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5A THE HOUSING CRUNCH THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2016 Seaside seeks to get a roof for those out on the street Number of working homeless has skyrocketed By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian SEASIDE — Contrary to urban legend, there are no buses depos- iting homeless people in Seaside. But in the nearest big city, Portland, 3,800 people sleep on the streets or in shelters every night and another 12,000 people in overcrowded and often unsafe conditions. In Clat- sop County, the homeless popula- tion tops 1,000; in 2013, nearly 400 homeless were counted in Seaside. Wherever they come from, it is the city’s obligation to serve them, according to Alan Evans of the Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Center. Helping Hands houses 174 peo- ple for a night in four Oregon coun- ties, with 60 of those beds in Sea- side. Two-thirds of shelter beds are fi lled by working people and the other third by emergency service clients, Evans said, with the goal of transitioning them from shelters into long-term housing. There’s the rub: there’s not much visitors to the center — even those with vouchers for rent or other expenses — can afford, he said. “We cannot build housing fast enough to deal with people falling out of the system,” Evans said. “They’re scared to death — there’s no hous- ing, and people are falling out of the system.” Scarcity, hurdles Availability is the issue. For those with vouchers, which typically cover rentals of about $700 a month, availability in Seaside stands at sev- en-tenths of 1 percent of all rentals. Housing is at full capacity with waiting lists, “and it’s going to get worse before it gets better,” he said. “Right now I have people who have housing vouchers in my facility who can’t fi nd an apartment, with a voucher that says we’ll pay the rent. The vouchers are, in some cases enough, but a two-bedroom unit is over $1,000 a month.” “I just rented (out) an apartment in Seaside for $940 — and that’s the most ‘affordable’ I’ve got in Sea- side.” Operations Director Bonnie Belden-Doney of North Coast Rent- als said. That price gets a two-bed- room 1 1/2 bath on Necanicum Drive. “People are begging for homes,” Belden-Doney said. “Usually I get a 30-day notice when someone’s moving,” she said. “I’ll post that online 15 days before it’s vacant and I usually have it rented within a week.” On the private market, in late August, a one-bedroom, one-bath rental was available on Craigslist for $795 on Columbia Street and a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apart- ment on Avenue A for $1,100. A construction project underway on Avenue M “will be full in 10 min- utes,” Evans said, and those most in need are unlikely to win residence. Landlords or building manag- ers are able to take their pick of the applications, which limits many Evans said. “What do we do? I don’t have an answer.” NIMBY in Seaside? Alan Evans Lianne Thompson ‘People are begging for homes.’ Bonnie Belden-Doney operations director of North Coast Rentals applicants. Few rental agencies accept peo- ple with prior evictions, bankrupt- cies or serious legal issues. Most rental or management com- panies examine credit score, debt, rental history and require renters to earn three times the amount of the rent. Deposits are 150 percent of the rent. Some people can’t do that, Belden-Doney said. “Their stories will rip your heart out,” Evans said. Last year, a woman with two young buys was working for $12 an hour, but when school got out, she had to pay $7 an hour for childcare. “You take her insurance payment for her car, her telephone payment for her cell phone, her car payment, which was minimal, and she’s got about $60 a week to pay her rent, her utilities and her bills,” The face of homelessness is changing, Evans said. “Ten years ago 95 percent of the people we saw were addicted or ex-offenders and had no place to go,” he said. “Folks have been on the eco- nomic precipice for over a decade,” Clatsop County Commissioner Lianne Thompson said in August. “Some have fallen over. Some are still at risk. What we are looking for is an opportunity ladder. How do we catch more people who can’t meet the opportunity structure?” That’s a question eluding easy answer. Even well-funded programs go awry without proper supervision, planning and cooperation from the community. “You could build barracks for the homeless, but people aren’t going to want to stay there,” Evans said. “We have to know how to run what we want to run. We can’t just open.” The community must be behind it for it to be successful, City Coun- cilor Jay Barber said. An effort to develop a vacant apartment building on Edgewood Avenue in Seaside to transitional housing received such severe oppo- sition from neighbors the project never got off the ground. “It’s understandable people have these