telling us the plight of so many Lake Tahoe residents. Affordable housing is

a common problem in this area for many Anglo, Latino and Filipino families

and singles. It’s also great to see the SLT Chamber take an active role in

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bringing community leaders together to discuss the situation and deal with

possible solutions.

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There is a very simple answer for this problem, however. It’s called “A

LIVING WAGE.” If the casinos, hotels, ski resorts and time-shares really

want to help their employees find reasonably priced housing in the Tahoe

basin, they need to pay them a decent salary. This would also help to solve

the difficulty of employers trying to hire and keep loyal workers. These

companies would actually save money in the long run by not having to

continually hire, train and replace low-wage employees.

The TRPA, city, counties and companies do need to work together to build

more affordable housing complexes, but that will take years to actually

improve the problem. There is no faster, smarter, more realistic way to

quickly improve the housing situation than to pay our neighbors a decent

LIVING WAGE.