Letter | Employer shares thoughts on need for affordable housing in Valley

Published 8:30 am Wednesday, May 25, 2016

I read your article (‘Affordable Housing isn’t low-income housing, May 11) on affordable housing, and I wanted to share some of my thoughts and experiences.

As a Ridge resident and business owner, I live the struggle of housing costs every day. My employees make above minimum wage, but as your math demonstrated, it takes dramatically more than that to rent in Snoqualmie. I’m limited to a population of either 18- to 22-year-olds who live with their parents or workers old enough to need only an auxiliary income.

The alternative is to attract people to commute from Maple Valley or Renton, but it’s a very tough sell. None of these make for very long-term employees.

To bring it even closer to home, I’ve been running my shop since December 2009. To date, I’ve been able to grow the business and live off savings, but last year, needed to sell my house and move to a rental.

By the end of 2016, I must either return to the general workforce to continue living in Snoqualmie, or move out of the Valley myself and commute to the business. With the price of both residential and commercial rent going ever upwards, it’s a race that is constantly harder to win.

I’ve heard a lot of complaining from people who don’t want affordable housing in their back yards. I’m here to say that without it, there will be other things missing from their back yards. They won’t have affordable goods and services, no small businesses and no small business owners.

Their back yards will extend clear to Issaquah, where they will have to do their shopping.

Steve Pennington, Snoqualmie

Owner, Steve’s Doughnuts