People, stop it! Just stop it! Stop calling a 300-square feet studio apartment that rents for $1,500 affordable! Take that amount and let’s throw in electricity, water, sewer and trash, and you’re nudging $2,000 a month.
I checked The Durango Herald’s listings of jobs available and found one with starting pay of $18.50 an hour. Take $18.50 x 160 hours a month = $2,960 gross pay. Knock off social security and income tax, and you’re left with what? About $2,200? So, subtracting rent and utilities, you're looking at $200 a month for groceries, gasoline, laundromat a new pair of socks. . . Better hope the old jalopy doesn’t have a blowout on that left front tire.
Tack on at least another $100 in expenses for a new tire and you’re down to $100 for the aforementioned expenses. And don’t even think about a season pass to Purg unless you can score a part-time job as a lifty. Does Purgatory still have an employee bus? Gasoline up and back? A Saturday night beer with a buddy? Nah!
The owner and CEO of that $1,500 square feet studio apartment project said, in the Herald, they are “addressing the shortage of affordable housing in town.” Affordable? Really? Do the math. I may have been born yesterday, but not at night!
Larry Eugene Whiteside
Durango
