37% of the workforce commutes to Mammoth Lakes. 170 more housing units are needed, according to a new housing needs assessment. Some Mammoth Town Council members expressed their views on affordable housing. One official called housing “an extra”, not a necessity.
All of this came up at the last Mammoth Town Council meeting when Mammoth Lakes Housing Director Pam Hennarty talked about the new housing study. She said the study “reaffirmed that there is still an affordable housing need.” With unemployment and a bad economy, the situation has worsened, she said.
The study revealed that low income residents often pay as much as 35% of their income on housing. 600 households are somewhat or very dissatisfied with their housing. Survey responses say units 
need repairs or are poorly maintained. 575 households said they are overcrowded.
Hennarty said the Town needs 170 more units. In the last eight years, Mammoth Housing has spent $42 million in grant money building or rehabilitating units and has provided 82 units.
Councilmen Skip Harvey and Rick Wood commended Hennarty for a good job and supported the need for government-supported housing units. Councilman Wood pointed out that in 2010, the state average annual wage was $53,000 while in Mono County it was $33,000.
Wood also pointed to the study survey and the fact that half of employers who responded felt affordable housing was one of the most or the most serious problems in the community. He said housing demand will continue to go up. Councilman Wood said that without adequate housing, the Town can not accommodate the workers who make the beds, do the dishes and meet other needs for tourists.
Councilman Matthew Lehman was less generous in his view. He said, “I’m one of those who thinks housing is an extra. I personally feel that government should take as small a role as possible and leave it to the capitalist market.”
Lehman claimed that private developers are not willing to build affordable housing if they have to compete with government. He implied that the Mammoth Lakes Housing survey was manipulated to get certain results. Lehman added that 10% of responders are frustrated about illegal immigrants in Mammoth.
Hennarty said that she and her staff will work on a housing strategy which will go to public meetings for input in the new year.
Most of you youngsters have no idea how good you have it. You complain about the rich, and all the whiile you live a quality of life that far exeeds 90% of all other people on this planet. How many of your children are willing to go out and work… Read more »
you think no youngsters today go out and work at 13 or so? You just showed how out of touch you are…you speak based on no actual knowledge at all…just open your eyes old man and see the real world…you know how many high schoolers I know who are going… Read more »
sierragirl is right….The twelve and thirteen year olds ARE willing to go out and mow yards,rake leaves, etc.and make $$$$….It’s the nineteen,twenty-plus year olds that are the lazy ones……
“How many of the kids nowdays are willing to go out and work at twelve or thirteen?…How about how many are willing to go out and work at eighteen or nineteen,if the job doesn’t pay $15.00 an hour?….In my town….not too many.
And we had to go out & mow lawns & pick up soda bottles to pay for a new inner tube when that stingray got a flat tire.
???????? greed in the late 90s
Advance the calender to 2020…or maybe 2013….And there is that tour bus packed with visitors to the Sierras’….driving up HWY.395,and about to make the right turn on 203.And the tour guide getting on the microphone,stating “We are about to enter the ghost town of Mammoth Lakes”….I have NEVER seen such… Read more »
matthew lehman…housing is not an extra, don’t know how you can say that. As far as private industry building affordable housing, YOU, Mr. Lehman, have a big say in that. For example, the Shady Rest tract…The USFS sold that tract to a developer dirt cheap, to allow for and encourage… Read more »
talk about getting off topic people. Here’s the facts, many families (whites and hispanics both) live in small, non-weather tight homes that they pay a lot more for then their incomes support. On top of that, they pay out hundreds in heating bills (even keeping the temp below 63 f).… Read more »
You want a living wage it starts by forcing employers to use legal hiring practices and then paying those they hire according to State & Federal law.
Neither of which will probably ever happen in TOML.
You go Rob!
