Residents torn between the dollars short-term rentals bring in and the quality of life and housing stock they take with them
The Deep End Café in Newport was packed full of customers two summers ago when its owner, Charlotte Boxer, got a call from her neighbor. The neighbor wanted to let Boxer know that a stranger had climbed onto the roof of her house.
She left the busy restaurant to make the short drive to her home, near the entrance to Yaquina Bay State Park. She soon discovered a man was still high up on her roof, while a woman in a long skirt was attempting to scale her stone chimney.
As it turns out, the man and woman were the temporary occupants of two different vacation rentals near her house. They had ignored her “no trespassing” signs in order to retrieve a kite.
This is just one of many incidents, Boxer said, that has eroded the quality of her home life since her coastal neighborhood – and her property – have become overrun with vacation-rental inhabitants.
“They block the driveway, they block the street, they have parties until late in the night,” she said. “It is hell living next to them.”
She has since installed a “Fort Knox”-style fence around her property, she said.
It wasn’t always like this. Boxer, who splits her time between Newport and Portland, said that when she purchased her oceanfront second home 13 years ago, there were no short-term rentals in its immediate vicinity. Today, three of the four houses adjacent to her property serve as revolving doors for tourists.
And it’s not as if Boxer is adverse to tourism – her livelihood depends on it. At 67, she has much of her life savings invested in her seafood restaurant that relies, in part, on traveling diners.
But vacation rentals, she said, are causing more harm than good due to their increasing numbers. She is constantly losing employees because they cannot find anywhere to live. One of her cooks is living in a small pull-trailer in an RV park because she cannot find housing.
The continuous employee turnover and stress of running a restaurant that’s always short-staffed have Boxer wondering whether she wants to continue doing business at the beach.
She is not alone in her frustrations. Communities up and down the coast have been grappling with how to regulate vacation rentals and mitigate the effects of ever-increasing number of visitors. It’s a double-edged sword: While Oregon’s coastal economy relies largely on tourism dollars, the spread of short-term rentals has created livability issues for many residents and made it nearly impossible for locals – many of whom work in the establishments tourists patronize – to find housing.
The surge
Oregon’s coastal towns have long played host to swaths of vacation rentals and second homes, but over the past decade, short-term rentals have begun overtaking most new construction and affordable homes that year-round residents once occupied.
This trend is particularly problematic in Lincoln and Tillamook counties, where even though an above average amount of housing has been built in recent decades, after factoring in new developments targeted specifically as vacation homes and an overall increase in vacation homes in general, the stock of housing for local residents has not kept pace with demand, according to a March 2018 report from the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.
Newport City Planner Derrick Tokos said the rise in short-term rental numbers has correlated with the advent of Airbnb. More people are considering vacation rentals as an income opportunity because with companies like Vacasa taking care of management and Airbnb taking care of advertising, it’s easy to turn a profit on your second home when no one is there.
An independent analysis Tillamook County commissioned painted a bleak picture. It found seasonal units jumped from 4,600 to 7,223 between 2000 and 2014, while the number of non-seasonal homes decreased by 110.
“The number of houses that are selling for cash in this county is just insane,” said Erin Skaar, the director of Tillmook’s primary social service provider, Community Action Resource Enterprises, Inc. She said according to the consultants who conducted the analysis, cash sales are taking place at “a far higher rate than you see across the nation, and it’s because its investors that are coming in and buying houses.”
The housing report showed homes priced at $200,000 or more along Tillamook County’s coastline were making up the bulk of those cash sales.
Interviews up and down the coast showed consensus among residents that following the recession, vacation rentals seemed to start taking over.
“Something that happened when that bubble popped,” said Elizabeth Reyes, executive director at Family Promise of Lincoln County, “is now there are foreclosures everywhere.
“I can’t tell you how many working class people lost their homes. And because of that, people who are already in a position of having collateral or wealth, can snap ’em all up, so you went from people having one or two, to three, four or five.”
Some coastal residents aired suspicions that it’s Californians and New Yorkers with deep pockets buying much of the land, but the truth lies closer to home.
Street Roots obtained the permanent addresses of those who’ve bought property in Lincoln and Tillamook counties since the recession.
Of the 3,677 single-family residences purchased in Tillamook County since 2008, just 13 percent have owners confirmed to live out-of-state, and more of those live in Washington than in New York or California. Portlanders own about 600 of the properties. About 27 percent of homes purchased were listed as the owner’s permanent address.
In both counties, close to half the purchasers were listed as county residents, which means locals are cashing in on vacation rentals, too.*
A similar look at the 1,000 properties purchased in Lincoln City and Newport since the recession revealed that 25 percent of properties purchased were listed as the owner’s permanent address. Tillamook County Commissioner Bill Baertlein said 100 new short-term rental permits were issued for the unincorporated areas of his county last year alone. “So we are up close to 900,” he said, “and that’s just in the rural county, and it’s growing.”
