Dear Mayor Dailey: Affordable Housing Isn’t Just Nice — It’s Necessary I’ll never forget driving to class one morning and passing a small cluster of tents not far from campus. One girl sat quietly beneath a tarp, textbooks spread out in the dirt. She looked tired—like she had already studied all night, but not rested at all. I walked by, heart thudding, realizing that this moment could’ve been me, or my roommate, or anyone balancing school and rent. That’s when it hit me: if our mayor asked what should be the top local issue to tackle, my answer would echo in that girl's hollowed eyes: affordable housing. Because when you don’t have a place to sleep, everything else class, work, hope and falls apart. Why Housing Must Be the Top Priority in Tallahassee Tallahassee’s housing challenge isn’t abstract—it’s massive. The metro area needs 187,283 housing units to meet demand, yet only 172,558 currently exist , leaving a gap of 14,725 homes . PadSplit To worsen matters, workers...