Commentary
By Marilyn Kennelly and Jody Christensen

Yamhill County’s 10-year plan to end homelessness has triggered interesting conversations around the county. People who live paycheck-to-paycheck and experience one medical emergency, job loss or eviction notice can find themselves without a home. Steadily growing numbers of the working poor make minimum wage or work temporary jobs.

What does it cost for families to thrive, versus survive, in Yamhill County?

The Commission on Children & Families defines a living wage as providing the minimum amount of food and shelter for a person or family to get by. This means no one goes to bed hungry and there is some basic level of health care — but absolutely no extras. These people do not have retirement accounts, investments or mortgages, and they do not qualify for any type of loan.

The recently released Self Sufficiency Standard for Oregon tries to define the cost of each basic need and allows each cost to change at its own rate. The result is a measure that is neither lavish nor so low that it is insufficient to adequately provide for a family. Remember, no frills here. So how much do families living in Yamhill County need to be financially self-sufficient?

Let’s see what the “Yamhill” family — Mom, Dad, a school-age son and a preschool daughter — need to earn to continue living in Yamhill County.

Each month, the Yamhills face costs for housing, food, child care, transportation, health care, taxes and a category called “other” that lumps together other expenses from clothing to cleaning supplies. While trying to balance the budget, the family tries to find the cheapest place possible to rent, uses food stamps and sometimes the food bank, applies for a discount on child care, drives a car that barely runs and looks for a job that has a health care program and, even better, contributes some portion of the premiums.

Meals for the Yamhills are based on a formula of the most filling for the least cost, regardless of nutritional value. The Yamhill’s budget doesn’t allow for extras such as recreation, entertainment, savings or debt repayment. That would require a higher hourly wage. To get the basics for the Yamhill family, both Mom and Dad have to be working full time, each making a minimum wage of $10.83 an hour for a combined take-home income of $41,587. If they became a one-parent family, the hourly wage for that parent must jump to $15.91 an hour.

The Oregon Employment Department reports that, in 2007, when combining all industries, the average annual wage for Yamhill County was $33,915; the average hourly rate was $16.31. This is the average of all wages, not what the average person makes. In 2007, seven percent of working Oregon residents made less than $8 an hour. Although statistics are not available separately for our county, there’s no reason to think we don’t have a comparable situation.

It’s no wonder that those working at minimum wage find it hard to make ends meet.

We find it’s more expensive to live in our mainly rural county; only five other Oregon counties see higher costs for the basics.

What does that mean to economic development? Simply, it means we need better paying jobs to give our citizens hope for prosperity.

To obtain higher pay, we need a workforce that is trained in skills that qualify for higher paying positions. We can’t expect companies to pay employees more just because they need it. Value-added education and training opportunities will justify higher paying jobs.

The McMinnville Economic Development Partnership is seeking resources to strengthen the workforce, improve its quality, promote upward mobility and offer higher quality employment opportunities.

The education community, the regional Workforce Investment Act Board and the Enterprise for Employment & Education are working on a number of initiatives:

• Local high schools offer career pathway programs to help young people see that higher paying job opportunities exist in fields such as manufacturing, engineering, agriculture and finance.

• Arbor Education and Training, a youth opportunity program, is designed to mentor at-risk youth.

• The Enterprise for Employment and Education Assessment is championing training initiatives such as the Career Readiness Certification, BIZConnect, “lean” manufacturing consortiums and the Skills To Compete campaign.

• Chemeketa Community College offers a range of certifications, customized training and associate degrees right here in our county.

Creating a place where quality of life extends to every citizen is a lofty goal, to be sure.

But at least, the mission of ending homelessness aims to give people the opportunity to make changes in their lives. The Commission on Families & Children and McMinnville Economic Development Partner-ship ask you to help us find options that will provide employment opportunities for Yamhill County citizens for generations to come.

Community meetings, all 6:30-8:30
Oct. 30: West Valley Fire Hall, Willamina
Nov. 3: Housing Authority Building, 135 N.E. Dunn Place, McMinnville
Nov. 6: Yamhill-Carlton High School Cafeteria, 275 N. Maple, Yamhill
Nov. 10: Dayton City Hall Annex, 416 Ferry St.
Nov. 13: Newberg Senior Center, 101 W. Foothills Drive
More information: Jody Christensen at info@McMinnvilleEDP.com
Draft plan to end homelessness: www.co.yamhill.or.wus

Guest writer Jody Christensen is executive director of the McMinnville Economic Development Partnership, which provides professional leadership development programs and resources to promote sustainable economic vitality in the city. She has received extensive executive training in economic development.training in economic development.