7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 2017
Homelessness:
Point-in-time
count occurs
every two years
Continued from Page 1A
“It’s not a true picture of
what we have,” Alan Evans,
director of Seaside’s Help-
ing Hands, said of the point-
in-time count. Last year,
Helping Hands alone served
nearly 700 homeless people
and is on course to exceed
that figure this year, Evans
said.
Gaps
The point-in-time count
occurs every two years
during the last 10 days of
January. According to this
year’s survey, the number
of homeless people in Ore-
gon increased by 6 percent,
jumping from 13,176 indi-
viduals in 2015 to just under
14,000 in 2017.
The survey acknowl-
edges there are gaps in the
count, saying the purpose
is to provide “a snapshot of
homelessness in the United
States.”
But the difference in
numbers from what the sur-
vey reports and what Clat-
sop County organizations
see exists in part because of
definitions.
The federal government
defines homelessness as
“sheltered and unsheltered,”
meaning a homeless per-
son is using a service like
a shelter or is living some-
where not typically consid-
ered habitable: their car, for
instance, or a sleeping bag in
a doorway.
Oregon’s
organiza-
tions, and Clatsop Commu-
nity Action, however, also
include people who are “pre-
cariously housed,” couch
surfing or doubled up with
friends or family or in dan-
ger of losing housing, peo-
ple who are not “traditionally
homeless,” in Bruce’s words.
Clatsop
Community
Action and Helping Hands
also draw on data collected
by school districts.
Evans and Bruce say it is
difficult to count a popula-
tion that is constantly shift-
ing. The point-in-time count
provides a fairly accurate
base number for who is using
services during what is often
the coldest time of the year in
Oregon.
Causes
Lack of housing, higher
rents, decreasing median
incomes and a population
boom across the state con-
tributed to Oregon’s increase
in homelessness, this year’s
point-in-time survey sug-
gests. According to recent
Census Bureau data, Oregon
was the sixth fastest-growing
state in the nation last year,
while also experiencing a
“critically low housing sup-
ply,” an Oregon Housing and
Community Services sum-
mary of the point-in-time
findings states.
“Tens of thousands of
people are simply unable to
afford these rising housing
costs and have had to sleep
in shelters, in their cars, or
on the street,” the summary
said.
In Clatsop County, this is
certainly the case, Bruce and
Evans said. They see where
this has hit families in the
community.
Fifteen
years
ago,
social-service groups served
mostly homeless men, Bruce
said. “Now you’re seeing
whole families.”
Evans said Helping Hands
has also seen an increase
in senior citizens needing
assistance.
“And those numbers are
growing,” he said.
Multnomah
County
tops the list for this year’s
point-of-time survey with
an estimated 4,177 home-
less, about 30 percent of the
state’s entire homeless
population.
The majority of the home-
less statewide are white, but
minorities are overrepre-
sented. “For instance,” the
survey summary states,
“African Americans make
up just 2 percent of the pop-
ulation in Oregon, but make
up 6 percent of the homeless
population in Oregon and
Native Americans make up
1.1 percent of the total pop-
ulation and 4.2 percent of the
homeless population.”
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Buoy Beer Co.’s Luke Colvin, left, said the expansion at the facility not only allows the company to can its own beer,
but has also increased production volume. Find more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Buoy Beer: The brewery already
struggles to keep up with orders
Continued from Page 1A
Buoy Beer still uses the
20-barrel system it started with
three years ago. While several
brews can be done in a day,
Colvin said, beers can take
anywhere between two and six
weeks to fully condition, lim-
iting production. Since open-
ing, the brewery has expanded
three separate times, adding
fermenting and bright tanks
to increase capacity and tak-
ing out much of the former
cannery’s second floor in the
process.
This spring, the brewery
installed a canning line, used
to export its India pale ale,
Pilsner and cream ale. Much
of the upstairs in the former
cannery is filled with kegs
and cans. Buoy Beer orders
200,000 cans at a time for each
variety of beer it exports. The
brewery also uses a mobile
bottler for its India pale ale,
Pilsner and Northwest red ale.
State support
Buoy Beer’s forgivable
loan is part of a $4.8 million
investment announced this
month by Business Oregon,
whose regional development
officers act as liaisons with
growing companies. Working
with Buoy Beer was Regional
Development Officer Melanie
Olson.
Pallets of cans stacked from floor to ceiling wait to be fed
into the automated canning operation at Buoy Beer Co.
“I met with the com-
pany, and we talked about
their needs,” Olson said.
“We decided they were cre-
ating jobs and growing their
business.”
In 2010, Business Ore-
gon provided Astoria’s Fort
George Brewery a similar for-
givable $150,000 loan to help
expand its brewery and install
a canning line. The state had
hoped to help with Buoy
Beer’s new canning line, but
will instead help buy about
eight new storage tanks, Olson
said.
Nathan Buehler, a spokes-
man for Business Oregon, said
the loan’s forgiveness — still
being finalized in a contract
with Buoy Beer — depends
on the company creating the
equivalent of five more full-
time jobs and reaching 20,000
barrels of production annually
by June 2020.
Jobs and beer
Buehler said the goals,
reached through a negotia-
tion, seemed fair for Buoy
Beer, which has exponentially
grown its beer production and
employment over the past
three years.
Kroening said Buoy Beer
employed the equivalent of
about 34 full-time employees
in the summer of 2014. The
company now employs about
98 people, with the equiva-
lent of 64 full time. The Ore-
gon Employment Department
reported that 220 breweries
statewide accounted for more
than 6,700 jobs last year.
