This Malheur County city grapples with food insecurity and a shortage of affordable-housing options
In the thick of sweltering 104-degree summer heat, dozens of residents cling closely to the bare thread of shade offered by the Next Chapter food pantry at First Christian Church in Ontario, Ore. Veterans, single-household seniors, housed and houseless folks, and multigenerational families alike wait for their names to be called to enter the facility, which supplies an average of 28 to 32 households with fresh and shelf-stable groceries twice a week.
Angela Flying Eagle sits on a bench with her caregiver, Adela Salinas, drinking bottled water as both await their turns to stock up at the food pantry. Flying Eagle, who moved to Ontario from Bend in 2012, said she’s faced ongoing safety issues with her current apartment, including a faulty stove that her landlord fails to address.
“I am a senior. I am on Social Security, and on $700 a month they expect me to pay the rent, all utilities, and buy food with $37 in food stamps,” she said. “But I stay there because I need a roof over my head.”
When Flying Eagle mentioned the difficulty she encounters in finding transportation to nearby food pantries, Irene Hunt offered to pick her up in the used vehicle she recently acquired.
“I feel that a lot more people would benefit and be able to come get services and food when they needed it if they had a form of transportation,” Hunt said. “Or maybe it could be delivered to them. Since school’s been out, I’ve been coming about every week. I’ve only got two more visits because my grandkids have to eat, and it’s summer.”
Nora Bean, pantry manager at Next Chapter, estimates that 40 percent of all Ontario residents visit food pantries regularly. While the number of SNAP benefit recipients has steadily decreased since 2013 nationwide, Malheur County saw a 4 percent rise from last year.
Community members often line up an hour before the pantry opens.
“The end of the month is always the busiest because they’re toward not having any food stamps left,” Bean said.
Food insecurity, a lack of viable public transit and education, and a shortage of affordable-housing options leaves Ontario lagging behind many comparable rural communities in Oregon.
FURTHER READING: In rural Oregon, trips to food banks are the new normal
The clientele of the food pantry – diverse in age, ability, ethnicity and religion – reflect the culturally rich community of Ontario itself, and yet simultaneously reflect the universality of issues that have long plagued the region.
The city of Ontario proudly occupies the river-lush high desert and sprawling ranchlands along the easternmost edge of the state in Malheur County. Several major highways, including Interstate 84, connect the community to nearby towns in mere minutes on either side of the Oregon-Idaho border in an area known locally as the Treasure Valley. The Snake River, which divides and winds along the state border, is one of four major waterways.
On the Oregon side of Snake River, the absence of a sales tax makes Ontario a popular retail hub, and the county’s minimum hourly wage of $10.50 appeals to workers from Idaho, where the minimum is only $7.25. By contrast, the Idaho side of Treasure Valley boasts far more lax land-use regulations, which, in turn, have encouraged more commercial and housing developments.
Ontario’s ties with Idaho are so strong that local television and radio programming is broadcast from the Gem State, and most of Malheur County operates on Mountain Time, rather than Pacific. Despite proximity to Idaho and the city’s thriving economy, Ontario residents and Malheur County, Oregon’s second-largest county by area, are among the poorest and most economically disadvantaged in the state.
Ontario is also at the crossroads of two of Malheur County’s three “high poverty hotspots,” the Census Bureau’s label for concentrations of poor residents. East Ontario, a neighborhood within Ontario, has as the highest rate of poverty in all of Oregon.
From 2011 to 2015, 25.5 percent of the people in Malheur County were living in poverty – a rate far above the state, at 16.5 percent, and the nation, at 15.5 percent – according to a 2017 report prepared by the Department of Human Services’ Office of Business Intelligence and the Office of Forecasting, Research and Analysis, part of DHS and the Oregon Health Authority.
Furthermore, census figures from 2016 show 38 percent of residents of Ontario living in poverty.
And when comparing the cost of housing in rural Oregon to rural households across the country, the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis found that rural Oregonians are facing home prices 30 percent higher and rents 16 percent higher than their counterparts on average.
FURTHER READING: How Ontario became a haven for immigrant families
A broken system
Like many places across Oregon and the U.S., Malheur County and Ontario are experiencing a severe housing crisis. But beyond following suit with national trends in rising housing costs and stagnant wages, the county faces other difficulties. In late spring, the Housing Authority of Malheur and Harney Counties suddenly announced that the Housing Choice Voucher Program, commonly known as Section 8, had caused the agency to enter a budgetary shortfall.
“We are experiencing a deficit in money (due to) the fact that we’ve had an extreme amount of people that have come in from other areas, be it Idaho or California or the East Coast, because our Section 8 housing voucher’s wait list was very, very minimal,” said Kristy Rodriguez, Housing Choice Voucher Occupancy Specialist at the local housing authority. “It was only like three to six months or a year maximum wait as opposed to these higher cost areas that are years and years to wait. Word got out, and (people) moved into our jurisdiction.”
