Street Roots • April 13-19, 2018
Rural Housing
Page 11
RURAL HOUSING, from page 10
Pointe, a five-story building in downtown
Bend with retail businesses on the lower
level and four stories on one and two-
bedroom apartments, as a model for
affordable housing for the future.
“We need housing for the workforce,
period,” Callicott said. “We need affordable
housing for people of all economic strata.
You can t build a single-family home for a
family that makes $37,000. It does have to
be HUD housing. It has to be smart.”
s Central Oregon government and
public policy continues identifying ways
to incentivize more construction, there is a
growing chorus of service providers,
outreach workers and activists who want to
create a city-sanctioned camp or tiny house
village for at least a portion of Central
Oregon’s homeless to safely camp and
access services.
On Feb. 23, Sally Pfeifer, the owner of
the drug and alcohol counseling service
Pfiefer & Associates, started a warming
shelter for up to 30 people in her offices.
The warming shelter is only open when
nighttime temperatures dip below 32
degrees. It’s bare bones: mats on the floor
from 8 p.m. until 7 a.m. in a space used for
group therapy during the day.
On March 7, she sent an email to dozens
of elected officials, social service providers
and advocates.
“Please take this all into consideration as
you walk around downtown for your
evening fun and meals,” Pfeifer wrote. “Are
there less people to walk over? Are there
less frightened tourists and community
members? Is there more time for officers
to do other things than chase homeless
people from one door jamb to another,
which they hate doing?
“Everyone has voiced their support for a
solution to the homeless crisis,” the email
continued. “We are now getting a taste of
how a homeless village could benefit the
community of B end.... There are
solutions.”
More than anything, people in Central
Oregon fear becoming another Aspen,
Colo., - the chichi resort and mountain
town “where no cop, no firefighter, any
service (worker) can live in the community
that they’re serving,” Callicott said. “That’s
ridiculous.”
A
lower incomes.
Callicott, of Five Talent Software,
would not disclose the average salary his
software developers make, saying it is
“highly confidential ”
But he did say they are “very well
paid” with salaries in a range typical for
software developers, with $60,000 a
year as a starting salary.
“It’s not the kind of position you
expect, in Oregon, would have a difficult
time affording a home,” he said.
The software developer that Callicott
offered his home to was ultimately able
to find a home and stay in Central
Oregon.
Rob Duvalle, the human resources
director for the City of Bend, has had
similar conversations to Callicott’s. One
employee of the city of Bend moved to
the area from across the country and
lived with friends for months. “Where
do you live?” Duvalle remembers asking
the person. “‘I don’t really know,’” was
the response.
The city of Bend has lost more than a
handful of employees due to housing
concerns, including a utility worker,
Duvalle said. The base salary for such a
position is $20.10 an hour. “That’s not a
been unable to hire certain employees
who have wanted to move here. It has
negatively effected our ability to secure
talent.”
Questions from job candidates about
housing are “frequent,” Duvalle said,
and that his staff have started asking
candidates during the interview process
if they are aware of the region’s housing
market and whether they’ve started
looking for housing.
“We make sure they’ve done their
homework,” he said. “The last thing we
want is a great candidate that we love,
and then all of a sudden they call us and
say they can’t show up.”
S t Charles Health System, which
operates hospitals in Bend, Redmond,
more and more recruits are turning
down job offers because they cannot
find homes they can afford.
“We’ve had people accept offers, be
very excited, with full intentions of
coming here, and then (start) their
A few years ago, Duvalle said, the
home search ... and they can’t afford it
prospect of living in Redmond and
she said.
commuting to Bend to work would have
The positions most affected at the
been a “deal breaker” in recruitment
hospital, Barry said, are surgical
technicians and
conversations.
certified nursing
Aycock, of the
assistants (CNAs).
Central Oregon
"It's a hurdle right now.
Both those
Intergovernmental
We've
lost
employees
that
positions, according
Council, said he is
to Barry, pay $25 an
beginning to
hour.
cer-
investigate employer-
The hospital is
assisted housing
programs, which
Minnesota and other
communities around
ablllty to secure talent
the country use.
ROB DUVALLE
Such a program
C IT Y O F B E N D
either provides
payment loan programs that help
employees make a down payment for a
home.
area.
“That’s a lot of time, effort and
money, and then we’re back to square
one,” Barry said. “There’s not always a
backup candidate.”
The hospital has begun to rely on
on-call surgical techs and nurses who
travel to work at the hospital. They’re a
more expensive labor pool, Barry said,
because they don’t earn benefits and the
hospital must pay for their temporary
housing while they work for the
hospital. “It’s a short-term fix, and it’s
not what you want to depend on,” she
said.
Barry said that St. Charles is
beginning to discuss how to encourage
lower-skilled workers, such as
in the city of Sisters. The city
contributed $300,000, or 6 percent of
its general fund, toward the project.
Brant Kucera, the city manager of
affordable to all income levels is not only
necessarily for the many service
workers who work in Sisters, but
community.
“We have our school district to
sustain,” he said. “In the future, we
need people with children to be moving
here. The only way to do that is making
Bend - that’s not a big deal to me. I
want them to live in Sisters first
“Communities are made up of people
from all walks of life,” he continued. “We
need to make sure that, when we