Speech: On release of a housing needs assessment

Remarks upon the release of the Central Oregon
Workforce Housing Needs Assessment
delivered by Crook County Judge Scott R. Cooper, a
member of the Oregon State Housing Council at the
Bank of the Cascades, Bend Oregon, July 26, 2006

The List of Those Who Need Housing Help Might Surprise You

The 7-member Oregon State Housing Council of which I am pleased to be a member is the body in Oregon charged with recommending to the Governor and Legislature policy initiatives which will expand the supply of affordable housing throughout the State.

Core to our ability to achieve that mission is our ability to keep the focus of the State and local communities on the need for affordable housing—not just for vulnerable citizens traditionally served by housing agencies such as the mentally ill and low-income seniors—but also on the working class.

The people who need help in maintaining some semblance of balance between the cost of housing and the ability of working people to pay for it are all around us.

They are the clerks at Safeway and Rays and Thriftway. They are teachers educating our kids. They are secretaries and receptionists who are the heart and soul of any great company. They are the service technicians and journeymen who work for the electric company, the gas company and the cable and dish company.

None of us would suggest that these categories of workers are anything but hard-working Oregonians and Americans. But even with overtime, the salaries they make won’t keep pace with housing prices that exceed the ability of workers at the median income to pay by a factor of 2-4 times.

Let’s be honest: there was a time when many people thought affordable housing meant drug-infested inner-city projects for welfare recipients. That stereotype doesn’t reflect the reality of the affordable housing movement today. And the stereotype certainly doesn’t capture the needs of hard-working and responsible men and women and families who lack the credit and the income to buy that which every American dreams about: a home of their own. That’s why we use the term “workforce housing”: to connect in the public’s mind the vital importance of housing as a core element of the state and local economic development package.

Instead of the “projects” of yesterday, today’s affordable housing programs invest in:

Working with financial institutions such as Bank of the Cascades to provide mortgage guarantees which allow ordinary Oregonians to buydown interest rates and downpayments in order to secure mortgages affordable to working class Oregonians.

Encouraging innovative development which provides tax incentives to non-traditional developers of residential housing such as commercial developers to utilize spaces such as the floors above ground-level retail to provide affordable workforce housing.

Working with local communities to secure donations of surplus public lands and federal funding used to purchase property for “land-banks,” as a hedge for affordable housing developers against the high cost of acquiring raw land in communities where prices are rapidly escalating and availability of raw land is shrinking.

Assisting local communities through tax incentives and direct grants to rehab deteriorating buildings into housing units which are priced for workforce and which bring new life to blighted downtowns.

Working with citizens on projects such as the use of Individual Development Accounts, which use tax-incented corporate matching funds to match dollar for dollar savings by low-income consumers and allow them to grow their own downpayments over time.

Working with employers to find creative ways to tailor creative “win-win” benefit packages that include an affordable housing components. Simple examples of such initiatives include setting up automatic payroll deduction to help secure on-time, every-time payment for financial institutions in exchange for preferential interest rates, and providing up-front assistance to employees through employer-paid rental deposits, which relieve the employee of the need to come up with large cash balances but are secured by the employer’s ability to recover any potential loss through the final paycheck. Such benefits not help workers but also help employers by reducing turnover and positioning employers as desirable and attractive places to work.

At the State Housing Council we are pleased to be undertaking these and other initiatives to promote the importance of thinking about workforce housing needs as one of the many parts of the economic development effort that sustains and fuels the health and vitality of this region.

The effort to bring new capital to the region and to ensure balance between the region’s workforce and its lifestyle and economy is ongoing. Housing Works efforts through this report are supportive of the efforts of local policymakers who are trying to craft packages which make the most sense for our communities

I would like to thank Housing Works for this report and to thank the Bank of the Cascades for having the vision to fund it.. The report points out the need, and I am confident that policymakers working in conjunction with the forces of the free market and private enterprise can find viable and creative solutions to rise to the challenge

Somebody once said that failure lies not in falling on the floor. It lies in continuing to lay there without trying to get up. With this report, the slippery floor beneath us is identified. The challenge is to determine how and how soon we will be up and on our way.

Of All The Things I Never Thought I Would Do…

By Scott R. Cooper, Crook County Judge
This colum was originally published in the Central Oregonian, July 2006

Selling Oregon Abroad

On June 24, while the rest of Prineville was enjoying Crooked River Round-Up festivities, I quietly left town. In the six days that followed, covered about 12,000 miles on two continents and three countries. The journey included four international legs and stops at six different airports.

I travelled as a member of the Oregon Governor’s Trade Mission To Korea and Japan. My partner over and back was Governor Ted Kulongoski. Other notable delegates included the State Treasurer, the Director of Oregon Economic Development, the Director of Oregon Agriculture, the Director of Oregon Tourism, the Executive Director of the Port of Portland and the State Treasurer. Roger Lee and Bud Prince of Central Oregon Economic Development. I was the only representative of Oregon counties in the delegation. The mayor of Springfield attended on behalf of Oregon cities.

I personally paid my expense for transportation, and most lodging and meals. I had several reasons for wanting to do this trip: first, I was pursuing an active lead that EDCO has been working for sometime with a major manufacturing company looking to expand its operations in this area. The company has already purchased a potential site in Prineville. Having the Governor along to endorse the project hand-in-glove with a top elected official helped seal the deal. Barring any glitches, we could see results of this trip as early as 2008.