The data also revealed very few people had purchased more than one property in either county over the past 10 years, and those who had, only purchased two or three.
“We have very few situations where there is a single entity owning multiple properties,” said Tokos in reference to Newport’s housing market. He said out-of-town purchases are typically people who want a second home on the beach or who bought a second home for use later in anticipation of retirement. The difference is that now, they can easily turn that home into a profit generator.
Quiet coast to busy beaches
Reyes, 37, remembers Lincoln City as a quieter place growing up. “During the winter, it was like ‘our town,’” she said. “There was very little tourism, it was just like a sleepy little coastal town.”
Now that tourism has increased, it can help businesses survive the winter months, she said, but summertime has become chaotic, with heavy traffic and swarms of beach-goers.
“At the beach, you can literally see piles of garbage,” she said. “There is a push to make sure we get the right type of tourism. We don’t want to be a Jersey Shore where people come, party hard, and leave everything behind.”
Reyes is working with the local government and other area residents on a project called “Imagine Lincoln City.” She said one objective it has honed-in on is to attract more eco-based tourism by promoting activities such as kayaking, bird-watching photography tours and paddle-boarding.
“When you have that mindset, you are less likely to leave your bag of McDonalds behind on the beach,” she said. “We don’t want people coming with 20 cars and partying all night long with garbage all over the place and no accountability.”
Lincoln City recently joined other coastal cities, such as Manzanita, Seaside and Gearhart, in limiting the number of vacation rentals allowed in residential neighborhoods. Astoria only allows vacation rentals in commercial zones.
In Newport and Tillamook, no regulations currently exist.
“Until three years ago, there were more cows than people in Tillamook County,” said Gary Albright, director of the Tillamook Pioneer Museum. But all that’s changed, he said, now that Tillamook has been discovered.
“Everybody owns the beach. It’s not just the locals,” said Commissioner Baertlein. “It’s nice to have them here.” But, he said, visitors need to “have a little patience with us and understand that when you have a police department that’s set up for 25,000-person county and you have 75,000 people here on a weekend visiting, they can get overwhelmed.”
Baertlein said police get bogged down with calls for both emergencies and petty annoyances, such as tourists parking in people’s driveways, blocking them in or out.
“If they could just pretend like they are at home,” he said, “if they wouldn’t do it at home, then don’t do it here.”
Serving tourists while living homeless While checking out of the Wacoma Inn in Lincoln City, Street Roots asked the woman at the front desk, Nemoria Viallagomez, what she thought about the coast’s housing situation.
“I had to live in a tent,” she responded.
She said she moved to the area from Salt Lake City about four years ago to live with an aunt who had a job lined up. But the job fell through, and her aunt never arrived. Viallagomez quickly found consistent work at area hotels, but couldn’t find anywhere to live.
She and her 3-year-old son survived in a tent for months, escaping the elements at an area warming shelter that temporarily opened during extreme temperatures. She saved up and bought an RV for $1,000, but soon discovered that most RV parks will only allow newer vehicles. She eventually found a parking spot at Agate Beach RV Park, where she stayed for a couple of years. After a three-year wait on a Section 8 list, she’s finally in an apartment with her son, who is now 6.
“If I won the lottery, I would build a shelter here because that’s what the county needs – a decent shelter,” Viallagomez said.
Stories such as hers are common along the coast – just ask your server, bartender or hotel housekeeper about housing next time you visit.
You might hear about the people living in storage units behind Aquarium Village in Newport, of squatters inhabiting falling-down and mold-ridden dilapidated buildings along Highway 101 or of families making campgrounds in the dunes their full-time home, even with two working parents.
It’s not just service-industry and other low-wage workers affected by the housing shortage.
Many white-collar professionals are jumping ship because they don’t want to be a doctor or teacher by day and a trailer park or campsite dweller by night.
Lincoln County lost two mental health supervisors in a row – who were hired at about $80,000 a year plus benefits because the new recruits could not find housing in Newport.
“One gentleman had that position for nine months and resigned,” said Lincoln County Commissioner Claire Hall. “Loved the community, loved his colleagues, loved the work, but after months of living in camp grounds, because he couldn’t find a place that he considered decent on his income, he left. … I hear that from so many business owners, managers, public sector, private sector. I was hearing it when I first ran for office in 2004, and it’s only intensified. It is probably the No. 1 barrier to workforce recruitment and retention,” she said.
Jennifer Thiele, 26, was living in Minnesota with her parents when the Tillamook Pioneer Museum in Garibaldi offered her a job as its new cultural acquisitions educator. She had recently graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in American history, and it was just the sort of job she was hoping to get.
For months, she called apartment complexes and scoured online ads, looking for somewhere to live. Homes for sale were too expensive and apartment complexes all had wait lists of 30 people or more, she said.
