THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2015
NORTH COAST
3A
State lawmakers plan bill to address affordable housing
The Portland Democrat
said the committee also plans
to bring back legislation to in-
SALEM — State lawmak- crease funding for a state pro-
ers plan to offer an omnibus gram that helps build new af-
housing bill in February to re- fordable housing for families
spond to a shortage of afford- with children who are at risk
able housing that has reached of homelessness. This year,
crisis levels statewide.
the Legislature committed
The House Committee on $40 million of general obliga-
Human Services and Housing tion bonds to support the pro-
KDVWZRPRQWKVWR¿QDOL]HGH- gram. Keny-Guyer said she
tails of the proposal, said state wants lawmakers to approve
Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer, the $60 million more.
committee’s chairwoman.
Lawmakers also are look-
³:H ZDQW WR ¿JXUH RXW ing at resurrecting a bill to
what we can do to help peo- provide more general assis-
ple who are struggling right tance to homeless adults, es-
now,” Keny-Guyer said.
pecially veterans.
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
problem. Investors who buy
buildings, clear out existing
tenants and raise rents are
pricing low- and middle-in-
come residents out of the mar-
ket, Byrd said.
Rents in Portland increased
Moratorium on
by $100 in the past 12 months,
evictions
said Kurt Creager, director of
Janet Byrd of the Oregon the City of Portland Housing
Housing Alliance called for a Bureau.
one-year moratorium on no-
“The Legislature has an
cause evictions and excessive obligation to address some of
rent increases.
that rampant greed in the mar-
She noted that 1-in-5 Orego- ket,” Byrd said.
nians move every year, an indi-
Jon Chandler, of the Ore-
cation of a market “in turmoil.” gon Home Builders Associa-
,QVXI¿FLHQW VXSSO\ RI tion, said onerous permitting
housing contributes to the rules, land-use laws, and fees
Committee members lis-
tened to two hours of testimo-
ny Tuesday outlining the ex-
tent of the crisis and hearing
proposals for addressing the
shortage.
Three arrested in Astoria drug bust
The Daily Astorian
Three people were arrested
Wednesday afternoon at an As-
toria apartment where metham-
phetamine was being sold.
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Clatsop County Sheriff’s deputy
searched the residence at 1824
Exchange St. after a lengthy in-
vestigation.
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cers found Blaine Ogier, Jessica
Gassner and Krystal Wilson.
Gassner and Ogier were ar-
rested and charged with distri-
bution of a controlled substance
— methamphetamine.
Wilson was arrested on a
warrant from Seaside Municipal
Court.
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amine and items that had been
traded for methamphetamine in
the apartment.
On Wednesday morning, of-
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lance to determine the appro-
priate time to serve the warrant
when a neighbor posted a sign
outside the back of the apart-
ment stating “Dope sold here we
are watching you, your vehicles
and your friends.”
Astoria Police Department
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further evidence that the warrant A sign posted outside the apartment states “Dope sold
here we are watching you, your vehicles and your friends.”
was valid.
Governor vows action to
improve public records access
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown on Wednesday promised
to take immediate action to im-
prove access to public records
after a state audit showed slow
and inconsistent responses to
records requests may be jeopar-
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The governor said she plans
to introduce legislation in the next
session that would implement the
audit’s recommendation to create
a public records ombudsman
position. The position would in-
volve helping the public access
requested documents and as-
sisting agencies with complying
with public records law.
Brown also announced that
she would issue an executive
order calling for more consis-
tency between agencies in fees
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ing records requests. The audit
report, released Tuesday, found
that fees and timelines varied
widely between nine agencies
that were audited.
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100 public records requests,
containing 350,000 pages
and involving more than
3,000 hours of staff time, she
said.
The audit report found
Inherited a backlog
that agencies furnished re-
Brown said she inherited a cords relatively quickly — in
EDFNORJRIXQIXO¿OOHGSXEOLFUH- two weeks or less — for rou-
cords requests when she took of- tine requests. About 90 per-
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who resigned in February amid tion of routine — commonly
DQ LQÀXHQFHSHGGOLQJ VFDQ- requested information that is
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Hayes.
audit. More complicated re-
“It was clear transparency quests could take more than
wasn’t a priority in the prior ad- 265 days, result in high and
ministration,” said Brown, who inconsistent fees and lead to
URVHWRWKHVWDWH¶VKLJKHVWRI¿FH “the perception that agen-
from her position as secretary of cies are using these tactics
state.
to block the release of public
Since February, Brown’s of- information,” auditors wrote.
