8/3 Letters: ‘Don’t expect change’ in the affordable housing debate

Having lived in the area for over 60 years I have watched as the debate over affordable housing has transformed, or not, through the years. It was an issue raised back in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, etc., and it gets the same response each time. Appoint a commission to study it or hire a consultant, after which we get a report and then on to something else. All while the number of affordable housing units shrinks even more.

There is no incentive to develop affordable housing in such a market as this. The best way to have affordable housing is to keep what you have, and we can see that has never worked either. It is a political football in Raleigh that simply pushes the affordable housing to surrounding areas and towns that don’t have the forces against them. This in turn creates more pressure to pay employees more within the city simply out of the need for commuting cost increases. As the city center fills, affordable housing will disappear as internal cost increases. It is the same cycle today as it was in the ’70s. Don’t expect it to change.

Trump ‘doing great’

Many Eagle Scouts think differently than the author of “Scout’s honor - Trump lacks it” (July 28). The president did and has done a great job, just as he was elected to do.

Make pain treatment accessible

The United States is currently in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic of opioid misuse, costing 15,000 lives and $55 billion in health care expenditures annually, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. In response to this crisis, federal and state agencies have launched various efforts to address the issue, including initiatives targeting opioid prescription practices and improving access to naloxone, a life-saving opioid reversal medication, in at-risk communities.

Racial and ethnic disparities in pain management in the United States have been examined for decades, and the preponderance of evidence reports that individuals that identify as black or Hispanic are more likely to be undertreated for pain than their white counterparts. As awareness of inappropriate opioid use expands, care must be taken to ensure that those patients unable to access adequate pain control prior to the epidemic do not find their access to appropriate care diminished in its wake. Pain is a complex patient experience, intricately linked with physical and mental health and overall quality of life, and caregivers must do what can be done to optimize each. Standardizing pain assessment and management may both diminish inappropriate use and ensure that all patients receive quality care.

This story was originally published August 2, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "8/3 Letters: ‘Don’t expect change’ in the affordable housing debate."