Council urged to explore options for more affordable housing

CHELAN- The July 11 Chelan City Council meeting featured several local voices urging the mayor and council members to explore avenues and options for affordable housing in the valley. Norma Gallegos is the program director for Hand-in-Hand, a local immigration service. She is also an accredited representative for the Department of Justice and the Board of Immigration Appeals. Around 15 people joined Gallegos to discuss the matter. She mentioned that about 250,000 people in Washington are eligible to become citizens. Recently, during the harvest, about 25 people had previously visited with the mayor about affordable housing. She said that during COVID, immigrants were hard to find, and housing was challenging.
“People became invisible. I didn’t know where they were,” Gallegos said. “People were living behind garage doors, tents and not wanting to share any information.”  Among the people who spoke was Jorge Lopez, who has lived in the Chelan area for more than 30 years. He shared a personal story and mentioned that the housing issue has become more prominent in recent years.
“This is a problem for ordinary people, for people who work in the orchard, who work at the apple warehouses, at the hotels and restaurants,” Lopez said. “We need to look for a solution just to keep people here in Chelan locally because people contribute to the economy with the work at the hotels, at the restaurants, the orchards and we need to look for a solution for those people also.” Chelan Mayor Bob Goedde and the Council were sympathetic to Gallegos and all the visitors. Goedde said the City is aware of the issue and welcomes help in finding a solution.
“I can only imagine how difficult it might be to come in here and make a presentation before this group,” Goedde said. “We do have some options and we’ll discuss them down the road, but it isn’t going to be quick, but we’re working on it.”  “Right now we’re like two communities working separately on it, so I hope we can find a way. There’s language barriers and cultural barriers obviously and hopefully we can get over the awkwardness of working around that and work together,” Councilman Tim Hollingsworth said, “sometimes when you look at the housing situation you feel like you’re pushing a rope or running in quicksand because it’s a very intractable economic issue.” Goedde then made a proclamation for Parks & Recreation Professionals Day. The mayor personally thanked Chelan’s Parks & Recreation workers before reading a statement.
“The Council values the essential services that park, and recreation professionals perform to provide recreational and developmental enrichment for our youth; and to ensure our parks and recreational spaces are clean, safe, inclusive, welcoming and ready to use,” he said.
Next on the agenda was to find a contract for the 2023 Parks Asphalt Preservation Project. This endeavor involved maintenance in local parks which includes asphalt crack sealing and seal coat patch repairing within the RV park, the entrance road, the basketball courts, and the go-kart tracks. Paul Horne, Parks, Recreation and Community Services Director for Chelan, said that he hoped the project would take place during the fall when the parks have less use, but temperatures are still conducive to asphalt work. The motion passed unanimously.
Horne then spoke about his department’s progress on the Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan survey questions. Chris Overdorf from SCJ Alliance also helped Horne during the meeting. Among the proposed questions in the survey were: What makes Chelan a great place to live or visit? Which of the following would you be willing to fund with your tax dollars? What are the reasons your household uses Chelan parks? What are unique characteristics or values of the City of Chelan that you love?
“Ultimately what we’re trying to do is to capture the community’s desired quality of life and what they want to see out of their parks and rec system,” Horne said.
The Council discussed various ways to distribute the survey including sending it with utility bills, bringing it to schools and going into the parks themselves to hand it out. Eventually, the City wants to build a public skate park and the Council said its location would have a big impact on the community in general and the parks system specifically.
During the Council comments portion of the meeting, councilman Mark Ericks reiterated the importance of finding affordable housing for residents of the valley.
“My whole family was middle European immigrants, and I know their struggles were not unlike the struggles of the current generation that have moved here,” Ericks said. “I think the difference though is that economy is a more difficult hurdle to tackle now, especially in home ownership and for housing. I think we have an obligation to help where we can and how we can.”