In its first year, Buoy Beer
reported to the state about 940
barrels of beer sold, the 68th
highest among Oregon-based
breweries. That increased to
nearly 2,900 barrels in 2015
and more than 5,300 in 2016.
Through June of this year,
more than 3,500 barrels have
been sold, the 22nd highest
among Oregon breweries, and
Colvin said the brewery antic-
ipates reaching 10,000 barrels.
Kroening said Buoy Beer
can now be found as far north
as Castle Rock, Washington,
south to the California bor-
der and throughout most of
Oregon. The brewery already
struggles to keep up with
orders, he said, and is focus-
ing on going deeper into its
existing markets rather than
expanding geographically.
Colvin and Kroening said
Buoy Beer anticipates max-
ing out the capacity at its cur-
rent location within a cou-
ple of years, while reaching
the 20,000-barrel annual
benchmark.
While the rate of growth
has been rapid, Colvin said,
the company always thought
it “had a really good team and
product.”
Seafood: Water costs with new plant still unclear
Continued from Page 1A
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Areas near the Astoria Riverwalk and the Astoria Tran-
sit Center are popular with the homeless during the
summer months.
Locater: App will
provide almost
exact coordinates
Continued from Page 1A
And callers in the county
often find themselves not
being able to provide dis-
patch with the address of the
emergency, Martindale said.
Often they are out of
town, on a beach, at a friend’s
place, on the water or at an
event. Sometimes, he said,
they are able to find a piece
of mail, look at the house
number and street signs or
find another way to get the
address or help dispatchers
locate them quickly. How-
ever, that’s not always the
case.
Several years ago, Mar-
tindale said, emergency
responders had trouble find-
ing a woman who was in the
woods near Grayland. The
data they got from her cell-
phone had them looking in
Nemah, so it took hours to
get help to her, he said.
Extinct technology
The technology improve-
ment for 911 is part of a
$125,915 upgrade the county
started in October. The 911
phone system was built for
landlines so finding cellu-
lar callers who don’t have an
address to give dispatchers
has long been a challenge.
Dispatchers get different
information from different
carriers. The accuracy of the
location provided can also
vary widely.
The beacon app will pro-
vide 911 dispatch almost
the exact longitude and lati-
tude of the caller’s location.
Martindale said the county
is now working on ways to
process the information into
address or driving direc-
tions for emergency response
crews.
The mayor met with com-
pany representatives Wednes-
day morning to sign documents
confirming the partnership
between the city and Business
Oregon with Pacific Seafood.
The Warrenton City Commis-
sion Tuesday night approved
two related items: a $3 million
lottery bonds grant agreement
and a disbursement of the lot-
tery revenue bonds.
Balensifer thanked the com-
pany for its commitment to its
employees and the broader
community, calling Pacific’s
return “a homecoming.”
Investment
“It’s an incredible feel-
ing,” Brown said as he walked
through the skeleton of the
new building, the sound of
crews at work on the second
floor nearly drowning out his
words. He has been with the
company since the 1990s;
Pacific first took over the site
in 1983.
Dan Occhipinti, gen-
eral counsel for Pacific Sea-
food Group, said the company
expects its total investment in
the new facility to exceed $20
million. He credits an “incred-
ible partnership between (War-
renton) and the state of Ore-
gon” for making Pacific’s
return possible.
Earlla Michaelson, the lead
for the facility’s fillet area,
has been with the company
for 30 years and said she saw
her life go up in flames in the
2013 fire. She was there with
other employees Wednesday
as fishermen unloaded salmon.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Pacific Seafood Group’s Warrenton facility is being rebuilt after the old plant was destroyed
by fire in 2013. Representatives from Pacific Seafood Group met with Warrenton Mayor
Henry Balensifer, far left, members of the media and others involved in the process to re-
build the facility on Wednesday to celebrate the partnerships that made the effort possible.
Being back at the site and see-
ing the old office, which sur-
vived the fire, “memories just
flew back,” she said.
After the fire, Pacific moved
its Warrenton plant employ-
ees to a temporary facility at
Tongue Point in Astoria and
operated in a limited capac-
ity out of a hangar there ever
since. The company planned to
return to Warrenton six months
after the fire but the plans were
delayed for two years, Occhip-
inti said.
Pacific’s Special Proj-
ects Manager Aaron Dierks
estimates the new build-
ing, including a second story
and an addition for crab pro-
cessing, will be about 72,000
square feet. The original build-
ing was approximately 33,000
square feet.
“The actual construction
work has gone as smooth as it
could go,” Dierks said.
Warrenton water
The loss of the plant was
a blow to Warrenton. Besides
losing a major local processor
and its largest employer, the
city also lost a big water cus-
tomer. The city had been reluc-
tant to raise water rates for
years, and the sudden loss in
revenue exacerbated the need
for the city to increase rates to
address water infrastructure.
Pacific’s return will not her-
ald a drop in water rates — the
rates needed to go up, regard-
less, Balensifer said. What it
could do, though, is spread out
future increases so that resi-
dents do not have to experi-
ence huge jumps each year.
It isn’t clear yet, anyway,
what the company’s water
costs will be when the plant
reopens. Pacific will be work-
ing with a modern facility, and
has no plans to process shrimp
there — a huge use of water —
like it did in the past. Instead, it
will add Dungeness crab pro-
cessing to a roster that includes
whiting and salmon, among
other species.