Here are this week’s letters to the editor of the Sheboygan Press. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
Housing affordability in Sheboygan
I am a professional being priced out of the city I serve. Making $62,000 annually should represent stability; instead, I am trapped in Sheboygan’s “missing middle.” I earn $2,000 over the limit for income-restricted housing, yet new market-rate apartments cost $2,800. After my $980 monthly daycare bill, my disposable income is lower than those receiving subsidies.
Our housing stock is disappearing. Investment firms — local and out of town — are swallowing family homes, often letting them fall into disarray while charging predatory rents.
Simultaneously, the conversion of long-term housing into short-term or vacation rentals prioritizes tourists over taxpaying residents.
I am being punished for earning a decent wage. I make too much for help but not enough to compete with LLCs or afford “luxury” developments.
My questions for those in charge:
1. How will you bridge the gap between 80% AMI housing and $2,800 rentals?
2. What steps are being taken to regulate LLC acquisitions and short-term rentals?
3. How is the city holding corporate landlords accountable for property maintenance?
4. How are you addressing the “income cliff” where a $2,000 raise results in total housing instability?
I want to stay and work in Sheboygan, but the city currently has no room for working parents who aren’t wealthy.
Jordan Brown
Sheboygan
Reproductive health care and public safety
Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, Wisconsin reproductive health care providers, patients and clinics have faced increased violence and harassment. Yet, U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman has chosen to fan the flames by co-sponsoring a bill that would repeal the FACE Act. The FACE Act of 1994 prohibits such intimidation and violence and is crucial to public safety.
I was particularly appalled by Rep. Grothman’s harmful rhetoric at last week’s congressional hearing in which he made a gross insinuation that a new Milwaukee abortion clinic’s goal was to nefariously target people of color. As a proud board member of that independent, nonprofit health center, Care for All, this suggestion is not only blatantly racist but counter to our ethos.
Social and racial justice is the core of our mission. Abortion barriers like those in Wisconsin widen economic, health and social inequities, which harm individuals, families and communities. Wisconsin has the worst maternal and infant health outcomes and disparities for Black and African American families in the country. That’s why Care for All believes that nobody should be denied comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care. In fact, in our first year, we provided services at no cost to 64% of patients.
Rep. Grothman’s discourse and co-sponsorship to repeal the FACE Act is divisive at best and dangerous at worst. Patients and providers deserve to be able to access reproductive health care without fear, violence or harassment. As constituents, we deserve representatives who uphold reproductive freedom and public safety.
Barbara Alvarez
Sheboygan
Our letters policy
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to news@sheboyganpress.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@usatodayco.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Read this week’s Sheboygan Press letters on housing and health care
Reporting by Sheboygan Press / Sheboygan Press
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