Gov.-elect Tina Kotek launched a 36-county listening tour in Yamhill County on Wednesday, hearing from leaders at a community clinic, preschool and local government office that they need money, trained workers and more homes.
Kotek鈥檚 visit to McMinnville was the first of a planned statewide tour over the next year, focused on improving the state鈥檚 handling of behavioral health, education and housing. She plans to visit Douglas County by mid-January.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always good to be reminded how much energy and expertise there is at the local level,鈥� Kotek said. 鈥淭hey know what they need. And I knew that folks in Yamhill County were working well together, but I鈥檓 still impressed by the level of coordination and collaboration. Everybody鈥檚 working together.鈥�
Community leaders in Yamhill County described the same stresses that affect communities throughout Oregon. There aren鈥檛 enough people working in behavioral health care or early childhood education to meet the community鈥檚 needs. And there aren鈥檛 enough homes, especially affordable homes, to house the people already in the county, let alone the additional workers needed.
These problems don鈥檛 have quick fixes, as it takes time to train educators or health professionals and build new homes. The state also faces a nearly $560 million funding gap, according to legislative budget analysts, meaning state officials need to either cut budgets or find a way to bring in more money.
Kotek said she鈥檚 analyzing ways to save money in the existing budget, and she doesn鈥檛 intend to introduce many new programs in the two-year budget proposal she鈥檒l send to the Legislature by Feb. 1.
鈥淲hen people are coming in with brand new ideas, I鈥檓 asking a lot of questions,鈥� she said. 鈥淒o we really need this? Is this the priority? Because if you do this, it takes up the capacity of the agencies to do it; it takes new dollars we might have to take from somewhere else.鈥�
Kotek started her day at the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center鈥檚 McMinnville clinic. The center, named for a 6-year-old daughter of migrant farmworkers who died of an untreated infected cut on her foot in 1975, serves nearly 52,000 patients annually in Yamhill and Washington counties.
The center uses social care navigators, people who work in clinics and help patients access resources. Many of those workers received medical care at Virginia Garcia as children and chose to work there as adults, but they can鈥檛 advance in their careers without going back to school to obtain a higher degree.
The center also partners with Pacific University, meaning faculty will bring students to work in community health centers. It鈥檚 helpful to have students working, Chief Medical Officer Laura Byerly said, but those students often end up working elsewhere after graduation because they need higher-paying jobs to repay their student loans.
Byerly said state incentives, such as loan repayment, that could encourage people to work at community health centers would help with staffing.
New money provided by Measure 110, the voter-approved 2020 law that decriminalized possession of small amounts of illicit drugs and allocated millions of dollars to increasing addiction services, made it possible to hire behavioral health workers, said Kimberly Wilcox, the center鈥檚 behavioral and mental health clinical director, but it鈥檚 hard to fill those open positions. Only about half of the center鈥檚 positions are filled, and it can sometimes go a month without receiving applications.
Virginia Garcia wants to hire providers who are bilingual and people of color, which further shrinks the pool of applicants. That鈥檚 especially true in its rural centers in Newberg and McMinnville, she said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to us to really be able to hire and have working for us people who look like and speak like our patients,鈥� she said.
The organization employs one psychiatric nurse practitioner in Washington County, but getting services for people with severe mental illness who need psychiatric care can take months. Primary care providers can help manage psychiatric medication, Byerly said, but they鈥檙e not well-trained in that kind of care and it takes away from being able to provide services.
鈥淭he more specialty care of any kind you drive into primary care, the number of people you can do primary care for decreases,鈥� Byerly said. 鈥淭he more people you take who need more than three visits per year, the less people you can take care of.鈥�
At the Head Start of Yamhill County later on Wednesday, Kotek heard how a shortage of early childhood educators makes it difficult to serve children. The facility, which serves children from birth to age 5, has enough funding for 17 classes, but it only has the staff for 12, Executive Director Suey Linzmeier said.
Linzmeier said early childhood providers are also dealing with unexpected repercussions of the COVID pandemic. Playgrounds closed for months early in the pandemic, and some children showed up at Head Start not knowing how to use equipment like slides. Educators of young children are spending more time working on motor skills than they did with pre-pandemic classes.
And in a meeting with local government leaders and housing providers, Kotek heard about the housing crisis that affects every portion of the state. Oregon has about 110,000 fewer homes than necessary to house the state鈥檚 current residents, and the state population is expected to continue growing.
The city of McMinnville plans to seek about $10 million in state funding during the next legislative session for housing, including $1.3 million as part of a plan proposed by the Oregon Mayors Association. That request is based on a per capita amount of $40 per city resident, costing the state more than $123 million annually.
Kotek said she鈥檚 skeptical of the per capita allocations, as communities have different needs and some are more prepared than others to use new state funding. For instance, Yamhill County in 2020 received $1.5 million to open two navigation centers for the unhoused, which include shelter beds and access to basic needs such as showers, food and laundry, because the county could quickly provide those services.
McMinnville Community Development Director Heather Richards said cities including McMinnville and Newberg fall into cracks when it comes to qualifying for some housing grants. They鈥檙e too big for rural programs, which cap out at populations of 25,000, but they鈥檙e not big enough to be competitive with larger cities.
The city will again seek a pilot project or statewide policy change for inclusionary zoning. State law now permits cities, including Portland, to require that new apartment buildings with 20 or more units set rents at prices affordable for families making less than 80% of the median income in the area.
That law is too narrow for smaller cities like McMinnville, where developers are more likely to build apartment complexes of several buildings with fewer units per building, Richards said.
鈥淒evelopers are building for higher-income households,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 where their margins are.鈥�
Alexandra Hendgen, executive director of the Yamhill Community Action Partnership, said recent state funding through Project Turnkey, a program Kotek spearheaded to turn unused motels and other spaces into homeless shelters, has helped. Local communities have programs in place to help people get into shelters and back on their feet, she said, but they need space.
鈥淕ive us a space, this community can do it,鈥� Hendgen said.
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