Across the United States, more than 2 million low-income households receive Section 8 rental assistance administered through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, but that’s only about a quarter of all people who would be eligible for services. The average wait time for Section 8 vouchers nationwide is more than two years. In Portland, the Section 8 wait list was last open in September 2016 and is estimated to stay closed for a minimum of three years. In some cities, such as Los Angeles, the wait time can exceed a decade, which is why Ontario’s short wait list appealed to a large number of people in need.
When eligible applicants are approved for a Section 8 voucher, they are required to reside in the county granting the voucher for a minimum of one year. While on the wait list, applicants can live in a different county but must relocate to the granting jurisdiction to receive rental assistance upon approval. After one year of receiving rental assistance, Section 8 recipients may move to a different county and receive assistance from the original county for another full year.
“They (could) go back to California or go back to Boise, Idaho, if they wanted to. There was no way for us to restrict that unless we were in a shortfall status,” Rodriguez said.
“A lot of our money and our vouchers have gone out to other areas where other housing authorities aren’t able to pick up the bill. Now, if any families are requesting to transfer out of our jurisdiction, they may transfer only if the other housing authority is willing to issue them one of their own vouchers and actually pay for their assistance. And there’s a big housing barrier now where we’re not able to issue housing vouchers to anybody. That puts a damper on our current residents who are living here and are poor and are homeless.”
Section 8 rental assistance allows low-income tenants to afford housing units of their choice. The amount of each Section 8 voucher depends on the applicant’s income level and what’s considered suitable for the local fair-market rent set by HUD based on available units.
In Malheur County, the fair-market rent of a two-bedroom apartment is $697 per month. A household earning $1,680 a month – the equivalent of four weeks of full-time minimum-wage work – would be expected to contribute 30 percent, or $504, toward rent. The remaining $193 would be paid directly to the landlord by the housing authority.
When the same income level is applied to a high-cost area, however, the amount the housing authority must pay landlords significantly increases. For example, if the same recipient moves to a two-bedroom apartment in the 91901 ZIP code of San Diego County, Calif., they would still need to contribute $504 toward rent, but the apartment – with a fair-market rent of $1,590 per month – would require $1,086 from the housing authority.
Oregon Housing and Community Services estimates the current average monthly tenant contribution at $329 per month. An estimated 321 vouchers were in circulation last year in Malheur County.
Although people with vouchers issued prior to the April announcement are still receiving benefits as promised, the wait time has stretched from six months or less to 18 to 24 months. Rodriguez estimates that between 250 and 300 families remain on the wait list since it was closed, and many more prospective families are left unable to apply.
The true cost of living
Janell Young, 44, is a single mother with three sons. Her youngest children – Matthew, 11, and Brian, 10 – are in tow at the food pantry during a recent visit. Her pantry at home is full of processed, canned foods, she said, but her fridge is mostly empty.
“I get disability, $100 in food stamps, and I don’t get anything else after that. It’s not enough during the summer,” Young said. “The hundred dollars goes within about three days for food. We can stretch it for a week, but milk is the thing we go through the most – about a gallon a day. When these guys go to school, I still go to the food bank, so it just seems like a routine. We were hoping to get milk today.”
Only one-quart cartons of shelf-stable milk are available, which Young explains will be consumed by her boys within a day. She opts for a large container of Lipton tea bags instead, since it will last much longer.
“We make chili a lot with the food bank cans. We also eat a lot of spaghetti and mac ’n’ cheese. It seems like when you’re poor, you have to eat a lot of carbs because that’s what they give us,” she said. “An orange right now would be really good. Or even an apple. Those are nice to have. Those are luxuries we don’t always get.”
The average monthly benefit amount for eligible individuals under Social Security Disability Insurance in 2018 is $1,198, and those receiving Supplemental Security Income earn a maximum of $750 per month.
HUD considers households paying more than 30 percent of their incomes toward rent and utilities to be cost-burdened, and those paying more than 50 percent are severely cost-burdened.
In Malheur County, nearly one in four homeowners is overburdened by housing costs, according to HUD standards. Among renters, 56 percent are overburdened, and about 33 percent are severely cost-burdened.
Sometimes a roof isn’t enough
As federal programs alone are unable to adequately support and serve the people eligible for services, nonprofits step in to provide crucial help. In Ontario, there are more than 500 registered nonprofits, but when it comes to housing issues, few stand out as prominently as Community in Action.
Since 2009, Community in Action has served thousands of low-income residents of Malheur and Harney counties through a variety of services, including energy assistance, mortgage foreclosure prevention, down payment assistance and financial literacy.
Angie Uptmor, then housing manager at Community in Action, said the most common services sought are rental assistance and help finding housing.
“We want to keep people permanently housed,” she said, “but it’s tough because we only have so many dollars coming through the door, and once we spend those dollars and have told somebody we will pay (their) rent for this year or 24 months or whatever it is, we have to figure out how to do it.”
