Editor,

Why is a well-set table being boycotted by the most important guest? I’ll clarify: In your recent article, Oak Harbor’s council is wrestling with a crisis — how to expand available affordable housing that is now woefully inadequate all over Whidbey. “We’re in a bit of a crisis,” says an Oak Harbor council member. “The [OH] Planning Commission assembled a stakeholder advisory group …” we are told.

Yet the stakeholder amplifying the problem most is nowhere to be seen.

It is clear that the Navy’s dramatically increased importation of fliers and their families for a vastly outsized — for Whidbey — Growler training program is a leading cause of lack of affordable housing.

The Navy has sent nobody to the housing table either in the past or present.

Be a good neighbor, Navy, and join in the effort with ideas, and money, from your vast budget, to clean up the stress in housing you have created.

Mark Wahl

Langley