For the Copy-and-Paste Option: (Usually works better if you’re on a laptop/PC)

Email Addresses:

kcurtis@kirklandwa.gov, jarnold@kirklandwa.gov, nblack@kirklandwa.gov, afalcone@kirklandwa.gov, psweet@kirklandwa.gov, jpascal@kirklandwa.gov, JohnT@kirklandwa.gov, jlopez@kirklandwa.gov

Please bcc: cherishkirkland1@gmail.com

Subject (please customize it to make it your own!): Affordable Senior Housing please!

Body Message:

Dear Council members,

Like you and city staff, I want to help us solve the housing issues of the region - but maybe we can look for a homegrown solution that helps existing Kirklanders too?

Let's solve the affordable housing shortage by creating Affordable Senior Housing (ASH):

 1. Giving some Kirkland seniors a more affordable option (right now many are stuck and stretched on fixed income with rising taxes)

 2. So some seniors could opt to 'stay in place' as far as their neighborhood, in smaller and flatter 1-level homes and gain community in shared amenities, while their lifestyles may not add to the school/traffic times bottlenecks, and they can walk to get groceries or quickly access the CKC they once fought for. 

3. Those seniors who choose this option could also choose to put their houses up for sale or rent, helping them pay for their new living comfortably.

 4. Affordable family homes become more readily available, at lower cost than the small $1.5M cottages, townhomes or apartments built/owned by out-of-state investors who benefit from our rising rent prices and property value

5. Goals attained: 

 - Housing variety

 - More residents and families welcomed to Kirkland

 - We keep our seniors who wave and smile at our kids, in the neighborhood

 - Affordable neighborhoods and school funding stay in tact, welcoming the next generation of growing families or roommates to Kirkland

 - Infrastructure needs can be scaled up centrally and responsibly to support population increase

 - a public-private deal neighbors can not only support, but welcome to the neighborhood they all love

 - a replicable model for every neighborhood (If we can commit to ~20 LaQuinta PSH, I'm sure we could commit to 13 Neighborhood ASH!)

 - serving the community what it needs and wants, not what its being told to need/want per an ideology or trend.

 All solved! - or at least we can make a dent with a better justification for taxpayer funded city land purchases.

 Thank you,