She plans to establish a
task force to look at the more
than 400 exemptions to public
records law and make recom-
mendations for improvements
in 2017.
are obstacles to building more
affordable housing units.
The Portland City Council
declared a housing emergency
last month and took a series of
stopgap measures to address
the crisis, including waiving
city code to allow temporary
homeless shelters.
A statewide issue
Testimony Tuesday made
clear that the crisis has tenta-
cles throughout the state.
In central Oregon, there are
a handful of rental vacancies
at any given time, said Lynne
McConnell of HomeSource
and Assets for NeighborIm-
pact, which helps families
access housing. It’s common
for 20 people to apply for one
unit, each paying a $40 appli-
cation fee.
“You can imagine how much
money is going out the door just
to get in line,” she said.
In Astoria, an affordable
housing study found a short-
age of both affordable rental
housing and affordable hous-
ing for sale. Property manag-
ers have said the vacancy rate
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The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO
Media Group and Pamplin
Media Group.
Brown forms working
group on college violence
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Gov. Kate
Brown is forming a work group
to examine ways colleges and
universities can prevent and re-
spond to mass shootings.
The work group came out of
concerns about higher education
institutions’ preparedness for
violent attacks in the wake of
a mass shooting at Roseburg’s
Umpqua Community College,
Brown said. The October shoot-
ing was the deadliest in the
state’s history.
The governor met behind
closed doors Wednesday with
presidents of more than 40 pub-
lic and private universities and
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response and recovery efforts at
UCC and discuss how lessons
from that tragedy could inform
future emergency planning.
“One of the reasons for
bringing this group together to-
day is I wanted their input and to
hear their concerns before put-
ting together the work group,”
Brown said after the meeting.
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ways for postsecondary institu-
tions to pool resources and swap
best practices for violence pre-
vention and response.
Fewer resources at
smaller schools
Some institutions such as
the University of Oregon have
sophisticated emergency re-
sponse teams to coordinate
with emergency responders,
counselors and media. Smaller
institutions have fewer resourc-
es to pull that off, said Corban
University President Sheldon
Nord, who attended Wednes-
day’s gathering.
“It was really clear we have
this really talented and really
skilled incident response team
at the U of O so one of the con-
versations is we can’t afford to
replicate that incredible unit at
every single campus so how do
Mike Henneke/The News-Review
Gov. Kate Brown, second from right, and Umpqua Community
College interim President Rita Cavin, second from left, walk
arm-in-arm to make a brief appearance before members of the
media following a walking tour at the college in October. From
left to right, are: UCC student body president Tony Terra, Cav-
in, Brown and UCC board chairperson Vanessa Becker.
we ensure that incident response
team is available on any college
or university campus should this
type of gun violence occur?”
Brown said.
“I was really heartened by
this idea of pooling our resourc-
es so we can have teams in place
to help administrators, faculty,
staff and students feel safe and
have a plan going forward,”
Nord said.
The governor plans to select
the work group in the next few
weeks.
Don’t expect proposals
from the group in time for the
legislative session in February.
Brown said the work group is a
longer-term project that may re-
sult in recommendations for the
2017 session.
Oregon already has a Task
Force on School Safety, es-
tablished by the Legislature in
2014, to research best practices
to prevent mass shootings and
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state’s K-12 campuses.
Brown said a separate work
group will help address con-
cerns and characteristics spe-
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tutions.
ACCE P T IN G N E W P AT IE N T S
As to ria Ch iro p ra ct i c
Statewide tip line
School safety task force
members recently unveiled their
recommendations for 2016.
They are asking lawmakers to
fund a statewide tip line, where
callers may anonymously report
potential threats, suicidal behav-
ior and instances of bullying
Another priority is to create
eight regional threat assessment
teams to identify students who
may be at risk of committing vi-
olence and give them additional
supervision, mental health ser-
vices or other support.
Task force leaders also want
to develop a statewide database
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last month to list that as a low-
er priority than the tip line and
threat assessment teams due to
limited state resources.
The Capital Bureau is a
collaboration between EO Me-
dia Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
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