The number of Hood River County children under age 17 in poverty rose to 23.4 percent from 18.7 percent five years ago.
    As local governments face the worsening housing affordability problem, that statistic on child poverty is the most compelling to emerge from the nonprofit Children First 2008 Data Book.

It points to the need to expand the base of affordable housing in this county.

As reported on page A1, 30 percent of lower-income workers can no longer afford to reside in the community where they are employed.

For those who can, somehow, stretch to meet that monthly housing cost, the economic impact on the household is sure to affect the children.

Affordable housing can boost the local economy while improving peoples’ lives: reducing the amount a family must pay for rent or mortgage allows them to meet other necessary expenses. Further, families that can afford to live in the community where they work will be able to spend their money in the local economy, while also working and living in closer proximity to schools.

As Ruby Mason, executive director of Columbia Cascade Housing Corporation, points out, virtually no low-income housing units are available in Hood River County.

One sign of a healthy community is the availability of a wide range of housing options, where even the poor among us have some kind of choice about where to live and raise their children.

Mason has asked the city council to consider writing a letter of support to help CCCHC, a nonprofit organization, obtain tax credits that further Hood River County’s plan to site 40 units of affordable housing on 1.75 acres along West Cascade Avenue.

The city should also consider reducing permit fees and the expenses of water and sewer hook-up and waiving other development charges. Granted, the city has its own expenses to look at, but some formula should be doable for reducing the cost of creating affordable housing.

It’s an example of an economic stimulus measure without the Potomac posturing.

The affordable housing issue has been looming for years now. Government can’t do it alone, but with a new council and a new set of ideas the opportunity is ripe for identifying and then coordinating the public-private partnerships for affordable housing.

The county has already taken steps to set aside land on West Cascade. The growing lack of housing only points to the need for further intergovernmental cooperation on the issue

As Mason put it, “We really need housing for economics and for social stability.”

According to Children First, the median family income in Hood River is $49,900, 15 percent lower than the state median. A total of 2,286 children live in low-income households.

“Oregon families need help and need it now,” said Robin Christian, Children First executive director. Statewide, more than 140,000 children live below the federal poverty line ($20,650 for a family of four in 2007) and the number of children in families requiring food stamps rose 11 percent.

Children First (www.cffo.org) has called on the Oregon Legislature to protect human services programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Employment Related Day Care.

Those could turn out to be protracted political questions. But as of right now agencies in Hood River County already have the foundation for relieving the affordable housing quotient of the economic struggles facing many of its residents.