Caught between a rock and a hard place

(This is the second of three articles being published through Sunday on the issue of affordable housing in Bonner County.)

SANDPOINT — Good people are turning down good-paying jobs — or leaving the ones they already have — because they can't afford to live in Bonner County.

They include teachers, engineers, technicians and executives who are declining starting salary offers that range from about $30,000-a-year to more than three times that amount.

Help Wanted

Over the past two years, we've lost five or six strong applicants for teaching positions," said Lee Stevens, human resources manager for the Lake Pend Oreille School District. "And a couple of them were math and science teachers — the areas where we have the greatest need.

"Once they compare the cost of living here with the $31,000 the state pays a starting teacher, they realize they can't make it work," she added.

But the bar is also high for those who stand to make far more in annual wages. At Coldwater Creek, the county's largest private-sector employer, it is taking longer to fill management and executive positions once the cost of housing enters the equation.

"In my first four years on the job, I could count on one hand the number of people who declined offers — and that was unrelated to home prices," said Alana Hatcher, who has worked as a professional recruiter at Coldwater Creek for about six years. "In the past two years, that number has tripled, with the primary reason being a lack of affordable housing."

The average home price in Bonner County has grown by more than 35 percent over the past two years and has more than doubled since 2002. That has made Hatcher's job as director of recruiting more demanding as she touts the benefits of living in the Sandpoint area to potential employees.

"Historically, the biggest selling features I've had to work with have been cost of living and quality of life," she said. "I can no longer speak comfortably to cost of living."

The City of Sandpoint recently lost a candidate for the city engineer post, despite increasing the salary offer substantially above what the position would normally pay.

"This person loved the community, liked the schools and wanted the job," said Sandpoint Mayor Ray Miller. "We had bumped the salary to $65,000, and even at that level he couldn't find a house here."

Sandpoint's police and fire departments face the same issue, according to Miller, who said the problem is exacerbated by the requirement that personnel in those jobs live within a defined drive-time radius of the workplace.

"That makes it really tough for them to find an affordable place to live," he said.

Difficult Environment

The problem is widespread and, apparently, evenly dispersed among the county's businesses. In its Bonner County Housing Needs Assessment, completed over a two-year period by BBC Research & Consulting, a total of 39 employers were polled regarding their recent experience in attracting and keeping good people. A strong majority — 85 percent of businesses surveyed — said changes in the housing market have had a serious and negative impact on their collective workforce.

When asked how their employees are faring in the search for housing, almost 90 percent said it has become "difficult" or "very difficult" for workers to buy a home in the county. Nearly 80 percent of employers had the same response about the difficulty of finding affordable rental housing.

"Ultimately, the only people who could afford to live here will be millionaires," said Bill Brown, who owns eight low-income family and senior housing projects in Sandpoint. "But where do you get your help if that happens? Where do you find good employees? The real workforce — the people who hold jobs and raise families — need a place to live, too."

Through his business, Bill Brown Rentals, the landlord supplies a substantial number of rental properties in the $300-$400 monthly range. But the number of people who qualify for low-income housing is limited and the waiting list is long. Brown, who said he has no plans for additional projects in the immediate future, pointed to the need for rentals in the $500-$700 range. This same need was underscored in the housing needs assessment, which, based on employer surveys, recommended that at least 750 affordable housing units will need to be added to support projected year-round and seasonal job growth over the next decade.

"But with the cost of land and the cost of construction, I sure wouldn't want to try it," Brown said. "Without some flexibility in zoning, the cost of land is not going to change. If you could be less restrictive on density, you can make home prices more affordable."

Negative Connotations

Stephen Drinkard, project manager for the City of Sandpoint planning department and a key player in the local workforce housing field, is convinced that community education and advocacy will be primary activities for the Bonner Community Housing Agency. The 12-member board, made up of representatives from business, government, education and social services, meets for the first time next week to push back against the rising tide of home prices. At the same time, the group will be pushing up against what Drinkard called the "fears and misconceptions" about workforce housing.

One of the issues the agency will face is how to find ways to increase allowable density to make it possible to build more apartments and multi-family dwellings.

"You hear people say higher density means more crime, or that having an apartment complex or duplex near your home will lower the property value," Drinkard said. "They think that's the case, even though it has been directly contradicted by national studies."

Closer to home, Bill Brown can offer first-hand evidence regarding the "high-density means high-crime" point-of-view.

"That's a big fallacy," he said. "I provide housing to a lot of people in this community. In my honest experience, they don't stay up all night and cause problems. These are working people and a working person goes to bed at night."

Andy Chapman, a board member of the newly formed housing agency and facility director for Coldwater Creek, said the three points on the group's triangle are made up of the agency itself, county employers and elected officials. That third point — the public sector — is "still the big unknown," according to Chapman.

"I have to think that they are people of reason and that, in the end, we will succeed with their help," he said.

One thing that could represent a leap forward, he added, would involve those officials letting a local project move to completion so that residents can actually get a look at workforce housing, as opposed to simply speculating about it.

"This has become a huge issue for everyone from the school district to local restaurants and there are no easy answers," Chapman said. "We're still figuring out what we don't know and that's half the battle. In the meantime, though, I kind of live by the 'brute force and awkwardness' theory — you just jump in and make something happen, learning as you go along."

Karl Dye, executive director for the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation, shares that view.

"Affordable housing is the biggest thing this community has to come to grips with and none of us want this problem to come crashing down around our ears," he said. "Because who would want to wake up and find they've turned into the next Aspen?

"I think the best way to educate the community is to approve one of these projects and let people see what it looks like," Dye added. "It's not just a big row of apartment buildings any more."

(Sunday: Great idea, but not in my backyard; housing agency explores possible solutions.)