Barb Higinbotham, executive director at Community in Action, was born and raised in the Ontario area.
“Part of the challenge in our area is that our housing stock is old and a lot don’t meet the housing quality standards,” she said. “We have places where people are living that, really, shouldn’t be habitable and would not meet any of our program requirements. It’s really hard for some of those folks to speak out and to stand up for their rights because maybe having that place to live is better than not having any place to live at all.”
HUD has identified key aspects of housing quality to ensure all Section 8 recipients maintain access to “decent, safe and sanitary” housing. Among the requirements are sanitary facilities, proper illumination and electricity, and a safe water supply.
Each year, HUD releases Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy data to “demonstrate the number of households in need of housing assistance.” In Malheur County, 53 percent of renters reported experiencing at least one of four housing problems as outlined by HUD, which include incomplete kitchen facilities, incomplete plumbing facilities, more than one person per room, and a cost burden greater than 30 percent. More severe housing problems were reported by one in three renters. HUD data for Malheur County also confirms that the less money a household earns, the more likely it is to experience a housing problem.
In addition to a lack of quality homes, there is a shortage of units that are affordable and available.
“New houses built in Ontario over the past several years are few, and there does not seem to be a lot of movement for building new and attainable houses,” Higinbotham said. “We hope this changes.”
“There’s not enough stock out there, so (the landlords) can get higher rents,” Uptmor said.
From 2010 to 2014, Malheur County saw a deficit of 985 affordable and available rentals for very low-income households and 805 units for extremely low-income households, according to a 2017 report from Oregon Housing and Community Services. Despite these numbers, fewer than 30 one-unit building permits were issued per year during the time span in all of Malheur County.
Disrupting the cycle
Uptmor and Higinbotham have observed many ongoing barriers to housing. Among the most stark are the effects of generational and systemic poverty.
“Kids are being raised to understand poverty,” Uptmor said. “That’s the way they’re raised, and that’s the way they’re going to live, but we’re trying to break that cycle as best we can.”
Part of breaking the cycle of poverty is creating viable pathways toward economic mobility and self-sufficiency, but for households teetering on the edge of the poverty line, earning more doesn’t always add up. Going over the income-level threshold, even a few dollars per year, can mean a loss in assistance and – when compared to the additional income – a disproportionate increase in rent. For people on fixed incomes, earning more isn’t an option.
“When you’re on SSI, typically it means that there is a disability, which is why you can’t work, so that’s all the money you’re ever going to make,” Uptmor said. “You’re getting $740 a month, (and) you can’t really afford to live. So, what happens is it keeps poor people poor and poor people living in poor conditions. I don’t know how to change that, and I don’t know how to fix that, but that’s why we rely on Section 8 – to help people that aren’t ever going to get beyond the $740 life, and live in a decent home.”
This is the first time the Section 8 wait list in Malheur and Harney counties has ever been closed long term. Neither the Housing Authority nor any nonprofit can truly be sure of what the effects will be for the counties’ most vulnerable populations, but it’s not a question of if, but rather how bad it’s going to be.
Looking forward
In December, the Ontario City Council approved the Housing Incentive Program, which offers a $10,000 cash incentive for the construction of new single-family homes in Ontario. To qualify, homes must be owner-occupied, and they must be either greater than 1,600 square feet or greater than 1,350 square feet with a two-car garage and two bathrooms. In a news release, Mayor Ron Verini said, “It is our hope that this will bring new residential growth to broaden our tax base and create a more sustainable community.”
Meanwhile, a proposal to loosen restrictions on rural home construction is in the works. The Eastern Oregon Border Economic Development Board, established in 2017, aims to finalize the plan before Oregon’s 2019 legislative session, the Malheur Enterprise reported. Now, home construction permits in rural Oregon are issued only when the land being built on is greater than 80 acres in farm zones and greater than 160 acres on rangeland.
“We still want to maintain some of the really valuable things about Oregon’s land-use policy,” board chair Shawna Peterson told the Malheur Enterprise.
“Housing is one of the factors that plays into the makeup of the community,” Higinbotham said. “We believe that a housing-first approach is necessary for families to reach stability.”
DEFINING AFFORDABLE
The Department of Housing and Urban Development defines affordable dwellings as units that cost a household 30 percent or less of its monthly income. In Malheur County, the median family income, or MFI, for 2018 was $51,500. Households earning 80 percent or less of MFI are designated “low income,” while those earning 50 percent or less are considered “very low income.” Households earning 30 percent or less are considered “extremely low income.”
In Malheur County, low-income households earn $41,200 or less per year, very-low-income households earn $25,750 or less, and extremely low-income households earn $15,450 or less.
According to a 2018 report published by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an hourly wage of about $13.40 is necessary to afford the average 2-bedroom rental home at $697 per month in Malheur County. A person earning the minimum wage of $10.50, however, would need a 52-hour work week to afford the cost of housing.
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