At Heritage Square, some business leaders draw distinction between workforce and affordable housing
Nicole Bales, The Daily Astorian, Ore.
5 min read
Jan. 26—A workforce housing project at Heritage Square has prompted a discussion about which workers should get priority.
The outline from Edlen & Co., a Portland-based developer, involves two apartment complexes near City Hall that would mostly serve lower-wage workers and people undergoing mental health treatment.
The main building, planned along 12th Street between Duane and Exchange streets, would include up to 75 housing units serving households primarily earning 60% of Clatsop County's median income. Some units could serve households earning up to 80% of median income or be rented at market rate.
The income range means most workers would need to earn around $14.74 up to $19.65 an hour to be eligible.
A separate four-story building on a smaller lot at 11th Street and Exchange would have 33 micro units priced at about 30% of median income, using project-based housing choice vouchers. The building would house clients of Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare, the county's mental health and substance abuse treatment provider.
Edlen & Co. and Related, another Portland-based developer, submitted their ideas for the downtown block after the city requested expressions of interest last fall.
Earlier this month, a panel of city leaders and stakeholders appointed by Mayor Bruce Jones conducted private interviews with the two teams and recommended city councilors move forward with Edlen & Co.
City councilors, acting as the Astoria Development Commission, voted 4 to 1 last week to recommend the city enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with Edlen & Co.
The City Council will discuss the agreement during a meeting on Feb. 7, as well as code changes to enable development at Heritage Square. Jones said the council will use the meeting as an opportunity to consider public input and will likely hold a vote on the agreement on Feb 22.
Two of the panelists who reviewed the proposals for the city believe both Edlen & Co. and Related missed the mark. They have urged the city to consider a housing project that would serve workers earning higher wages.
David Reid, the executive director of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, and Walt Postlewait, a developer and the senior vice president for nonprofit lender Craft3, also maintain that the Edlen & Co. project is affordable housing, not workforce housing.
Definitions
Affordable housing is clearly defined, according to John Southgate, a city consultant. It means units serving households earning up to 80% of the area's median income, which means up to $19.65 an hour for someone living on their own in the county.
Workforce housing, however, is not as clearly defined, he said. For some, workforce housing generally serves households earning between 60% or 80% and 100% or 120% of the area median income.
For someone living on their own in the county, that roughly translates to $14.74 to $29.48 an hour.
Southgate and city councilors have said the Edlen & Co. project is both affordable and workforce housing.
But Reid and Postlewait are drawing a distinction.
"You might have some employees in town who qualify (at 80% of the area's median income), but they don't necessarily qualify there for long," Reid said, adding that those workers will eventually get raises, promotions or take on overtime hours.
Housing downtown should target people who work and shop downtown, he added.
"We want to capture actual workforce," Reid said.
Reid and Postlewait said many downtown employers have worked hard to raise wages but are still having difficulty finding workers who can afford to live in Astoria.
They pointed to businesses like Fort George Brewery and Buoy Beer Co. that have taken part in the Clatsop Enterprise Zone, which offers tax breaks on new investment in return for creating new jobs that pay at least 130% of the county's median income.
Postlewait said businesses like Fort George and Buoy Beer stepped up after the city in 2017 adopted the Advance Astoria plan, a five-year economic development strategy, with the hopes of creating more higher-wage jobs.
"To me, it's this giant disconnect where you go through the process to develop this economic development plan to create these better paying jobs in town, but there's a lack of housing," he said. "So these people who would take these jobs aren't taking the jobs because they can't find a place to live."
And now the city is moving forward with a housing project at Heritage Square that will not target those workers, he said.
"If the business community is going to do that and step up and participate in the economic development plan that the city drafts, then the city really needs to then carry their weight and be part of the solution when the business community is talking about building workforce housing," Postlewait said.
Heritage Square is challenging and expensive to develop, so Edlen & Co. proposed using income averaging to make the project more affordable while serving a broader range of incomes.
With income averaging, the developer said, the project can receive tax credit equity for all the units if the average affordability is at or below 60% of area median income. Because the project would include Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare units at 30% of area median income, the project can have units for people earning wages up to 80%.
In a memo earlier this month, Southgate said there are no state funding programs for units targeted at over 80% of median income. For that reason, he does not think a project serving higher incomes will be financially feasible unless the city can provide a substantially higher subsidy or other funding sources are secured.
Feedback
Southgate told The Astorian that the project will continue to evolve based on feedback.
If the City Council proceeds with Edlen & Co., he said, the developer should identify which workers will be eligible and what percentage of the workforce the project will target.
The area median income includes wages countywide, not just in Astoria. The hourly wages cited in income ranges for the project were based on figures released for 2021. The 2022 figures, expected later this year, will likely show an increase in wages.
Some employees of downtown businesses and nonprofits have said they would qualify under the income ranges Edlen & Co. has detailed so far for the workforce housing at Heritage Square.
Even if the housing project mostly targets lower-income workers, Southgate said, it would help by potentially freeing up other housing stock.
