Street Roots • June 1-7, 2018
Rural Housing
Page 5
PHOTOS BY EMILY GREEN
Above: A local man constructs a house out o f
pipecleaners and popsicle sticks at the Coos
County Housing Sum m it on April 26 in
North Bend, a town o f about 9,800 residents
that borders Coos Bay. A t right: A cargo ship
docked in North Bend is headed to China,
where Oregon logs will be milled and sold.
COOS COUNTY, from page 4
and the parents give up, alcohol and drug
abuse come in and then there’s no one to
set a good example for the next generation.
This was a problem echoed up and down the
coast by service providers. They said the
idea that former loggers and seafood-
industry workers could be retrained in
tourism jobs is a joke.
“You’re not going to take these very
independent, tough talking and rough
talking people and put them down as a
maitre d’ in a restaurant,” said Lehman,
laughing.
But with the decline of those industries
now more than 30 years passed - many
residents, at the summit began to hoot,
holler and cheer when North Bend City
Councilor Timm Slater told the room that
pride was important, “and part of that is
let’s drop the attitude of being a victim.”
But embracing service-industry and retail
jobs is not necessarily the answer. Johnson
said she assists people employed in those
sectors who feel like no matter how hard
they work, they just can’t get ahead.
Melinda Torres, homeless liaison for the
Coos Bay School District, said she watches
her students fall into the same fast food and
retail jobs their parents worked because,
just like their parents, they don’t have the
skills to do anything else.
A shrinking workforce and stagnant
incomes that, for the past few decades, have
stemmed primarily from jobs in the
hospitality industry, Coos County residents
are facing their own, unique housing
predicament
Vacancy rates are higher than in many
areas of Oregon, hovering around 3 percent
for ownership and 7 percent for rentals,
according to Buki and Eddington’s analysis.
Fifteen percent of all housing units are
considered vacant - they just aren’t all
available because they’re vacation homes or
they’re unfit for occupancy.
“I’m not sure you have an affordability
problem,” Buki told housing summit
attendees. “What you have is a crappy stock
problem - and a poverty problem that adds
up and conspires to have lots of good stuff
above $300,000 and very few good options
below $200,000.” ,
Lehman agrees: “We have a lot of crappy
rentals. That’s one of the common
complaints you hear, ‘I’m paying good
money and it’s sketchy.’”
Nowhere to go
but home
their homes are often so outdated and
falling apart, they’re undesirable or unsafe.
Buki hammered-in his point about the
plethora of dated, avocado-green-furnished
houses so much that when Slater, the North
Bend city councilor, took the stage, he
began as if it were a confessional. “Hi, my
' Bilik ’
..
A main driver of Coos County’s housing
shortfall is the aging face of the community.
While the population has remained
relatively level in number, its median age
has increased markedly from ag£ '43 to'agte
n a m e is T im m , a n d I b o u g h t m y h o u s e in
• Hormeend
48 since 2000. .
1978.”
Residents who are young enough to have
children make up the smallest demographic,
with Millennials comprising just 14 percent
A collective crisis
8
of the population in 2016. More than 2,000
Most agree that finding suitable housing
■
of them have left Coos County to put down
began to be an issue about 10 years ago -
roots and raise their children elsewhere
following the Great Recession. It only
over the past 18 years.
became a hot topic in recent years, however,
This article is part of Street
Meanwhile, Baby Boomers and the Silent
as homelessness grew more visible and
Roots’ Housing Rural Oregon
Generation have grown to encompass 64
consensus built among employers that’s its
series.
In this edition we are
percent of the population. Whereas the
tough to retain out-of-town recruits when
looking at Coos County.
nation’s Baby Boomer population as a whole they can’t find a place to live.
Read previous articles
is shrinking as its members move into
When Marka Turner moved to the region
from the series at
retirement and the great beyond, in Coos
three years ago from Nevada with her
news.streetroots.org.
County, their numbers have actually
husband, three kids and small dog, she said,
increased in recent years.
“we could not find anything.”
Lehman said Coos Bay’s Marshfield High
She had taken a job as the executive
School has about half the student body that
director of the North Bend City/Coos-Curry
it did when he graduated from it in 1971,
Housing Authorities and temporarily rented
even though the town’s population has
the agency’s former director’s vacant home,
about it is building.
grown.
while he was in the process of selling it,
Barbara Green moved to Coos Bay from
The nationwide decline in residential care before moving into a hotel. “We ended up
Portland’s hot real estate market with her
facilities and nursing homes, along with
buying, it was easier than trying to rent
family in 2014, and she was surprised by
longer lifespans, have resulted in a greater
something,” she said.
how difficult it was to find a home - not just
percentage of elderly residents aging in
Turner purchased a house in Bandon,
one she could afford, but a home that was
place across many American communities.
where the housing stock is in a better state
available in general. Green, like Turner, had
With no new affordably-priced houses on
of repair than in the Coos Bay-North Bend
moved for a job. Her family lived with her
the market, it creates a choke point in
area where her office is located.
brother-in-law for three months until they
system: The elderly don’t downsize and stay
“I know $300,000 may not sound like a
were able to secure a small 2-bedroom home
in place longer, keeping their homes off the
lot coming out of Portland, but paying
in a less-than-desirable part of town. Green
market and unavailable for people looking
$300,000 and then needing to put another
said everyone warned her not to move into
for their second home. And because those
$50,000 or $100,000 into it to upgrade stuff, that neighborhood, but after living east of
people are not moving out of their first
was very discouraging,” she said. “And that’s 82nd Avenue in Portland, she said she
homes, there is nothing available for first
the story you will hear a lot from other
wasn’t too worried about Coos Bay’s “worst
time homebuyers.
professionals, businesses: People won’t
part of town.”
In coastal areas, where many elderly flock come here - they can’t find housing. In
Having lived in Coos County all his life,
for their golden years, this phenomenon is
Curry County, I know people who were in
Lehman said he’s had his current home for
only exacerbated - although the increase in
an RV for six months until something
years and never had any trouble securing
median age is more largely attributed to
housing, personally. His grown children and
became available.”
locals aging in place than beach-seeking
On the bright side, she said, because the
seniors on the move.
problem has become so bad for so many
See COOS COUNTY, page 7
When the elderly do move or pass away,
people, momentum to actually do something
About this senes
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