Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
I enjoyed your column on affordable housing (Dennis Wyatt column “Affordable housing fantasies” — Feb. 2).  I don’t know if you are aware of the workforce housing report prepared in 2007 and accepted by the City Council. I chaired the committee that included people from various walks of life, including an associate of the development community. Every member signed the report, including the reluctant representative of the development community. 
The report was accepted by the Council and then simply shelved. I recall when I presented the report and its conclusion during a Council meeting, the mayor was not pleased to hear the finding. The mayor and Council’s response to the report prompted me to begin a mission in 2008 to affect change at city hall and run for Council/Mayor.
My efforts then to provide a process and an inventory of affordable and workforce housing is borne out in the report and continues to be my effort today; in 10 years the numbers may have changed but the conclusion has not. Unfortunately the then council and the council today do not have the backbone to undertake such a task. If elected that position will change, whether existing approved tentative subdivision maps are in effect under different standards.

Ben Cantu
Manteca