Thank you for your interest in reading The Astorian. Here are a few stories that you might have missed this week:

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In January 2020, as the North Coast was in the middle of a housing crisis, the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority was flagged as “troubled.”

The Astorian asked the agency’s leadership to describe the challenges and progress over the past few years.

Elissa Gertler, the housing authority’s new executive director, described the challenges in stark terms.

“We do not have the systems, structures, policies, procedures and infrastructure in place that is needed to run a public housing authority,” she said. “There’s housing authorities all across the United States. We lack basic organizational infrastructure needed to responsibly steward our federal and state funds.”

Read the story by Nicole Bales by clicking here.

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Clatsop County’s child care outreach program is searching for a new program manager.

The Clatsop Child Care Retention and Expansion Program, which grew out of a task force to address the shortage of child care slots, provides grants and professional development to child care providers. It also aims to bring stakeholders and representatives together to identify needs and plans to retain and expand affordable, quality licensed child care.

Dan Gaffney, who helped lead the task force, agreed to temporarily serve as program manager while the initiative got off the ground. Gaffney said the program has been successful, and that some providers have been able to increase pay and hire more staff. He expects to have his replacement by the end of February.

“What my intention is, and my focus is to make sure that we keep this momentum moving forward and to attract somebody who has a desire to do this for a long period of time,” he said. “And I want to support that person in the transition and beyond.”

Take a look at Nicole Bales’ report by clicking here.

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Clatsop County has set legislative priorities for the new session that opened in Salem on Tuesday.

At the top of the list is to allow local governments to use a larger portion of lodging tax revenue for discretionary purposes instead of tourism promotion.

The county, along with other local governments around the state, would like to have more flexibility to address the impacts of tourism on services such as law enforcement, housing and infrastructure.

The county is also looking for sustainable funding solutions to offset a projected loss in timber revenue.

County officials expect to see a reduction in revenue under the state’s proposed habitat conservation plan, which would limit logging in state forests.

See the story by Nicole Bales by clicking here.

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