| Remarks by Governor Kulongoski |
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| April 24, 2007 |
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Oregon Housing Conference
Thank you, Victor, for that kind introduction, and for your leadership at the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department.
I’m glad to be with you all today, and I want to thank each of you for your commitment to building a better future for Oregon.
As you may have noticed, I’m not joining you for lunch today.
That’s because as part of “Hunger Awareness Week 2007”, my wife and I are living on an average food stamp budget – $21.00 per person for the week. That translates to about $3.00 a day for food – or $1.00 per meal – and, I’m guessing that the meal you’re eating right now cost a little more than $1.00.
So, in keeping with the spirit of the Food Stamp Challenge, I brought my own lunch. I don’t tell you this to make you feel guilty – or to make you stop eating your lunch today.
The reason I’m taking this challenge – and the reason I’m here today – is because one of my top priorities since I took office over four years ago has been to put the issue of hunger into the lap of every Oregonian.
So what does this have to do with all of you and with the issue of housing? A lot. I’ll get into that in more detail in a moment.
First, I want to tell you about a woman I met this morning. Her name is Christina. She’s 38, married, and has three children.
Christina has worked for the state for the last 10 years helping low-income families who qualify for our state assistance programs access those benefits.
And currently, Christina herself relies on the food stamp program to meet her family’s food budget.
Christina’s husband was laid off in October 2006 and has been searching for work since then. In the meantime, they have three kids, a mortgage in South Salem, car payments, utilities and higher than average medical bills for one of her children who has cerebral palsy.
As Christina told me this morning, after covering the basic necessities, they wouldn’t have the resources to eat if they didn’t receive food stamp assistance.
Christina’s story is not unique. In fact, every month, more than 425,000 of our Oregon friends, family, and neighbors rely on the food stamp program to feed their families.
Now I know what some of you are thinking – the food stamp program is supposed to supplement a family’s food budget – not pay for it entirely.
It’s true that that was the original goal of the program, but I’m here to tell you that many – too many — families in Oregon today rely on this program as their primary source of food.
Why? Because – hunger in Oregon is an income problem.
Hunger strikes when people cannot stretch their incomes to cover the necessities of life—a place to live, transportation, child care, health care, and groceries.
The good news for Christina and her family is that her husband recently got a job – so they’ll be transitioning off food stamps soon. But like Christina, the majority of people in Oregon who are hungry are working.
Nearly half – let me say that again – nearly half of the households accessing emergency food boxes through the Oregon Food Bank have at least one person working.
This fact is why I am so committed to growing the number of living wage jobs in this state.
The solution to Oregon’s hunger problem is not more charity. The solution to Oregon’s hunger problem is creating opportunity for good, living wage jobs.
If you are like me and listen to Oregon public radio, then you may have heard the essay series called, “This I Believe.”
“This I Believe” is a national media project engaging millions of people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values and beliefs that guide their daily lives.
In that spirit, I want to share with you today, what I believe.
I believe that providing people with a living wage job is the answer to many – if not most – of society’s problems.
I believe that most Oregonians want to be able to live independently and support themselves and their families.
I believe that none of us in this room today got to where we are today without some support from others.
Which is why I believe that all of us – government, the private sector, non-profits, foundations, and individuals – play a role in creating the opportunity for success in school and in life for our children, and a role to play in creating the opportunity for self-sufficiency and independence for our friends and neighbors.
In short, I believe that each and every one of you here today has the power to make a difference in the lives of Oregonians today – and our state’s future.
Earning a living wage job is about more than just the salary a person brings home each day. It’s also about the affordability of the basic things we all need to live and be productive members of society – like transportation to get to work, nutritious food to stay healthy – and safe, stable and affordable housing.
It’s no secret to anyone in this room that Oregon’s wages have not kept up with the cost of housing.
The cost of housing is the single greatest expense for most households.
And, unfortunately, a growing number of Oregonians – whether they own their homes or rent them – are defined as “cost burdened”, which means that they are paying more than 35 percent of their income toward housing costs.
As compared to families at the same income level – with lower housing costs –families who pay too much for housing are more likely to be hungry or lack health insurance.
And in turn are less likely to be productive at work and their children have more challenges in school.