feelings,” Barber said. “We understand the intimidation that can come when you have 25 or 30 homeless people in a shelter. Our plan is to try and locate our facilities in areas that won’t bump up against residential neighborhoods.” Block grant sought In October 2015, Seaside City Council voted unanimously to be the sponsoring agency for Helping Hands on a Community Develop- ment Block Grant, a program run by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. “That grant will be happening this fall, and it’s quite a process,” Barber said. The grant will be prepared by Helping Hands and submitted by the city on their behalf. “It’s a grant pro- posal under the watchful eye of the city so we’re both in agreement,” he said. “We will start putting that request together this fall.” Funding could raise several hun- dred thousand dollars for housing. If the grant is successful and property or buildings are acquired, the city will own the facility and then lease it to Helping Hands. “The real resource is to bring the federal funds in to make this really work,” Barber said. “The grant would centralize Helping Hands ser- vices, improving emergency, reentry housing, services to homeless peo- ple in terms of medical insurance, all those things that they desperately needed that are scattered through multiple sites through Seaside.” “Homelessness is an issue that should be dealt with on a level so that our city is involved in it, our county is involved in it,” Evans added. “The resources need to be provided by nonprofi ts and local government together, because the responsibility is ours as a community.” Seaside: Not everyone agrees on the need to expand Continued from Page 1A “We’ve worked very well to be come as popular a destination as we are, but now we have to fi gure out how to get workforce housing so they can live in the area and go to work,” Johnson said. Clatsop Eco- nomic Develop- ment Resources has cast the problem in dire terms . “You know where employ- ees are living Don now?” Executive Johnson Director Kevin Leahy said. “They’re living at Fort Stevens. They’re living in campgrounds. They’re living in cars.” Leahy said there is a mis- Kevin conception that Leahy new construc- tion is going to be “cheap housing.” “People say, ‘There goes the neighborhood,’” he said. “But this is not focusing on Section 8 or sub- sidized housing. This is for the ser- vice workers. In our community, Clatsop County’s median wage is 80 percent of the state of Oregon’s aver- age. We know the struggles we have. We know this great economy is also increasing the rents we pay.” Vacation homes cut in The impact from vacation rentals has cut into the available long-term housing. Of the vacant rental stock, the city reported in a 2011 analysis, 76 percent are vacation, recreational or occasional use units. “This segment of the market has a strong impact on housing develop- ment, availability and pricing in Sea- side,” city staff wrote . With so many people buying up property and making them second homes and vacation rentals, it’s taken away from the pool of long-term rentals for professionals and service workers. “The economy is doing better, and if the economy is doing good, a lot of the people who own houses want to turn them into vacation homes as opposed to full-time rentals,” Mor- risey said. “So a lot of those fl ipped and there’s not a lot of low-income housing.” Developers seek incentives The 15-acre Blue Heron devel- opment at Avenue S and Wahanna stalled in 2006. The project had preliminary approval for 58 single-family homes. Developer Max Ritchie recently examined the possibility of a zon- ing change that would allow for mul- ti family units to provide workforce housing. City offi cials discouraged the idea, however, citing transpor- tation issues, a lack of high-density zoning near the site and anticipated opposition from neighbors. City of Seaside census and housing data 101 PACIFIC 103 Long Beach 401 4 WAHKIAKUM CLATSOP Seaside Area of focus 202 Cannon Beach 26 TILLAMOOK N 101 Source: U.S. Census Bureau Item Seaside Oregon Population, 2015 est. Population, 2010 est. Population per square mile (2010) Land area in square miles (2010) Under age 18, 2015 Under age 18, 2010 65 years and over, 2015 65 years and over, 2010 High school graduate or higher, age 25 or older* Bachelor’s degree or higher, age 25 or older* In civilian labor force, age 16 or older* Median household income (2014 dollars)* Per capita income (2014 dollars)* Housing units, 2015 Housing units, 2010 Owner-occupied housing units* Median value, owner-occupied housing units* Median selected monthly mortgage costs* Median gross rent* 6,540 6,457 1,640.9 3.94 20.2% † 20% 20.4% † 17.4% 87.5% 23.2% 55.1% $41,037 $27,127 4,501 † 4,638 47.1% $285,900 $1,624 $872 4.03 million 3.83 million 39.9 95,988 21.4% 22.6% 16.4% 13.9% 89.5% 30.1% 62.4% $50,521 $27,173 1.72 million 1.68 million 61.5% $234,100 $1,591 $894 *2010-14 † 2014 estimate Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group Hotel manager is ‘fortunate’ to fi nd an affordable apartment It is diffi cult to hire workers isa Bonati moved to Seaside in May 2015. In fi nding an apart- ment, Bonati went through three dif- ferent management companies, she said, before fi nding a little place near the beach. “I was very fortunate to get this place,” Bonati, manager of the Ashore Hotel, said. “People are having a very diffi cult time hiring people because they’re aren’t any places to live on the salaries they’re making.” As a result, businesses are short- staffed, which leads to a stressful work environment. “We’re short in housekeeping and the front desk,” Bonati said. “We’re having people coming from Adrift Long Beach (Washington) to fi ll in. If we didn’t have those people I don’t know what we’d do. I’m hop- ing they’ll start building some sort of multifamily housing, maybe dormi- tory housing for the summer, where people could come and have room- mates, just for the summer.” — R.J. Marx L population growth, estimated to jump from 6,500 in 2013 to more than 8,000 in 2030. Using revised fore- casts, the amount was scaled back to 137.5 acres. An urban growth boundary expan- sion would be needed to acquire that land, and offi cials are looking to the east of U.S. Highway 101. Four areas are under consider- ation for expansion: the South Hills, the Lewis and Clark Hills, the North Hills and the East Hills. The South Hills was found to yield the greatest amount of units per acre. The East Hills was found to be the largest area for potential growth, “allowing for the widest range of potential housing types.” Not everyone agrees on the need to expand. Oregon Coast Alliance Land Use Director Cameron LaFollette, who lives in Seaside, said earlier this year she was strongly opposed to expand- ing the city’s urban growth boundary. “It’s clear that Seaside does not have the population increase or hous- ing need for expansion,” LaFol- lette said. “There is a great need for affordable housing, but expanding the hills by 200 acres — not an area where affordable housing would go. It is much more likely to be devel- oped into second homes.” Urban specialist Mia Nelson of 1000 Friends of Oregon told the city in a 2015 letter that the housing need could actually decrease within the next 20 years. She advocated use of existing stock rather than new land for construction. In April, the Seaside Planning Department postponed the urban growth boundary discussion until new 14-year population fi gures become available from the state next year. Meeting the need R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Ashore Hotel Manager Lisa Bonati was fortunate to find an af- fordable apartment in Seaside, where housing is hard to find. The Planning Department does not have a list of affordable proj- ects , according to offi cials, but a 26-unit apartment building on Ave- nue M is the only apartment project in development. The City Council could con- sider the reduction or waiver of sys- tem development charges, like cit- ies such as Portland, Grants Pass and Roseburg have done as an incentive. “If there could be some kind of formula for discounted development fees for people who are dedicating at least a signifi cant portion of a facility to low-income housing, that would be a big step forward,” Barber said. Community partnerships Another hurdle to development comes from the high fees for parks, sewer, stormwater, transportation and water levied by the city, about $9,000 per new unit. “One of the reasons for the huge unmet need of workforce housing in Seaside is that the high cost of system development charges deters builders from taking on projects in the city,” Ritchie said. “With such a huge demand for housing, I think the city should enact a temporary waiver of system development fees to encour- age builders to meet the housing need.” City Councilor Jay Barber agreed that development fees can be a big barrier. “By the time a builder pays those development fees, they can’t afford to do that. It doesn’t pencil out, ” he said. But if system development charges are reduced, the difference could be passed to taxpayers, Mor- risey said. “We’re not going to have Seaside residents subsidize development,” he added. Expansion debate A report delivered to the city Planning Department early this year by Otak Inc., showed Seaside would need about 197 additional acres to satisfy the city’s 20-year projected Leahy said he hopes to bring more housing online by working with developers to form private and public partnerships, including incentivizing private development. Clatsop Economic Develop- ment Resources seeks to “deal with perceptions and misconceptions” by bringing more residents into the discussion. “Communities can be strength- ened by providing housing affordable to all income levels,” Leahy said.
