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About Street roots. (Portland, OR) 1998-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2017)
Street Roots • Dec 1-7, 2017 News Page 4 ------- »■ • 7 _ Oregon's rural housing crisis '«5;;iSîiSæî W IK IC O M M O N S Street view in Lincoln City, with more than 5U(J vacation „„„a „ Zzrz-fc siffnrsinhl? hnusinp for residents. with walked through her doors. “She and I sat down, and we cried a little bit. E X E C U T IV E E D IT O R The vast majority of people in this community lizabeth Reyes grew up in Lincoln City. that work in this community are easily one The small tourist town on the Oregon paycheck away from being homeless. This Coast is her home, where she works full woman had two children. The father quit paying time and spends her money, where her children child support. She had her own house cleaning go to school. She’s a proud second-generation business. She would clean the vacation rentals. member of the Lincoln City community. She was very good. One of her children was “I grew up here. I lived in low-income housing special-needs. for quite a few years. I took some free classes on “And then her car broke down.” how to become a homeowner. It took a couple of For want of $100 to pay for car parts, she lost years before I was able to buy.” everything, including her home, Reyes said. But she can’t afford to live in her hometown. In the past five to 10 years, the housing issue Instead, Reyes and her children live in the small, has grown from concern to a full-on political, unincorporated community of Otis. From there, economic and social crisis across rural Oregon. she commutes to her job as the executive “In a rural community, everything is director of Family Promise of Lincoln County, magnified, and there’s no avoiding it,” Reyes where she works to provide shelter, case said. management and supportive services for “It also forces us to deal with it, because families and youths experiencing homelessness. they’re not sweeping it someplace else. There’s Last year, nearly 600 individuals used their no pretending it’s not going on. It affects all of services, most of them victims of high rents, low us one way or another.” vacancy levels, and the feast or famine of It’s the case across all of rural Oregon. Up seasonal wages. the coast in Manzanita, Marzano’s Pizza closed “A vast majority of the people that come into its dining room service because “for the first our program have full-time employment,” Reyes time in 15 years, we were unable to staff our said. “They do not have a drug and alcohol summer crew,” according to the owners’ notice. problem. They have simply lost their housing “We’ve received a lot of interest from people because they were renters.” who would love to come to work for us, but they Generational poverty also accounts for many can’t find housing.” of Family Promise’s clients, Reyes said, In Central Oregon, Bend and neighboring including a lack of financial planning skills or basic savings accounts. Reyes recalled the See RURAL, page 5 day a woman she had gone to high school BY JOANNE ZUHL E
