Southland Needs Affordable Housing

Re “Cheers Greet Ahmanson Critics at Rally,” Oct. 6: Why don’t opponents of the Ahmanson Ranch project address the real and pressing need for housing? My rent expense is one-third of my income, I am unable to come up with enough of a down payment to buy a house and I am only one of thousands in that position. I look around me and I see these beautiful mountains and these pristine areas and I appreciate them, but where is the balance?

I don’t believe Westlake Village, Agoura Hills or Thousand Oaks would ever have been built had the developers been responsible for traffic, but they are symbols of communities that leave plenty of open space and still serve the housing needs of the people.

Prices are artificially high, and while we claim to be concerned for the needs of recent immigrant arrivals, we make it impossible for them to rent affordable, decent housing and impossible to share the American dream.

I am suspicious of the true motivation of the celebrities who voice their uninformed opinions against this project. It would seem that their liberal leanings should be re-examined for the hypocrisy that this view really is.

Norman Shubert

Calabasas