you were probably left with a doom and gloom feeling about the future prospects of “workforce housing.”
And you were right to feel that way.
But Taylor was also right to lay out many of the contributing factors that make workforce housing almost impossible to bring to fruition.
First and foremost, who is going to pay for it? The idea that the town, or county, is going to buy a tract of land, build an apartment building/duplexes/single family homes, and manage said property to ensure it meets it’s intended use is about as likely as a sasquatch riding a unicorn down US64.
Second, where would such workforce housing be built? Nearly every buildable lot in Highlands is owned and/or occupied, the crossroads area of Cashiers is busy already and will soon be even more cramped due to approved development projects, and the outlying areas would still require a commute to work (which most workers already endure).
Lastly, who gets to decide what is “affordable” for workers? Would a new apartment complex with a rental rate of $1,000 per month be considered affordable workforce housing? How about $1,500 or $2,000 per month?
Even if the stars aligned and such a project could be brought to reality, how would it be monitored to make sure “workers” are the ones living there? Once units became available, who’s to keep retirees and second home owners from taking the spaces?
While government supported workforce housing is a phenomenal idea in theory, we would not suggest holding our collective breath in anticipation of it becoming a reality anytime soon on the plateau.