Legal Hiring Practices. Good Idea. Contact our rep Buck M and demand he adds his voice to the other politicians in DC who are attempting to provide the United States citizen with the E-Verify identification card. Once it becomes impossible for illegal aliens to gain or maintain employment within our… Read more »
That’s all lovely in fairyland but there are plenty driving their Escalades with 20″ wheels to their “small, non-weather tight homes”. It is about cultural differences and priorties. Jobs that are in demand will pay in accordance with what supply will bear. There is an overabundance of people with little… Read more »
Terry- I agree however before we have people moving out of town lets at least play by the same employment regulations.
Wayne, people don’t go to Mammoth primarily to ski…they go for the NIGHT-LIFE, and THEN ski, or snowboard. The thing that amazes me is that Mammoth PD can keep it all together with the meager amount of officers they have.
I have always lived by the basic rule that if all you can do is make beds and run a vacuum cleaner, you have NO BUSINESS having a family in the first place. If you can’t support yourself AND your children, DON”T HAVE THEM! Problem solved.
Hey Big Rick – It’s degradation of society when the poor and uneducated are having more babies then the educated and financially capable.
What Rob is trying to say is couples that don’t have a good education or a high paying job should somehow not be able….or allowed… to have a family or children.What a great society that would be….only the rich should be blessed with children….
We could never have any policy that constrains parenthood because we are too humane (read stupid). And it makes too much sense to restrict people who can’t take care of a child from having a child. We do not worship common sense in this country. China has a different attitude… Read more »
John, you are correct, Boarders did and my reply was directed to his factually false statement . “Before every county and city in california decided to look the other way and put the health and welfare of over 10 million illegal alien criminals above the best interests of its own… Read more »
And i am also tired of your revisionist history and outright lies. For your information , at the time of the decraration and long after. the number of mexicans living on the land now known as the United States was under 500, and 90% of those were living within the… Read more »
Here’s a summary of the history of Mexico which held a large portion of what is now the Western United States until well into the middle of the 19’th century. So the statement that, “…number of mexicans living on the land now known as the United States was under 500…”… Read more »
giggle — two out of three people don’t like history — that’s definitely a Republican constituency…
I’m speechless Boarders!
Friar- Instead of trying to change the topic multiple times in your posts, let’s focus on one issue at a time. Once again I’ll have to refer to Terry’s post in that if people (illegal or not) don’t feel that they are earning a “decent wage” then they should do… Read more »
Spin any way you want John, I haven’t the time for your nonsense.
@Friar- The post by “Terry” doesn’t mention anything about illegals or taking over a country. It refers to people who are here now by whatever means should not expect a “decent wage” by simply showing up without qualifications to justify whatever one considers a decent wage. I agree fully with… Read more »
government needs to stay out of all the markets.
I agree with what Ken has said about paying people a living wage so that they can afford decent housing, instead of subsidizing out of public funds. I also remember hearing from a long-time Mammoth resident about a rapacious builder who took money (from the town?) to build affordable housing,… Read more »
I think you could say it just did happen again….the same exact guy (BT), a beloved older figure in both the mammoth and bishop communities, was able to purchase the shady rest tract from the USFS for a very low sum, mostly because the town had zoned the parcel ‘low… Read more »
Housing is an “extra” when you own more than one. Arrogance on the other hand is “those” with an “extra” sense of entitlement. The capitalists have been allowed to bankrupt this town because of the lack of governance by our elected officials. They are now pulling the strings to structure… Read more »
It is obvious that your OPEN BORDERS stance is due to your use of the old supply and demand sales ideal.
Given the demand of your addiction , The source of your supply no longer matters to you.
Tuck , you sound un-happy with your life. If the capitalist AMERICAN system is not your cup of tea, why not renounce your citizenship and find a new home where you can be all you can be. perhaps europe, perhaps asia,perhaps even canada, yes CANADA. In canada you will have… Read more »
Dear Borders,
We might mention to you that our founding fathers pointed out that the downfall of Democracy could be
capitalism. A little self-examination of even the best system in the world, comprised of flawed humans,
never hurts.
