I invite my fellow Cape Elizabeth residents to think deeply about the costs and benefits of affordable housing.

Sure, some people may have issues with the building’s look, feel and size. And, yes, committees and task forces and referendums might seem fitting.

But those pause-button approaches result in delay after delay after delay until developers won’t dare spend time and money to propose affordable housing in well-off suburban communities like ours – for reference, see the past 50 years in Cape Elizabeth.

I urge my neighbors to weigh minor aesthetic concerns against the ability of young people like me to move back to the Portland area after high school and college – we need to lower rents, and the only way to do that is to build more housing. Towns from Biddeford to Brunswick are doing their part; it’s high time we chip in.

Nat Jordan
Cape Elizabeth