When she suggested buying an RV, her parents were hesitant and thought perhaps a motel would work.
In disbelief it could be that hard to find housing, Thiele's father traveled from Minnesota to Tillamook County to help his daughter look. As he was driving along Highway 101 in the midst of his search, he saw an active construction site on the side of the road in Garibaldi. He pulled over and asked to talk to the foreman. He got his daughter on a nearly-full list for the apartments that hadn’t been built yet.
Today Thiele has an apartment in that building, but it’s costing her 80 percent of her income to rent.
“I budget meticulously,” she said. “Everything is down to the pennies.”
Other community members said she’s known to wrap up food that’s leftover at museum events and take it home.
Albright, Theile’s employer, said Tillamook seems to be headed in the direction of more touristy coastal cities, such as Seaside, where vacation rentals have long been an issue.
“A lot of people don’t like that,” he said, “there is a great resentment of that. But the bottom line is that people coming for short term stays now are taking housing that Jennifer could have had five years ago.”
Enough is enough
With increased tourism driving Tillamook County’s housing shortage, Commissioner Baertlein thinks using money collected from transient lodging taxes for affordable housing might make sense. After all, tourists like to eat at the restaurants and shop in the stores where locals work, but those locals need a place to live in order to serve tourists.
He’s working on a bill for the 2019 session that he said would more “equitably split up the monies” from the tax. If passed, it could potentially serve as a funding stream to build affordable housing in cities struggling with the effects of vacation rentals across the state. The bill’s details are still being worked out.
But for the full potential of the lodging tax to be realized, governments need to ensure short-term rental owners are paying the tax to begin with. That’s why Tillamook County is buying a software program and service that will pinpoint unlicensed Airbnbs that aren’t paying it.
“They did a preliminary search in Tillamook, and there were over 200,” said Baertlein.
He estimates that in the unincorporated areas of the county alone, $600,000 to $700,000 in taxes and permit fees is going uncollected. Plus, unlicensed rentals aren’t getting inspected for safety.
“We’re going to be the guinea pig,” he said, adding that if the software works, cities in Tillamook County will likely follow suit and do their own audits.
In January, the city of Newport formed an ad-hoc committee to figure out what regulations on vacation rentals should look like – a move that many residents see as long overdue.
According to Newport’s city planner, Tokos, there are 195 licensed vacation rentals in Newport. Like Tillamook, Newport also had an independent company search for unlicensed short-term rentals. It showed about 80 to 85 percent were compliant, he said.
Newport’s vacation rental committee is considering placing a cap on the total number of vacation rentals, limiting where they can be located and their density.
The next step is public input, and then city council and planners will vote on the final recommendations in the fall.
Some coastal communities with regulations in place, such as Gearhart and Lincoln City, initially battled legal challenges to limits and rules they applied to short-term rentals, and ultimately prevailed. But the effectiveness of these regulations relies heavily on compliance.
In Astoria, short-term rentals are only allowed in residential areas if the owner occupies the unit while guests are there. But illegal rentals persist on sites such as Airbnb. As recently as December, Astoria City Council considered adding a permit requirement to all Airbnb’s in an attempt to figure out where they are for better tracking and enforcement.
While it hashes out its own vacation rental regulations, Newport may build its way into a slightly better housing situation over the next two years with the multiple apartment complex projects it has in the pipeline. Three projects will add about 200 new apartments, with the majority available to people making 60 to 80 percent of the median area income, according to local government officials.
And the developments couldn’t come at a better time. With a new Samaritan hospital and a $58 million expansion of Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center under construction, locals have wondered where workers filling all the new jobs at these facilities will live.
But for Boxer, those units may not come soon enough. After a long career working as an affordable housing financier for U.S. Bank and other financial institutions, she said she doesn’t have the energy at her age to keep vetting, hiring and retraining employees at her café. In the meantime, she sits on the city’s ad-hoc vacation rental committee, and has been a vocal participant at its meetings.
“I want to give the people who live and work here, the opportunity to live and work here,” she said. “I have just hired my 93rd employee in 4 years and 3 months, and I am absolutely sick to death of the turnover. I just don’t want to do it anymore.”
*When Street Roots analyzed homes purchased in Tillamook County, Lincoln City and Newport between 2008 and 2018, we found that 8 percent of the purchasers’ permanent addresses in Lincoln City and Newport, and 15 percent in Tillamook County, were listed as a local P.O. box. We did not count these purchasers as living at the property they purchased, but we did count them as local purchasers. It’s possible some buyers with a local P.O. box may not actually be local. It’s also possible that they are residing in the home they purchased, but do not take their mail there. In Newport and Lincoln City, 142 of the properties purchased were vacant lots.
Email Senior Staff Reporter Emily Green at emily@streetroots.org . Follow her on Twitter @greenwrites .
Street Roots is an award-winning, nonprofit, weekly newspaper focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. Our newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Learn more about Street Roots
