While driving through the Harbor it is nearly impossible to not see at least one person experiencing homelessness.

The cost of living in our county and generally in the state is shooting sky high, you cannot find a place to live for under $1,000 a month, while the average income is $43,346 before taxes. Applying a tax rate of 22%, that is $2,817.49 a month.People are spending at least half of their monthly income on rent, let alone any other expenses like food or utilities.

What I am recommending to help our community is simple: increase the number of good jobs, expand economic democracy, rent control, and help with required expenses. These simple ideas are used across the world to create working economies, and lift people out of poverty. These solutions will not only lift people from poverty, but they will allow the state government to expand these and other local and state programs with the extra tax dollars they collect.

These programs are simple initiatives that could simply be done, so why haven’t they been done? It’s quite simple, nobody in government local, state or federal wants to do it because they are scared of angering their donors.

And this isn’t a new issue. When Huey P. Long of Louisiana did this a hundred years ago, he was impeached, then they attempted to remove him from the Senate, and finally he was murdered by a doctor in 1935 after announcing his run for president.

People who try to improve the material conditions of the average citizen have done three things; succeed, been popular, and experienced major pushback from those currently in government.

You may be asking how you can help. It’s simple. When it comes time to vote, do research and ask yourself “will this person support attempts at improving my material conditions?”

If the answer is yes, vote for them, and finally do your best to participate in mutual aid programs while we live in our current situation. The best we can do is have the people who have more than enough help those who do not have enough.

Chelsea Johnson

Hoquiam