Hardly anything is more important.
Forgive me for exploring some of my own reasons for getting involved in politics, but my community dealt with a very different challenge eight years ago than the one today. Growing up, I had five sisters. If you'd asked any of us 10 or 12 years ago what we wanted to do, none of us would have known. However, we all wanted to live in the community we came from. That wasn't an option for us at the time, not because of the housing market but because of the job market.
Things have changed now in small communities like mine, and big cities have been wrestling with this for a long time. People are being priced out of the communities they love and where their families live. It's where they want professional opportunities to grow, thrive and contribute. We have to succeed, because the cost of failing to build enough homes so people can live in the community they want is not just consequential for the person who can't find a home to live in, though it's worth doing for that in and of itself. There's also an economic impact for the country as a whole when young people can't move to the cities where opportunities are or remain in the cities where they grew up and where they have other opportunities. That has an impact on all of us.
Let the people you're dealing with know that despite the significant challenge we face, I am filled with a sense of hope that over the next number of years, things are going to get better, because I'm seeing the work being done to make them get better. I spend all of my time dealing with the people doing good things to build the homes we need so young people can afford a place to live—whether that's a place to rent today or an opportunity to save up to buy a place a few years from now.
We have to do everything we can to reduce the cost of building in order to get more supply on the market. We also have to look at measures to allow people to save up so they don't have to give up on the idea that they may own a place to live in one day.
Despite the challenge, I remain hopeful and optimistic. However, we have a lot of work to do to get to a place I want to get to.