Motel Housing

It’s time to stop the inflammatory media coverage of the Image Inns low-cost housing and report some facts.

Everyone agrees that low-cost housing is a necessity, especially the Leucadians who live around the Image Inns motel. They happen to be the lowest-income earners in the city. Once and for all, the issue here is not the need for low-income housing but the acceptability of the Image Inns as a solution to our housing needs.

Over 1,000 citizens from all over Encinitas signed a petition against the motel for the following reasons:

North County Chaplaincy plans to house between 200 and 300 men, women and children on a little over an acre of land with no cooking facilities and limited parking.

This type of dense, substandard living smacks of “tenement mentality.” Didn’t we learn anything from our mistakes in the ‘60s?

The Image Inns is located at the gateway to the Encinitas community on the spinal column of California’s transportation system (Interstate 5). Yes, we need low-income housing, but do we need to sacrifice tourism (our No. 1 source of commerce) to find a solution? Perhaps the most important fact that escapes the press is that this project promotes segregation. Take 300 people, label them low-income, put them in a high-rise, put up a gate where people must check in and out, and you have effectively isolated the people we would all like to help. Welcome to the projects.

And lastly, let’s dispel the myth. The Rev. Martinez has repeatedly stated that the homeless people will not be able to afford the rent ($400 per room per month). His targets are people living in substandard housing. It sounds to me like he is moving people from substandard housing into more expensive substandard housing.

A two-bedroom apartment with kitchen and recreation facilities rents for about $650 in our city, and we currently have a 17% vacancy rate.

These apartments could provide cheaper, higher-quality accommodations that would integrate, not segregate. There are better solutions for everybody involved, except the North County Chaplaincy. They want to own the Image Inns.

ANNE VYENIELO, San Diego