My second goal was to support the effort to promote Oregon as a potential investment opportunity. Our location between California and Washington sometimes puts us at a disadvantage competitively. California boasts the 6th largest economy in the world, its governor is recognized in every country and on every continent and San Francisco and Los Angeles enjoy world renowned. Likewise, Washington, having as it does the headquarters of Boeing and Microsoft has “star power” around the globe and Bill Gates is recognizable anywhere. While Oregon companies like Nike, Intel, Columbia Sportswear and Adidas USA are name-recognizable, somehow the world doesn’t connect them with Oregon. Thus, if we want more of those types of companies to come to Oregon, we have to get out there and sell ourselves to the World. That was an important part of this trip.

A third and very important reason for my going was to blunt the “Portland” effect of this mission. It is easy to demonstrate that Portland is business friendly to an international clientele. But proving the business case for rural Oregon is a little harder. That’s where I was able to shine on this trip, because believe it or not, Prineville has a great story to tell. Although we don’t often think about it, Prineville’s economy is tightly tied to international markets.

Our largest employer, Les Schwab, brings an enormous number of containers through West Coast ports from Asian shores. (You can see them stacked up by the warehouses at the top of the hill.) Our two large secondary wood products plants are heavily dependent on important raw materials to produce finished goods for resale. Ochoco Lumber, headquartered here in Prineville, among other activities, manages operations in Lithuania involving complex multinational financial transactions. If you stop to think about it, we are living proof that global businesses can not only survive but can prosper in rural as well as urban Oregon. That was a key message it was my job to deliver on this trip.

To be honest, I was surprised to be asked to be part of Oregon’s official delegation. I guess I’ve grown accustomed to being overlooked in favor of Portland, Eugene, Bend or Medford. Perhaps the fact that I was even asked is a measure of the degree to which Prineville has captured the attention of the rest of the state as an up-and-coming community with good economic prospects. Maybe the invitation had something to do with good relations that I’ve gone to great pains to build with key state officials. Or maybe none of the rest of my County peers were willing to torture themselves with a physically grueling international trek. Whatever the reason, it was an honor for me to be a part of this effort to sell Oregon and particularly Central Oregon to two important trading partners.

The significance of Japan and Korea to Oregon’s economy is widely recognized. But consider, Japan invests $1.2 billion in Oregon annually and is this state’s largest trading partner. More than 10,000 Oregonians are employed by Japan-based companies doing business in Oregon. Korea is Oregon’s second largest trading partner, behind Canada. Oregon exports $1.3 billion in goods annually to Korea, of which the majority is high-tech products. Despite this impressive track record, there is clearly room for expanded presence, and the purpose of this trip was to capitalize on that opportunity.

Trade missions are important because Asian culture places a very high value on personal relationships. A face-to-face meeting with the chairman of an Asian company will do much to encourage future business development. Asian business leaders value personal connections as at least as important as more traditional factors in business decision-making such as tax structure or property costs. In addition, Asian culture places a high value on status. Thus, having the Governor along was critical to the mission’s success.

Regular readers of this column will know that the Governor and I don’t always see eye to eye on state issues. I reserve the right to disagree with him in the future, but I have nothing but praise for Ted Kulongoski’s performance on this trip.

Averaging more than five meetings each day, he sold Oregon with passion and conviction. I know. I was right there with him. Bone-weary, he gave two rousing speeches to rooms packed with the top business leadership of Seoul and Tokyo. He was a great “closer,” and he brought home several deals worth millions by the trip’s end. Through salesmanship and statesmanship, Ted K really brought it home for us this week.

And what did I do?

I spent one day with the Governor selling Central Oregon’s virtues to the Korean-based company mentioned earlier. The Governor and I sat side by side for two hours selling the chairman of a multi-national company worth billions based in 28 countries on the virtues of building his next plant in our region. The next day I flew inland Korea with three others to spend a day at the company’s factory and to meet the rest of the company leadership. This project is no pipe dream. The company has already purchased 25 acres not too far from Prineville, and I am confident that the very good meeting we had in Seoul will help push the project to conclusion.

The rest of my time was spent like all the delegation, promoting Oregon’s virtues. I talked about the Les Schwab story. I promoted the City of Prineville Railroad as a logistics manager to help international companies manage their regional freight needs. I promoted Redmond’s excellent air service with international connections as a business opportunity. I pushed investment in the region’s destination resorts. I preached the tourism agenda, especially with the underserved but English-proficient and nature-crazy Korean market. I discussed with one Tokyo bank president the needs of Oregon businesses for additional financial services, especially in the area of transactions involving international currency exchange and potential expansion of agricultural lending.

In short, I was an Oregon ambassador. I bowed a lot. I ate a lot of raw fish. I sacrificed my knife, spoon and fork for four days of chop sticks. I wore black suits and crisp white shirts for hours on end in some of the hottest muggiest weather I’ve ever encountered. I spent my own money to promote a state and a community in which I believe passionately.

This trip was never on my radar screen as one of the opportunities this job might provide. And I’m humbled and privileged that the Governor trusted me enough to allow me to represent counties around the state. I’m thankful to my regional colleagues for having the confidence that I would represent them well in a strange culture.

At the end of our trip, the Governor remarked to an assemblage of Japan’s 400 top business executives gathered in a Tokyo ballroom that trade missions often just set the stage for future returns. By contrast, this trip produced some immediate results, and I am confident that greater returns will be realized, both for Oregon and for Prineville, in days, months and years to come.

Meanwhile, I’m glad to be home, where the language is English and the food is beef. I’m wiser and more worldly than I was when I left, but I’m also as confident as ever that Oregon as God’s Country has no equal.