Making Ends Meet in Orange County

I want to commend you for focusing on the housing problem in the Southland.

Housing, transportation, work and violence are increasingly more of a problem to most people. For instance, I worked for a year or so as an apartment hostess, leasing and showing apartments. They paid me $5 per hour.

If a worker makes $5 per hour ($200 per week) what is left for food, clothing and transportation, when the worker pays “the lowest” $500 per month for a place to live? The government still gets its share even though it considers the income poverty level.

A vehicle is a must in California. Try riding a bus to work, or to shop. Ice cream will melt, meat will thaw and bathrooms are almost unknown--yet the system takes four to five hours of your time. There are many people who want to work, are able, are qualified--but the work they find doesn’t pay enough to rent the $500-a-month apartment and still get them to work. I hope you talk to some of these people and write about them. Maybe then the system will listen.

COLLEEN HUBER

Laguna Beach