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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 1, 2005 Businesses seek solutions to employee housing woes By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings A house on the north end of Ashland was, as of Wednesday, the only home listed that a family making the median income could qualify for a mortgage on. Submitted photo To some, it is a boom. To others witnessing the same set of circumstances, Ashland’s housing situation is a crisis. While there is ample housing in Ashland for those who have already can afford a half-million-dollar home, there is almost nothing available for those who haven’t already owned a home and earn the median income for an Ashlander. Diana Shavey, a housing consultant from Portland, said there is only one house currently on the market here that a person who earns $50,000 a year, roughly the median income for Ashlanders, could get a conventional mortgage to purchase. “For workers with families it’s becoming very difficult to live in Ashland,” Carol Voison, a member of the Ashland Housing Commission, said. “There are a lot of people who work in Ashland that can’t afford to live in Ashland.” The Ashland Housing Commission is taking a step towards addressing this problem by sponsoring a forum on employer assisted housing on Friday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the “New Place” on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival campus on Pioneer Street. Employer-assisted housing is the idea that a business, rather than a non-profit or a government agency, can help to subsidize the difficulties associated with a working class family attaining housing in Ashland. “We want anyone who works in Ashland to be able to live in Ashland,” Brandon Goldman, the city’s housing specialist, said. “The more of our work force that lives here the more cohesive of a community that we’ll be able to have. A lot of the work force doesn’t qualify for affordable housing, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t overburdened by housing costs in Ashland.” While the fact that the average wage-earner can no longer afford real estate in town may be old news, this trend is now evidently affecting local employers ability to retain and attract employees. Mark Marchetti, the CEO of Ashland Community Hospital, said they have experienced difficulty attracting even physicians to work here because of housing prices. “It’s certainly an issue in recruiting hospital staff,” he said. “It comes up regularly with new candidates.” Marchetti said the demographic switch in Ashland is also directly affecting not only their employees livelihoods but also the hospital’s economic situation, as well. While the population continues to get older, the hospital is increasingly treating patients with Medicare instead of a more traditional free-market insurance plans. He said Medicare only pays about half of what it costs the hospital to administer services and treatment, whereas standard insurance pays a better rate of return. “If the hospital becomes too Medicare dependent, that’s going to be a problem,” he said, adding that the hospital’s birthing center is also being squeezed by the population shift. Keith Woodley, the chief of Ashland Fire and Rescue, said the fire department was all but ready to offer a management-level position to a candidate from Redding when he told them moving to Ashland would be too expensive for his young family. “His wife and son loved the community but when they looked at real estate they realized there was nothing they could afford,” Woodley said. “Ashland is a victim of its own success.” If this trend continues, housing and planning experts predict it will cripple the local economy. “The people you want and need to be gathering in your community won’t be there,” Shavey, a former Ashland resident and local housing commissioner, said. “It will be a very different Ashland than the one that makes the best places to live and retire lists.” Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 3040 or [email protected]. 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