Editor,

We are in a housing crisis. Not just Whidbey Island, but most of the U.S. and even into Canada. There are multiple factors nationwide, but that is not what concerns me, or Whidbey Island.

Two of our three incorporated areas rely disproportionately on tourism. Tourists, especially in the summer, need places to stay. The North End of the island has many options for tourists to stay, but on the South End we have four hotels in Langley, one B&B (by my recollection), and there is an additional hotel in Freeland. All other transient accommodation is currently being handled by a very small number of traditional B&Bs, but the rest are being handled by vacation rentals. As a result of this, vacation rentals are to a degree a reason for our housing crisis.

There is currently a proposal to remove one of the hotels from the inventory for homeless housing. This is literally the most illogical idea I’ve seen from an elected official since the steel-electric ferries were retired, for no logical reason, and no plans.

What we need on South Whidbey is more hotel rooms, especially in Langley and Freeland. It is my strong belief that the lack of transient/tourist accommodations is directly related to our lack of workforce housing, through the indirect promotion of vacation rentals.

Simply adding hotels is not the “magic bullet” to solve our housing crisis, but certainly removing hotels will make things worse. We need to work on increasing tourist accommodations, while looking at increasing workforce housing, that the people we rely on to keep our community operating can afford, and reducing the red-tape and costs associated with building both single family residences, but also multi-family residences, and even mixed-use and multi-use facilities throughout our community.

So I ask that you say no to the conversion of the Harbor/Harbour Inn away from being the much needed tourist/transient accommodation it has been for decades.

Thomas Gill

Langley