A new report examining the housing shortage in Oregon’s Grant County contains much that will sound familiar to people working on the same issue here in Wallowa County.

The report by the respected consulting firm ECONorthwest found that, just as in Wallowa County, the housing crunch has become an economic development issue in Grant County: Employers ranging from schools to law enforcement agencies to the local hospital reported big problems in hiring new employees — simply because those would-be employees were unable to find housing they could afford.

Also, the Grant County report found, housing costs have outstripped incomes, making it increasingly difficult for workers to afford housing.

All that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Wallowa County’s situation, of course, isn’t identical to that in Grant County: For one thing, the population in Wallowa County is rising at a faster rate than in Grant County. (The two counties have about the same population, according to new estimates from Portland State University’s Population Research Center — 7,541 in Wallowa County to Grant County’s 7,337. As an aside, Wallowa County’s estimated 0.9% population growth from the 2020 census to July 2022 places it among the 10 fastest-growing counties in the state. The online version of this editorial includes a table showing population trends in the county and its incorporated cities.)

In addition, Grant County doesn’t appear to be experiencing the issue of housing units being converted to vacation rentals or bed-and-breakfasts to the extent that’s occurring in Wallowa County.

Still, Grant County seems to be ahead of Wallowa County in terms of actually building new housing.

But this really isn’t a competition. Rather, this needs to be a collaborative effort that includes watching and learning from other counties facing similar issues to see what works — and what doesn’t.

Recommendations in the Grant County report include revising zoning codes and conducting buildable land assessments. Communities in Wallowa County already are considering or moving ahead on some of those steps.

The report also recommends the use of regional collaborations and partnerships to build capacity and garner the resources needed to support housing.

Granted, there are differences between counties and variations in the set of challenges facing Oregon communities as they work to solve housing challenges. The exact combination of factors fueling the housing crisis will vary from community to community, from county to county.

But the similarities are such that we should make it a priority to work across city and county lines to compare notes and build regional partnerships wherever appropriate. Wallowa County shouldn’t feel as if it needs to reinvent every wheel to start making progress on its housing needs.

In search of hailstorm tales

This next sentence is hard to believe: It’s been almost a year since an Aug. 11, 2022 hailstorm devastated the town of Wallowa. The Chieftain is preparing an in-depth report for our Aug. 9 edition recounting the terrible damage caused by the storm and taking stock of what’s happened since then to help the town recover — and what else needs to happen to make it whole again. 

We’d like you to contribute to our report. Did you witness the hailstorm? Did you suffer damage caused by the storm? How are you recovering? If you’d like, write us a short story (try to keep them to 250 words or less, but if you feel like you need more, go ahead) about your experiences during or after the storm. We’ll compile the entries and add them to our report, both in print and online. Email your stories to me at mmcinally@wallowa.com or editor@wallowa.com. Please submit your stories no later than Sunday, Aug. 6.