Tommy Acosta

SEDONA, Ariz./ — How sad.

Time is running out for tenants at 89A Windsong Mobile Home Park, who are set to see their rent increase by $300 to $400 on Aug. 1 following the sale to new owners, Red Rock News reports.

Some of us spend $300-400 on a dinner with a few friends, sometimes including tipping at a fancy restaurant.

For Windsong tenants, a rent increase of about 40 percent would be a disaster.

Most of the residents are working-class Latinos who work as gardeners, day laborers, hotel staff, and food industry workers, and whose children attend school here in Sedona.

A proportional increase of such magnitude may force them to move out of Cottonwood and find alternative locations to live, further exacerbating the shortage of unskilled labor in the city.

No one would blame the new owners for raising the rent as they please – that's the reality.

Some might say this is a good thing, arguing that Windsong is a haven for criminals and drug dealers who sell their wares to high school students and drug addicts.

They see it as an eyesore and a dirty thing for the community.

Some might say it is a crime to do such things to waiters, cleaners, gardeners, servers and other hospitality workers.

What would they do?

Would there be space for them to rent in Cottonwood? Would they leave Sedona in droves?

Will they end up homeless?

The onus will now shift to Sedona's employers, who will likely need to raise employee pay by $300 to $400 a month if they want to survive.

And those additional costs will be passed on to us, the consumers.

On the other hand, Windsong's owners may be in it for the long haul, and the rent increases could be a harbinger of the property's true value.

Either way, tough times are ahead for Windsong's residents, and the cost may come from losing the workers they need to keep their tourist town going.

Restaurant owners are already struggling with labor shortages, so imagine how much worse it would be if the labor supply disappeared.