For some of our lowest income families – many working and raising young children – the squeeze of high housing, transportation, and energy costs can sometimes push them into homelessness.
Like our hunger and poverty statistics, which show the disproportionate impacts on children, people of color, and our rural communities – the statistics about homelessness are equally alarming:
Children are estimated to represent 39 percent of our homeless population. Approximately one half the people who are homeless are African Americans, and 44 percent – that’s right, 44 percent – of people who are homeless have jobs.
And this struggle to find affordable housing is affecting more and more of our middle-income working families – which also effects our workforce and economy.
Local governments and businesses across the state – from Manzanita, to Bend, to Medford – are reporting challenges recruiting and retaining their workforce due to the lack of affordable housing options.
More and more of our police officers, teachers, nurses – people who help keep our communities together – are forced to commute long-distances because they cannot afford to live in the communities in which they work.
This dynamic has negative consequences not just for those workers and their families – but for our economy, education, health and safety, and our overall quality of life.
In short – it is in our collective best interest to meet the housing needs of Oregonians.
Whether you’re here today because you care about economic development and are looking for a good investment – or because you care about meeting the needs of the most vulnerable among us – each has a direct relationship to the issue of affordable housing.
And affordable housing has a direct relationship to the issue of hunger as an income problem – and to our efforts to solve it.
This legislative session, we are in a better position than ever before to make a difference in the issue of hunger and the lives of millions of Oregonian by investing in a critical programs ranging from economic development, to health care, to affordable housing.
I want everyone in this room to know that I am committed to securing more resources – this legislative session – to meet the critical affordable housing needs of the people of this state.
My recommended budget started this conversation with an investment of more than $16 million to add approximately 150 units of supported housing for individuals and families experiencing homelessness.
I also proposed an additional investment of more than $8 million to preserve existing rent-assisted housing for the thousands of Oregon seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children living in those units today.
I’ve proposed investing more in our initiatives to end hunger and homelessness – both inside the Housing and Community Services budget and throughout the budgets of other state agencies.
Finally, I also recommended $2 million to guarantee long-term viability of the Housing and Community Services department financing tools, so that the state can continue to provide affordable home-ownership and rental housing opportunities for Oregonians.
These investments are critical to our state’s ability to meet the growing challenge of housing affordability for Oregonians.
But like the successes we’ve seen so far in the fight against hunger, our success depends on the partnerships our state agencies develop with each other, and with all of you – the business community, local governments, non-profits, and advocates.
That’s why I was so excited to see that the legislature recognized the critical nature of the investments my budget made in affordable housing – and – in addition – built on that foundation by adopting the Housing Alliance’s proposal to dedicate an increase in Oregon’s document recording fee to more affordable housing.
I’m aware that in recent weeks, new challenges have emerged in the legislative process with that proposal through the legislative process.
But like so many of you, I remain optimistic that the commitments that have been made to support the Housing Alliance proposal will withstand those challenges.
With your support – we can send a message to the legislature that affordable housing isn’t a partisan issue.
Investments in affordable housing are investments that Republicans and Democrats alike can champion as investments in our economy – investments in our communities – and investments in the working families of this great state.
You know this morning, as I was grocery shopping with Christina on my food stamp budget for the week, I was reminded that even though I might be a little hungrier this week because I’m eating less – I get to go home every night to a warm house.
And in truth, I am fortunate enough that I don’t have to worry about choosing whether to pay this month’s rent, utility bill, or buying food for my family.
At the same time, I was reminded that thousands of working Oregonians do have to live with that worry on a daily basis.
And so, I challenge all of you to consider taking the food stamp challenge – if not this week, than maybe another one – and put yourselves at least part-way in the shoes of a family struggling to make ends meet.
Challenge your friends and neighbors to do the same – or just have a conversation with them about what it means to be hungry in Oregon.
Help them to understand that hunger is an income problem – that most Oregonians who are hungry are also working, but aren’t making enough to afford the basics that most of us take for granted.
The progress we’ve made on the hunger issue these last four years has proven that when Oregonians know that their neighbors are hungry and understand why that is, they will take action.
Just by being here today, by your commitment to building a better future for Oregon – you, too, are taking action in the fight against hunger.
And for that I say, thank you.
Thank you very much.
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