Clatsop County is looking at launching a new pilot program that would repurpose vacant homes to bring much-needed workforce housing to the North Coast. 

“Lease to Locals” is a program developed by a company called Placemate, aimed at addressing housing shortages in tourist areas. The program offers cash incentives to eligible property owners to convert short-term rentals and empty houses into long-term leases for local workers. 

“It’s very hard to build housing here — we all know that,” Elissa Gertler, the county’s housing manager, told commissioners at a work session on Wednesday. “And what’s nice about this program is that it takes existing housing stock and makes it active and serves local folks instead of people who are only here part time.”

As part of a countywide housing inventory study, Gertler has collected data that helps paint a picture of the total number of housing units in jurisdictions across Clatsop County. While some housing stock is taken up by short-term rentals, a much greater portion is taken up by vacant second homes. 

Those portions vary significantly by jurisdiction: in Cannon Beach, for example, roughly two-thirds of homes remain empty for much of the year, while vacant homes make up about a quarter of the housing units in Seaside.

“What you see here is that while the conversation may often be, ‘Wow, look at all the short-term rentals we have taking the housing supply,’  actually the bigger problem is the vacant homes,” Gertler said. 

The county has applied for a $955,000 grant through the Columbia-Pacific Coordinated Care Organization to fund a two-year pilot program, with the goal of bringing 40 new long-term rental units into the local housing market to provide housing for roughly 80 qualified tenants. That’s a small fraction of the total number of vacant homes and short-term rentals in the county.

Gertler said the plan is to contract with Placemate, which will act as a matching service between property owners and tenants. Although the county is just beginning to develop specific guidelines, the idea is for local workers making up to 150% of the area median income to be able to enter year-long lease agreements.

All of Clatsop County’s local jurisdictions have signed resolutions indicating their support for participating in the program — but none have made financial commitments yet. A grant-funded pilot program, Gertler said, would allow them to test the waters and see what works.

“Maybe it works more in Cannon Beach than it works in Warrenton, or maybe it’s so popular that we are exceeding our goals,” Gertler said. “But we won’t know until we try it, so the idea is to do a two-year pilot program, have everyone countywide participate, use someone else’s money, and if it is successful, then at the end of the two-year pilot program, cities can say, ‘Hey, this is really something that’s useful … We’re going to go ahead and fund ourselves.’”

Commissioners were generally supportive of the pilot program, but did voice some concerns. Commissioner Courtney Bangs inquired about how much flexibility could be provided around lease length for homeowners who may want to visit their properties for one or two weeks out of the year. Commissioner Anthony Huacuja also questioned whether cash incentives would be an effective way to motivate people who can already afford to have a second home. 

“I love the idea. I’d love to see it work out,” Huacuja said. “We have an opportunity here, and if the grants can apply to it, I’d love to learn and try to get information. I just have concerns about where the county can be and how effective it’s going to actually be.” 

Gertler said the county anticipates hearing back on its grant application in September. If they receive the funding, commissioners will need to approve a contract with Placemate to get the program rolling by the fall. 

Despite some unknowns, Gertler said she’s received positive feedback from a wide range of community partners — and to a far greater extent than she expected. 

“It’s really interesting to see this kind of cross-sector interest in different kinds of employers, different kinds of partners, school districts, who are all like, ‘Please try this program. We will write you a letter of support. We’ll get the word out. We want to help with marketing,’” she said. “And so I’ve actually been quite surprised at the amount of interest there has been outside of the local government conversation in the broader business community.”