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Homeless numbers grow despite new construction
NEWPORT – A lack of affordable housing is forcing some Pend Oreille River Valley individuals and families to either couch surf with friends and relatives or worse, live in vehicles, according to Kelly Alliger, director for the Community Behavioral Health Rental Assistance (CBHRA) program.
The CBHRA program, based at Pend Oreille County Counseling Services in Newport, provides a long-term rental subsidy for high-risk individuals and households with behavioral health conditions.
Alliger said there is very little affordable rental housing in Pend Oreille County. The few rentals she finds are overpriced for her clients.
Rentals have included a three-bedroom for $2,100 a month, another two-bedroom for $2,500, and a one-bedroom for $1,100.
“This surpasses the fair market value (FMR) set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for subsidizing a rental,” Alliger said. She said the program could pay more for emergency situations, but the cap is more than many rentals cost.
A Washington State Affordable Housing Advisory Board (2023-2028) study found during the next 20 years, the state needs to add more than a million new homes to catch up with today’s undersupply and to accommodate new residents as the population grows.
Nearly half of those new units will need to be affordable to households making less than 50% of the median family income.
Homelessness grows
Presently, housing insecurity continues to be a challenge creating a surge in homelessness and inadequate housing.
Homelessness per capita increased statewide, from a rate of 173 per 10,000 residents in 2016 to 180 per 10,000 in 2022. Conditions worsened in nearly all counties, the state housing study reported.
Pend Oreille County experienced a 61% increase of homeless people between 20162022. Neighboring Stevens County’s homeless increased 35% and Spokane County had a 14% increase between 2016 and 2022.
Ellen Taylor of Oldtown lost her house she had been staying in, along with her dog, to a house fire that destroyed everything.
“We just can’t find anything in our budget,” Taylor said. “I just filed for my Social Security. My husband works at IFG (Idaho Forest Group) over in Laclede. He’s the only one working right now. The price of housing is ridiculous.”
She says rents are running at $2,000 or higher.
“Anything we found that had two bedrooms is running anywhere from between $2,000 to $2,600,” she said. She is currently staying in housing near the House of the Lord church.
Temporary shelters in Pend Oreille County are meager as well.
“There are no shelters so we can suggest they move to Spokane, but it’s such a big city that most would be too traumatized to move,” Alliger said. “One client moved to Stevens County but moved back. She is now doing odd jobs.”
Alliger also said the program can put people up in local hotels for up to 90 days sometimes with an extension, but she said there are not enough hotels to fill the gap.
New construction not enough
While new housing production is increasing somewhat, there isn’t nearly enough middle and multifamily housing to meet the needs of moderate- and low-income households in this area.
New construction includes the Old Mill Landing mixed-use housing project along the Pend Oreille River in Oldtown.
Most of the homes in Oldtown’s project range from $590,000 for a townhouse to $1.4 million for 2,500 square foot village house, as reported by The Miner. Five percent of the development will be set aside for affordable workers housing, or four units.
Pend Oreille County’s Community Development Department has seen new home construction applications rise from six in 2015 to 34 in 2024. However, in the city of Newport, there were only rental vacancies in the first quarter of this year, according to a rental housing market report from the Washington State Real Estate Research Center in Pullman.
RYN Built Homes has plans for about 300 units on the South Bench, south of Newport. They own the land, says Scott Krajack, land development director for RYN Built Homes. They have conceptional approval from the city but no homes have been built yet. One of the problems is wastewater capacity, which the city is working on, Krajack said. The other was access off Highway 2 going into Newport. Burlington Northern and Santa Fe railroad use the tracks for storage and declined to grant access.
Many spending more than 30% on housing
As of 2021, more than one-third of all households in Washington were spending more than 30% of their income on housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development generally uses 30% of income as the most anyone should be expected to pay, said Steve Bourassa, director of the Washington Center for Real Estate Research.
“Of course, a lot of renters pay more than that,” he said. “Private landlords can set whatever income requirement they want subject to conditions in the local market. I suspect that the rental market is pretty thin in Pend Oreille so landlords can be picky.”
Alliger said she has seen many individuals needing two incomes because rent is fairly high.
Lea Porter, Housing Case Manager of the Family Crisis Network in Newport said during Covid, many private landlords got out of the rental business.
“We’ve seen people searching for housing that are sleeping in vehicles, campers and tents without electricity and a water supply,” she said.
Since Jan. 1, Homelessness Prevention Services at the Family Crisis Network has kept 129 persons totaling 60 households, including families and youth, from becoming literally homeless.
Rapid Rehousing Services – to help households with the cost to move into a rental and exit homelessness – has served 37 people in 15 households.
According to the annual Point in Time Count that took place on Jan. 25, 2024, 13 persons from a total of seven households, were homeless.
“There are literally 237 homeless persons and 95 unstably housed persons in Pend Oreille County alone,” Porter said.
Danica Hively, 39, is an example of what lengths people go to for housing.
She said she spent the last year looking for housing from Sandpoint to Newport, anyone who would work with her given her situation. She was panhandling in Newport last week to make rent.
A Sandpoint native, Hively moved to Florida where things became so bad for her and her family, they became homeless. Determinedly, she set out for her hometown to find housing, employment and a new life.
“But everything was either full or too expensive or had high move in costs,” Hively said.
She said she looked at a trailer she was going to rent to own north of Elk but, the trailer park denied her application because of a low credit score. She also didn’t have a year’s worth of employment and rental history.
Currently she says her family of four children, a 20, 15, 7 and 2-year old, along with the ‘co-parent’ and father of the two younger children, are living in substandard conditions in a mobile home in Sagle for $900 a month with peeling wallpaper, cracks in the ceiling, and mold.
‘’I remember things being affordable when I was a kid, but this is home. I want my kids to experience what I had,” Hively said. “I’m going to find a way.”
