Housing

It won't be a surprise to anyone when I say that our county, like the entire state, is short on housing. One way we can address this locally is to ensure that any publicly owned land which can be surplused to develop housing, is. The city of Coos Bay did it to great success, and when the governor's transition team came through and I proposed it to them they also saw potential. Unfortunately, they saw it as having potential for everyone that wasn't rural and left us out of the executive order for them to surplus their land. To address this I have been raising this issue at every meeting I have had with state offices and boards ever since, including with the League of Oregon Cities and even dragging it up in my mental health workgroups. As of late October I received a commitment from the state Office of Emergency Management to pursue adding the other 80% of Oregon to the study for surplus. I have also drawn support from House Rep Boomer Wright and Senator David Brock Smith to push this effort forward. As commissioner I will leverage the position of leadership to increase pressure on the state.

Update: In December of 2023 we achieved success; the governor authorized an exception to her own executive order, bringing all of rural Oregon into the surplus land study. Land was identified in Coos Bay, North Bend, Coquille, and Bandon for consideration.