The city of Jamestown recently paid more than $30,000 in back taxes for the privilege of taking control of 12 parcels that had been foreclosed upon by Chautauqua County.

Why, you may ask, would the city do that?

The answer is because the city had little choice.

The parcels are located at 60 W. 14th St.; 32 W. 17th St.; two additional parcels on West 17th St.; two parcels on West 15th St.; one parcel on Isabella Ave.; two parcels on Monroe St.; and three parcels on Clinton St. Some of the properties are vacant lots. Other, however, are homes that either have homeless squatters inside or are subpar units that are being rented out. Taking control of the properties allows the city to begin cleaning up eyesores that are creating problems in city neighborhoods. The city had to take action now or perhaps lose the opportunity. As we noted yesterday, it’s easier for the city to act if it controls properties like these.

But the fact that these properties are inhabited in the first place speaks to a shortage of affordable housing in Jamestown. Over the years the city has demolished a fair amount of substandard housing that nobody should have been living in. But, often, the apartments were inhabited because they were cheap places to live that were better than either being in a hotel room provided by Chautauqua County or living on the streets. But as these properties have been demolished or renovated and re-rented for a much higher price, affordable housing hasn’t been built to meet the needs of those who struggle to afford the higher rents for housing.

Almost overnight, Jamestown went from being a place with cheap housing costs to a place with unaffordable housing. There are, at last, some affordable housing units in the pipeline – but we know from stories like this and from the demand for housing in hotels in the area that we have a long way to go before we meet the demand for affordable housing in the Jamestown area.