Benett Kesler
With all due respect benett, most flaws can be overcome, unless congenital.
And my founding fathers intended this Union to be a REPUBLIC, Not a democracy.
And can you please be specific as to which founding founding fathers made that statment , and in which book or text it exists.
Borders, In fact, there are many flaws that can only be overcome with great, lifetime effort and some not even then. You clearly hold a more severe view of life than I. America is the great philosophical experiment where, as you point out, a Republic protects individual rights and the… Read more »
Borders, no need to take Benett up on her advice to check out the Internet to locate Jefferson quotes supporting her belief that he “warned against the pitfalls of capitalism.” I have done it for you: “A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which… Read more »
Yeah, our founding fathers and slave owners who spawned illegitimate children by the dozens and lived off the sweat of their human chattel. Why do the uninformed get all proud and puffy chested when they instill imaginary virtue on our “founding fathers” They where just a bunch of thugs like… Read more »
Our founding fathers were just men, not saints. But, they were highly intelligent and wise men in some important respects. They dealt with the realities of their times (slavery) and managed to create an enlightened framework for a new society.
Benett Kessler
Au Contraire, Mon Frère Boarders;
I’m neither unhappy or angry at 9.00 in the morning. Thanks for your concern and advice but I don’t think you’re in the position to offer either constructively.
Take care of that blood pressure, it’s a silent killer.
Ken-
Perhaps the eastside of Bishop would be to your liking where multiple families live under one roof. They might have a shed for you to hang your head and play the little violin!
So you don’t want people to be paid a decent wage so they can live decent lives?
People should be paid for what their skills and education call for instead of showing up and expecting to be provided for. America was built on this principle and it should continue instead of the entitlement mentality. Cost of living is higher in CA. If people don’t have “decent lives”… Read more »
Very good post, takes me back to the days before the brainwashing of america began. Before the internet, Before X-box , Before cradle to grave excuses and government aid. Before our children became so coddled as to become unable to grow up and become adults. Before every county and city… Read more »
The American way was occupying someone else’s land and saying we live here now.Today we call that an illegal invasion, people that repeat this behavior are now criminals, our relatives that committed the same acts are called patriots, I still scratch my head on this one. I’m tired of those… Read more »
@Terry….. “People should be paid for what their skills and education call for instead of showing up and expecting to be provided for” Are you saying all these people with Public Pensions and government jobs are a “scam on society”. Well if you are ..I would tend to agree with… Read more »
So you want no government jobs? Like the FAA air traffic controllers? The Border Patrol? The Forest Service? EPA so you have clean water? FEMA in case of natural disaster? All the people who work to keep your roads clear? The FDA people who make sure your medicine is safe?… Read more »
@ ken
Yes we do need “Some” gov. jobs.
What we can do without is the “Public pension” funded by the lonely TAX payer.
unfunded public pensions just in Taxifornia are over 500 billion dollars.
Call me “deluded and uninformed ”
No sir. I’m just awake.
poor poor sheeple…
GGW
Any new affordable or “workforce” housing should include wider parking slots for all of those Cadillac Escalades.
Affordable housing is a myth created by greedy capitalists and used to finagle cheap housing for their employees so that they can pay lower wages to those employees and keep the money they should be paying as a livable wage. It is a scam to get other people to pay… Read more »
Ken! Right on! Thanks for sharing your ideas! Let’s put them into action.
Like renewable energy that does not EXIST as yet. Of do you propose to scatter dozens of 100 Ft wind towers across the hillsides facing west. And Furthermore , Councilman woods statment about an average wage of $53.000 in the state of calif is obviously not an accurate number any… Read more »
So the geothermal plant at Casa Diablo is a mirage? And Woods statement is incorrect — median income is $58,931. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States You’ve fixated on Verizon for some reason. I mean our own pipeline via satellite. With our own servers. Take the blinders off and try thinking instead of knee jerk… Read more »