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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW October days break heat records in Medford ... Another wolf makes its way into Southern Oregon ... Our View: Let Medford voters decide on marijuana sales ... October days break heat records in Medford ... Another wolf makes its way into Southern Oregon ... Our View: Let Medford voters decide on marijuana sales ... SUNDAY FOCUS: AFFORDABLE HOUSING Rental crisis in Jackson County looms as housing costs outpace wages You've got a job, now you need a place you can afford. Good luck. Comment By John Darling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM --> Resources for housing assistance: • Housing Authority of Jackson County, 2231 Table Rock Road, Medford, 541-779-5785, ... » Read more X Resources for housing assistance: • Housing Authority of Jackson County, 2231 Table Rock Road, Medford, 541-779-5785, www.hajc.net. • ACCESS Inc., 3630 Aviation Way, Medford, 541-779-9020, www.accesshelps.org. • Salvation Army, 922 N. Central Ave., Medford, 541-773-6965, http://www1.usw.salvationarmy.org/usw/www_usw_medford.nsf. • St Vincent de Paul,  2424 N. Pacific Highway, Medford,  541-772-3828, http://www.stvincentdepaulmedford.info/ • Upper Rogue Community Center, 22465 Highway 62, Shady Cove, 541-878-2702, find URCC on Facebook » Social News After recently arriving in the Rogue Valley from Oklahoma to take on new jobs, Joe and Vanessa Peterson, in their late 20s and parents of two toddlers, say they find the area delightful except for one thing: There's no place to live. They slept in their SUV a few nights. “Better than sleeping on a bench,” says Joe, a Marine veteran. Every few hours, they surfed Craigslist, want-ads and other rental websites, but found nothing available that fit their budget, says Vanessa, a retail clerk. “It’s very stressful, coming in as an outsider,” Joe says. “We don’t know where to look or the websites, but people at work have helped us a lot.” Before they received their wages, they were eligible for help from ACCESS Inc. The Medford-based nonprofit agency got them a motel room and covered the first month's rent and deposit. For a three-bedroom, rental homes run from $950 to $1,800 a month, they say. They finally found a rental home for $795 a month in Prospect, 44 miles northeast of Medford, closer to Joe’s work as a member of a hand crew with the U.S. Forest Service. In Central Point, retired medical consultant Barbara Johnson, 67, is living in her daughter's rental apartment, which costs $685 a month. Johnson qualified for a federally backed loan of $175,000 but can find nothing in that range to purchase. “It’s horrible,” she says. “Most are so inflated now, nothing under $200,000. It’s very disappointing. We’ve been at it for a year and the agents won't help us.” With a three-year rental waiting list at Jackson County Housing Authority and a 1.89 percent vacancy rate for rentals, Jackson County is facing a serious rental crisis, perhaps the worst in decades, housing officials say. “There’s a big gap, a big need,” says Scott Foster, executive director of the Housing Authority, which owns and develops rentals for low-income residents. “We have 4,000 people on our waiting list and they’re having a darn tough time. They sleep in cars. Some are homeless. It takes three years to get to the top of the list. It’s really tight and it’s that way now in most communities.” The Housing Authority offers more than 2,200 housing vouchers and rents out 1,300 units of affordable housing. They add about 50 new units a year. With a tight market comes “upward pressure on rent,” Foster says, meaning rentals are not only scarce but increasingly unaffordable. “It’s the same all along the I-5 corridor," he says, adding with a twist of irony, "To find a rental, you have to go where there are no jobs.” “We have something approaching a crisis," says Jackie Schad, executive director of ACCESS. "Demand for apartments and rental housing is high — and you have people not making a lot of money. We have a big minimum-wage workforce here.” Ideally, a family should spend no more than a third of its income on housing. But Schad says some Jackson County residents are paying up to 70 percent of their wages. The state's Temporary Aid for Needy Families offers some financial help, but it often isn't enough. "A mom might get a grant of $500 but a one-bedroom goes for $600 to $700," says Schad. A minimum-wage worker would find it difficult to make up the difference while also putting food on the table, paying the electric bill, funding child care, etc. "The problem is wages," Schad says. Much of the cause for the housing crunch can be laid at the feet of the Great Recession, which brought new construction to a standstill from which it is only now just emerging. Mark Nichols, president of the Southern Oregon Rental Owners Association, says the crunch has been compounded by consumer protection measures that were put in place after the real estate collapse and resulting epidemic of foreclosures. Those measures put limits on what people can buy or borrow for homes or investment rentals. “Investors can’t invest,” says Nichols. “They’re not able to buy rentals and relieve the glut of foreclosures in the hands of banks. This situation would be over and we’d have a normal selling market if not for that. There are so many requirements now it’s almost impossible to get a loan.” The scarcity of rental properties, he adds, means landlords are “in the position to charge what the market can bear." "If you’re talking to a renter, there are 20 people standing behind him," Nichols says. In Medford, a typical three-bedroom, two-bathroom house runs $900 to $1,175 a month. “And you can rent them all day long,” Nichols says. Some are as low as $500 to $600 a month but, of course, he says, you get what you pay for. Contributing to the rental crisis, says Schad, was the tsunami of foreclosures that started in 2008 and turned thousands of buyers into renters. “They soaked up all the available supply of rental units and that drove up the price," she says. The issue is not unique to the Rogue Valley. "It’s become a crisis all over Oregon and there are fewer and fewer resources to deal with it," says Alison McIntosh, of Oregon Housing and Community Services, the affordable housing agency in Salem. The Legislature is attempting to at least partially address that with a proposed $100 million bonding program for new, affordable housing for families with children. First proposed by former Gov. John Kitzhaber, it has remained a priority in Gov. Kate Brown’s agenda and will get a hearing in a Ways and Means subcommittee this month, says McIntosh. If passed, it could fund 3,000 to 4,000 new units to house 12,000 to 16,000 people, Oregon Housing and Community Services estimates. ACCESS just got a $6 million grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs to assist with housing for veterans and their families, but that will put only a dent in the demand. "We can’t build our way out of this," Schad says. "There’s even a waiting list to get on the waiting list at the Housing Authority. The move-in deposits are several thousand dollars, a real challenge. “What are we doing? We’re going to churches, civic organizations. We’re seeking mother-in-law units that could be rented. A lot of people have something for rent. We’re asking them about creating a one-room efficiency (studio) apartment. Those have pretty much disappeared but we need them back. We’ve got many motels on the strip. Could we turn them into residences? We’re looking for sellers right now.” The days when large tracts of middle-class homes were built largely have disappeared as contractors turn to more profitable upscale neighborhoods. “I can’t speak for society," Schad says, "but traditionally we did things like tract housing, mortgage tax deductions and other funding that has now dried up. “The real solution,” says Schad, “is that society makes a commitment to housing people. Salt Lake City did it. Phoenix did it. They decided, ‘We’re going to do it’ and they did it. We can, too.” John Darling is an Ashland freelance writer. Reach him at [email protected]. By John Darling for the Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By John Darling for the Mail Tribune Posted May. 3, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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