With President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in Lake Tahoe this week, they'll likely experience an issue familiar to many of us when visiting the area: road congestion.

Tahoe Prosperity Center says the Bidens' visit could shed light on Lake Tahoe's workforce housing and transportation issues. 

"Transportation and congestion that's a huge issue that people talk about all the time. While visitors contribute to it, it's really the long lengthy commutes by everyone coming into work and leaving to go home that are really compounding that issue," said Tahoe Prosperity Center Program Manager Bill Chan.

Chan gave us statistics showing that only 28% of residents in Lake Tahoe can actually afford to buy a house.

Like cities across the country, housing affordability has become an increasing issue. With lower wage incomes and housing price hikes, the majority of the workforce on the Nevada side commuting in from Reno and Carson City.

Chan says just as state and federal leaders collaborated and allocated resources to clean up Lake Tahoe's environment, they should too for Tahoe's economic challenges.

"The issues that have started to peculate because of the affordable housing and transportation issues. Small businesses have been shuttering. The ones that exist, their hours are limited because of staffing issues. And, hopefully seeing that first hand will send the message that Tahoe needs help," said Chan.

Road congestion can be a serious issue for wildland-urban interface communities like Lake Tahoe that require clear evacuation routes in the case of wildfires.