Joe Conaway’s recent commentary disingenuously blames new residents for a failure to build affordable housing and, in turn, attract new businesses to keep young adults home here in Sussex (“Build more homes for Sussex Countians,” March 20).
He omits the fact that the loss of young adults in Sussex is a decades-long trend. In 2016, he told a newspaper, comparing to Sussex in the 1970’s, that it was the same then "… as it is more than 40 years later, the stumbling block is a lack of high-paying jobs,” the article says.
He doesn’t acknowledge opportunities he had, as a long-term county official or during his years as a land-use consultant and expeditor of land-use applications, to tackle this issue.
Instead, he and Sussex have taken the path of least resistance and highest return, building to attract an older demographic that adds to local consumption demand without doing much to boost economic productivity, while pushing the cost of homes even further out of reach.
We’re in a world of hurt — nowhere near enough affordable-housing units — and he wants to deflect blame toward new residents? Stop already. Show me the volume of affordable-housing applications turned down because of public outcry.
Don’t blame newer residents. They arrived here at Sussex’s (and his) invitation. Retire the “us versus them” nonsense with his “our people” and newcomers commentary — entertaining perhaps but unproductive and intentionally distracting from a real-world crisis.
Let the rest of us not vilify developers over affordable housing either. It’s unproductive, hardens perspectives and limits opportunities for collaborative solutions. It’s not their financial responsibility to fix affordable housing.
Nor should we blame farmers for selling their land. Without broader funding of solutions to preserve farms, attract young farmers and give aging farmers a way to access their equity in retirement, what choice do many have?
Our crisis is systemic and long-brewing, an outgrowth of neglect, indifference, shunning of intergovernmental collaboration and intentional policy decisions. The buck stops with our policymakers (and voters who elect them).
Conaway should stop twisting data. His statistical conclusion is wrong. The growth trend of housing units here in Sussex does not, in fact, mirror the national trend of 20% from 2000-20. Sussex housing stock for the same period actually grew 53%, more than 2 1/2 times that national average. It’s not that we aren’t building enough. We’re not building what we need.
Imagine if, during those 20 years, policymakers had focused on attracting quality jobs, fighting harder for Sussex’s fair share of state dollars and addressing the obvious impact of that growth on infrastructure (including affordable housing), health resources and the demand for low-wage services — an impact that further stresses the affordable-housing burden. Imagine if the 1971 Sussex zoning change had included an adequate public facilities ordinance, giving infrastructure a fighting chance to keep pace with development over the decades.
Then, imagine every year since 1971 as a lost opportunity to address these critical measures.
Conaway’s push for higher density everywhere is what you’d expect a developer lobbyist would say. What we need instead is a thoughtful, planned strategy with better density incentives to build affordable units where it makes good sense, near employment centers where public transportation investments can be leveraged. Instead of one isolated advancement every year or so, let’s put “planning” back into “Planning & Zoning” and craft ordinances, master plans and pilot projects to thoughtfully address the issue. Could an affordable-housing land trust lower costs and enable a respectable profit?
Kudos to the county for putting affordable housing on the radar. But we need speed and purpose. The crisis is human, and it’s now. A public/private (workhorse) partnership with the best minds — experts, community advocates and local movers and shakers — could get serious traction and build momentum if it were backed by the political will to do so.
We’ve tried it the “Cona-way.” It’s time to try something different.
Patti Drago is a resident of Lewes.
