Clatsop County may use American Rescue Plan Act funds to help the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority acquire the staffing needed to create affordable housing.

At a county Board of Commissioners work session on Oct. 19, County Manager Don Bohn laid out a plan to give the housing authority $325,000 over three fiscal years.

The housing authority, which manages properties for people with low and moderate incomes, would hire more staff to address the region’s shortage of housing units.

“My belief is that the county cannot do all things, that the county requires partnerships with other agencies and organizations,” Bohn said. The county can “help those others that are providing critical services to be funded at a level that actually represents the need in the community.”

The housing authority reached a crisis point a couple of years ago.

Low-income families and vulnerable individuals rely on the agency to find rental housing through a federal housing choice voucher program.

The agency went on a corrective action plan after an audit and review of its voucher program resulted in a poor rating in early 2020. A budget deficit forced the housing authority to suspend the issuance of new vouchers. The agency resumed issuing new vouchers last year.

The agency improved its rating from “troubled” to a “standard performer” after working with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

After almost two years with an interim director, the housing authority recently hired a new executive director, Elissa Gertler, the former planning and development director for Oregon Metro.

The idea of using American Rescue Plan Act dollars for housing was part of the county’s original plan for the funds. The stimulus money was approved by Congress and signed off on by President Joe Biden to help state and local governments respond to the coronavirus pandemic.

When the county first offered money to the housing authority to hire additional personnel, the housing authority turned it down.

In a strategy paper, the housing authority said the agency was not in a position to partner with the county when the overture was first made in 2021. “We are now ready and eager to move forward,” the agency wrote.

The housing authority once had a staff of more than 20. Now it has four to serve three counties: Clatsop, Columbia and Tillamook.

Gertler said she is implementing what she calls an “organizational capacity strategy.” This involves finding more money and figuring out how to build more housing, she said.

“We need to figure out how to make sure we can actually deliver on the commitments that we’re making and have the capacity to follow through on the goals we’re setting,” Gertler told commissioners.

With the county money, the housing authority hopes to hire two to three people before the end of the year.

The housing authority noted in its strategy paper that “it is unusual for most housing authorities in Oregon to receive direct funding from the counties they serve, though a few are incorporated into the operations of county governments.”

If the partnership with Clatsop County proves successful, it could serve as a model statewide, the housing authority wrote.

Bohn said the partnership is a foundational step.

“As we all know, you can’t create something out of nothing, and so this will give us something — and I think it’s an important something that will really create the infrastructure that you would hope exists here,” he said. “And hopefully this is a legacy investment.”