The Mid-Columbia region is a unique rural landscape that has been discovered by outdoor enthusiasts drawn to the small town charm of many Columbia Gorge communities. This distinction has drawn challenges: a seasonal service economy with low-paying jobs, rental housing that is expensive and often available only part of the year, many second home owners and increasingly high property values that are out of reach for local wage-earners.
The long-term success of the Mid-Columbia region is tied to our ability to sustain an economically diverse community. We must retain our ability to provide housing for people who provide the backbone services of the region – people such as teachers, fire-fighters, policemen and others in the service industry. Unfortunately, our region is experiencing a rapid erosion of middle-income housing stock. As a result, our ‘backbone’ people are experiencing housing cost challenges as they seek to live in the communities where they work. This problem plays out differently across our region. Hood River and Skamania County have many second-home residences, which create an artificial paucity of housing. Sherman County has a pending explosion of jobs with no in-place housing stock.
With relatively stagnant wages the affordability gap is increasing leaving many people unable to enter the homeownership market. For example, in 2008 Hood River County Area Median Income for a family of four is $49,900. Even with 20% down the family can only afford a house valued at $217,000. Unfortunately, the average home price is $353,000 in Hood River. By HUD’s affordability standards a family would need to make $91,000 to afford the average home.
In our region, an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) married to a starting salary teacher make $71,000 combined, working full time. A waitress and a carpenter, working full-time make $55,000 combined. A single mom who works as a registered nurse makes $60,000. All of these families are at 100% of Area Median Income or above but will be hard pressed to find affordable home ownership opportunities to raise their families.
While Mid Columbia Housing Authority (MCHA) operates in the region, they serve people making below 80% Area Median Income (AMI) and focus primarily on rental housing. People making between 80% and 120% AMI make too much to receive assistance from MCHA while at the same time these families can’t afford homes in the towns where they work. Ultimately, families are forced to move to less expensive surrounding areas, which ensures long commute times and increased transportation costs. At the same time the community suffers from the disinvestment of community members in civic life and a decrease in economic diversity of the population. Stabilizing these families in the communities where they work is key to building trusting relationships that create social capital in our communities.
According to the Housing Market Analysis done by an outside consultant for Hood River County in 2005 the “housing costs in Hood River are pushing even middle-income and professional employees out to live in other communities. The potential result is that they will become disinvested in community issues, and that the area population will become increasingly income segregated.” The analysis goes on to recommend a Community Land Trust as a method for stabilizing these families in the community.
