Public Servants Priced Out Of Housing

As home prices surge, a life-long public servant steps down from the city council when he decides he can no longer afford to live in his city.

1 minute read

March 30, 2005, 5:00 AM PST

By Chris Steins @planetizen

"A lifelong public servant who plans to live on his pension, the workaholic McCausland said he faced a tough choice putting his retirement income into a huge mortgage and staring at the walls or buying a lakefront house in Alaska for $250,000 and traveling with his wife, Suzanne.

...McCausland's planned departure is 'really just a great illustration of how our society is changing,' said Fran Wagstaff, president of the Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition, a nonprofit that has built the bulk of Half Moon Bay's affordable housing. 'Economic diversity is just disappearing... There's this incredible shift in incomes in California and our country. The middle class is disappearing."

Thanks to Chris Steins

Read the full story: Priced Out of Public Service

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 in The Los Angeles Times

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