To the editor:

Why is property tax relief for Lawrence seniors long overdue? Because retirees’ income has not kept pace with unfairly inflated single-family neighborhood home valuations.

Problem: Many owner-occupied home valuations are artificially high because thousands of single-family neighborhood houses have been converted into rentals for three (or more) unrelated people. Rental property valuations are far above their worth (for owner-occupied housing) and have unfairly increased valuations for nearby owner-occupied houses.

Thousands of central-city houses were built in the 1950s for less than $10,000. With effective single-family zoning protection (from rental conversion), these houses would long ago have been either remodeled or replaced – and still family-occupied.

More than 10,000 single-family neighborhood houses have been transformed into rentals for unrelated tenants turned into multifamily zoning by default. Owner-occupied housing in Lawrence single-family zoned neighborhoods is unprotected from “rental-business housing,” resulting in fewer families in central Lawrence neighborhoods, and closing three elementary schools (because of fewer children).

Rentals to unrelated multiples within single-family zoned areas is also responsible for displacing thousands of young families to the nearby communities of Eudora, De Soto, etc.

Needed: (1) An ordinance restricting renting to two unrelated people in single-family neighborhoods. This would equalize a family’s financial ability to compete for that property. (2) Restrict rentals to three (or more) unrelated tenants to multi-family zoning. (3) California’s Proposition 13. (4) Property tax abatement for seniors.

Decisive City Commission action may yet rejuvenate central-city neighborhoods.

Bob Blank,

Lawrence