Momentum On the Southern Oregon Coast: Three Takeaways From the Region's Housing Summit

CEO, Nate Wildfire, presents at the SOCRH Housing Summit in North Bend, OR on April 11.

Last Friday, I had the honor of presenting at the Southern Oregon Coast Regional Housing Summit in North Bend and Coos Bay. The Summit had started the day before with a focus on the housing continuum - housing for all people at all incomes with all needs - and on Friday the focus was on middle housing and innovation - right up our alley!  

My job was to set the stage for the rest of the day - encouraging attendees to think outside the box, while highlighting the amazing work of the team already driving change in Southern Oregon Coast communities.  

Southern Oregon Coast Regional Housing (SOCRH) brought us to Coos and Curry Counties (and a tiny bit of Douglas!) late last year to help introduce innovation to their stakeholders, and help them prioritize the incredible energy they've gathered across many, many projects. CCD Business Development, (the Economic Development District for the region) has supplied the funding to hire us through 2023's House Bill 3395, which aims to increase the housing capacity for rural areas.  

We are grateful for this partnership and for the chance to share our network of innovators with the communities of the South Coast.  

While the entire day was filled with inspiring tales, lessons learned, and new initiatives, I wanted to highlight three things I witnessed that were particularly energizing.

1. The sheer scale and diversity of partnerships

The core working group behind the Summit has worked for years to assemble a who's who of partners from nearby locales and beyond. Developers with local roots but PNW reach; funders who traveled from eastern WA; Federal, State, and local government officials; innovation companies from their own backyard and some from many hours away; and nonprofits with a variety of missions that all touch housing. As we often say, the need is vast - we need all partners to find and own their part of the story.  

2. Seeing innovation in action

RootedHomes, UrbanForm, MODSPDX, and Simplicity by Hayden Homes were just some of the innovation companies featured this past Friday. All of them are bringing lessons learned from other regions to the South Coast and actively exploring projects. Their enthusiasm was infectious. Local developers gave project updates and reflections on what local jurisdictions can do to think outside-the-box. Oftentimes developers are looked at with skepticism - but those on stage brought a humility to their "lessons learned", acknowledged that it takes a village to get things done, and clearly articulated the risks involved in real estate development.  

3. A region in motion

This is a part of Oregon that does NOT sit still! Upcoming long-planned investments in the Port are driving increasing investment and attention to the Southern Coast. The need for housing is already acute, and big infrastructure projects will only exacerbate the need; but these stakeholders are preparing. Local governments are already changing how they do business to streamline development processes, and are exploring technologies to make things even more efficient. SOCRH, the Summit leader, launched this year as a formal nonprofit and has strategic working groups driving policy, story telling, funding, innovation, and development. The local philanthropic community is a consistent, creative and responsive partner in all of this activity. There was a real buzz!!!

There were many more moments that filled me with enthusiasm and hope from last Friday - including watching the sunset from a truly spectacular part of the world. The partners involved are too numerous to list here; but we count ourselves grateful to be one.