Derrick DePledge: Behind the News: 'The market's not going to solve this'

Dec. 17—An emerging voice in the housing discussion in Clatsop County comes from an unlikely place.

Jeff Adams, the community development director in Cannon Beach, has played a prominent role on a regional housing task force. He has also worked to keep the issue alive in Cannon Beach, among the wealthiest resort communities on the North Coast.

"It's about the guy next door. It's about the police officers. It's about your nurses. It's about those firefighters. Each one of them needs a place to live," said Adams, who was a panelist at the North Coast Housing Summit in Seaside in early December. "And, right now, on what they are making, they cannot afford to live and thrive within the community."

Hired in Cannon Beach in 2018, Adams has more than two decades of planning experience. He was a former planning and zoning director for Bryan County, Georgia, and a community development director in St. Marys, Georgia.

In an interview, Adams talked about the obstacles to providing housing and the potential solutions.

Q: Cannon Beach is the most unlikely place on the North Coast to try to address workforce and affordable housing challenges. Why have you chosen to make this a priority?

A: I think that it's more of our council and our citizens that also want to keep this as a priority. It's been one since I've been here, and I've been here four years.

It's an ongoing issue. It's a dire need for all of our workforce, not just in Cannon Beach, but across Clatsop County. And so we've prioritized it because we know that our citizens — and then through the entire community — need this kind of housing and each jurisdiction is going to have to step up.

Q: Housing has been the most dominant public policy issue on the North Coast for the past several years. The countywide housing study in 2019 outlined several steps that could be taken, but there has been little to no progress. In Astoria, for example, the recent code changes on middle housing were driven more by state law directed at cities over 10,000 people than local initiative. Why do you think this is?

A: I think it's a multifaceted issue. Solutions are hard to come by when people realize that these solutions have to hit close to home. So a lot of people don't want to face those facts next door.

I think that's why we have to try many different tools. We can't just stick to just one solution. I've tried to address it in a tiered fashion, where you have to look at the policies — because the policies drive the programs — and then the programs drive the projects in the ground.

But if you don't have policies in place, just like Astoria, just like most of the communities along the coast, if you don't have the policies in place you're not going to get the programs and you're not going to build the projects.

Q: What are your hopes for the regional housing task force?

A: Regional solutions. We want to drive — or help drive — that agenda. But we realize that Clatsop County, the unincorporated areas, Astoria, Warrenton and Seaside, each one of them has a role to play in this.

And we just can't keep pushing and pointing fingers across at other jurisdictions. We have to come together to solve this. It's going take each one us.

If we can help in that department — the city of Cannon Beach — whether it's the construction excise tax, the funds that we're collecting, and if that can help build infrastructure elsewhere to build workforce housing in a more profitable, easier-to-build area, that's part of that solution.

We want to be at the table. We want everyone to be there ...

It's a public-private process, and we need to have all those players at the table. And that includes our large employers like the hospitals, the school districts and all those others. Partners to be there at the table as part of this, and not just the governments.

Q: If you alone had the power, what specific steps would you take?

A: I think you spoke to it earlier. Start with the policies.

But the first thing I would do, you look at that housing needs approach — assessment — that just went to the Legislature. They talked about that the market's not going to solve this. It hasn't solved it for 20 years. It's just getting worse.

So the first thing that we can do is look at what can we do, whether it's tax abatements, whether it's funds towards infrastructure and kind of waivers on SDCs (system development charges) and other things. Those type of funding mechanisms. And get that across the region, and not just, city of Cannon Beach does it, but Warrenton doesn't do it, Seaside does this, and we don't do that.

Let's have a comprehensive approach so if a developer comes into our community, they know what that script is and who their partners need to be and what solutions are there to help them. And I think that's it.

If we can do that, we can also look to Tillamook, Lincoln County and those others that are facing these same challenges, and work with them on some of these, which we learned about at the (housing) summit. I think that's where we're going in the right direction.

Q: I think there are many obstacles that created the environment that we're in, but what do you see as the biggest one?

A: Immediacy. I do not think that people realize how dire it is right now.

I think that, like you said, it feels like the jurisdictions are waiting for the state. We can't wait for the state to make us do things. We have to step up and solve these ...

I have a great article I'll send you on it from NPR on this last election cycle showing what all these different places, from Kansas to Austin to Florida to LA to Colorado, all of these places are coming up with new ways to solve this. Whether it's bonds or affordable housing, taking from the tourism taxes, we've got to have new tools. We've got to solve this.

I think we've got to lead. We can't just wait for the state to do it.

Q: If you could, in what way would you reframe the conversation around housing on the North Coast?

A: It's about the guy next door. It's about the police officers. It's about your nurses. It's about those firefighters. Each one of them needs a place to live.

And, right now, on what they are making, they cannot afford to live and thrive within the community.