Are you looking for affordable housing in Port Townsend? Do you know someone that may know someone who has a friend with a neighbor that knows someone with a place for rent? If you are looking, then you should.

Port Townsend, our bustling, beautiful, sea-swaddled town, is facing a housing crisis. As our economy has become increasingly reliant on the tourism industry, more homes are turned into nightly and weekly rentals. Homeowners that live afar are eager to earn income in this burgeoning tourist economy. The absence of these rentals from the market, I argue, is of critical importance to the issue of affordable housing.

A quick scan of AirBnB and VRBO, vacationer-oriented websites where tourists can rent rooms, ADUs and entire houses, reveals the large numbers of rentals that are off the market for more traditional renters and tenants.

In Port Townsend proper, there are at least 50 distinct homes between these two sites alone that are not a shared or private room, but a free standing home or apartment.

The rates for these homes are usually for nightly stays, and average somewhere around $150 per night, with a range from garden studio to a large house. A home renting for $150 per night would cost about $4,500 a month, if rented at capacity. Of course, it is doubtful that they are renting at capacity.

In a town with a housing crisis, these 50 houses represent both tremendous opportunity and certain misery with almost equal measure. If you are a working class person looking for a rental, unless you have an irresistibly winning smile or the aforementioned community connections, you may find yourself at a loss. There is a dearth of available rentals and a glut of consumers (i.e. competitors) in this tight rental market.

Last year, my family moved cross-country to Port Townsend in our trailer turned tiny house. It's modest, mobile, and most importantly, affordable. It gave me a foot in the door to this exclusive community I have come to love and cherish. My successful attempt at finding a place to park my little house on wheels was hard-won.

As it turns out, less than 300 square feet is a difficult long-term housing solution for two adults, a toddler, and a Westie mix. So, I began to comb the available resources of Craigslist and local news publications for new digs. Online and print publications proved onerous - less than five new rentals on Craigslist for Port Townsend in five weeks. And if you don't call within the first 24 hours, you might as well keep looking.

I started to take journeys all around town, and drove down dozens of streets in many neighborhoods on my search for the elusive "for rent" sign. I saw the many ubiquitous houses "for sale," a boat or two and a large stack of bricks being advertised in someone's driveway. But I saw just one house for rent.

This particular rental was a house on the side of a fairly busy road, and was relatively small. It was pricey, too - just shy of $1,000 for two bedrooms, not including electricity. Though not an especially appealing location, I was excited, and applied nonetheless. The owner told me that I was one of more than 12 serious inquiries. Many of them had greater financial resources than my husband and I, despite our being secure and qualified financially. Needless to say, neither we nor the other 12 applicants were approved for the rental. The person who had first pick turned out to be a friend of the owner.

The lack of affordable housing is becoming a tacit form of gentrification. If those with the means and qualities of a desirable tenant are having great difficulty, then those with lesser means must be having a formidable challenge to finding a place to call home.

STRATIFICATION

This type of stratification is an issue that affects all of us.

The working class is the backbone of a city in the sense that the selling of goods and providing of services is a fundamental exchange. We are creating a system wherein many of the people that work here cannot live here.

They may shop here, they may walk on the beaches here, they may walk down the street, and they may serve us our lunches, or bag our groceries.

But can they really all live here?

It's time for serious solutions. Should homes be allowed to be rented out by the night or only by the month? What about rent control?

We need to come together to make some choices that will ensure that we do not continue down this path that is leading to greater social inequality and stratification within a city whose character is one that fundamentally embraces transformation, and whose residents pride themselves on pro-social values and diversity.

It's time to talk more about this, and to take action.

(Shea Ohana, 32, has lived in Port Townsend for six mon ths and has started a cleaning business. She's a member of the Jefferson Coun ty Chamber of Commerce.)