Dear Editor,

I don’t understand the phrase “Housing & Human Services.” Has anyone else asked themself that question, or the distinction between the two?

Could affordable housing be a mental health issue? Or, how about an emotional health issue. Or perhaps a physical health issue. Or, maybe all three. A continuum of one leading to the next.

Recently, a couple of people told me that I live in a bubble up here. Who best to have the anecdotal answer than that of a single parent down the street. Or that struggling elder on the next road trying to survive with dignity on limited resources.

So, I ask again in my confusion: isn’t providing affordable housing, especially to our most vulnerable, a human service that should not be separated out?

That is one reason why I support annexation. See my letter in last week’s Mountain-Ear.

Some folks keep railing against annexation while citing infill density, which I also support, however limited it would be in the CBD. Yet, when I’ve posed the question on numerous occasions about acreage in town for infill housing (a minimum of two acres, as Tungsten Village is with accompanying parking), there have been no responses. Let alone building up a story in the central business district for (affordable) housing.

Atashnaa Medicineshield Werner

Nederland