The county has been aggressively working on affordable housing in recent years, but has not done a great job of communicating its work and accomplishments. The webpage dedicated to affordable housing on the county website outlines all the things being done to work on this issue. It is very surprising to many when they begin to learn the story of the county efforts.

Free market principles come into play with affordable housing. The first of the five immutable laws of affordable housing is that “developers don’t pay the costs of construction, tenants and buyers do” according to Strong Towns. While government cannot force a market to do what it wants in a free society, it can create an environment to encourage affordable housing. This market principle is something that the County Commission has taken very seriously, and also acted upon.