“Ridiculously impossible.”
That’s the sentiment from a native Sequim resident on the prospects of affording rent in his/her hometown.
“If you’re a person of working age it feels impossible to afford rent anywhere in Sequim based on the jobs available, and the prerequisites for rentals,” the person wrote in a text to the Clallam County Economic Development Council during this week’s Coffee with Colleen segment.
“I’ve lived in Sequim my entire life, so I am fully Sequim-educated on the struggles for working-class citizens.”
And that in a nutshell summarizes some sentiments from an informal survey of 508 people the EDC canvassed in October and November. The goal was to gauge the sentiments of county citizens on the struggles they face in their day-to-day lives.
Their top, overall concern? Finding suitable housing that is affordable to rent or own.
“We really paid most attention to those that were employed in the county, and hands down, the most serious concern for individuals who live and work in Clallam County is finding suitable housing,” said Ted Hennessy, who works for the EDC on countywide economic strategy.
“It was clearly evident that this is the most significant challenge that working people in the county are facing right now.”
“Access to quality healthcare” landed at No. 2 on the list of concerns, and “finding a job that will allow me to meet my financial obligations” finished third.
“There were other issues that came up, but these three tended to be the top three in most of the overarching groups,” Hennessy said.
Survey participants, who completed their questionnaires at a local grocery store, had these other concerns from which to choose: “access to public transportation;” “reliable access to high-speed internet;” “paying local and state taxes;” “finding affordable healthcare;” “other — please tell us;” and “I do not face any significant challenges living and working in Clallam County.”
According to Dan Underwood, who is with Olympus Economic Consulting, the EDC went out of its way to ensure a well- balanced, impartial, representative survey that would reflect the true concerns of county residents.
“We actually talked to the people whose lives we (EDC) are trying to make better by improving the quality of the local economy,” he said. “And that would be people who work for a living.”
“One of the real challenges,” Underwood added, “is how do you go about getting a representative sample so we’re not hearing from a select group of people whose views may not be representative of the general population?
Visit a grocery store.
“In thinking that over, we recognized the just about everybody in Clallam County uses the grocery store, and that ought to be a good way to get a random sample,”Underwood said.
“We probably got about the most representative sample of working folks living here in CC, and we certainly made some discoveries.”
Among those discoveries was that just about all participants voiced some concerns over their lives in Clallam County, though retirees, self-employed and remote workers seemed to fare better than the other groups surveyed.
“They (those not in the labor market with retirees the most prevalent) are the best off in the county,” Hennessy said based on the survey responses.
“As far a financial security, housing security goes, they are doing better than all of the other groups in those general categories.”
On the other end of the scale, those seeking employment were most vulnerable to unfavorable factors such as finding affordable housing.
“Obviously housing is expensive here, and if you don’t have a job it’s a huge challenge for you,”Hennessy said. “And then obviously finding a job that will allow them to meet their financial obligations is difficult.”
And that’s where a little bit of help from the EDC enters the picture.
The council’s goals after all, said Executive Director Colleen McAleer — who offers her virtual Coffee with Colleen episodes with guests every Wednesday — reflect the EDC’s desire to help people improve their economic quality of life.
That means targeting businesses with a median wage that exceeds the county’s average mean wage and offering full-time employment with benefits.
It helps, too, when people and institutions encourage innovation and development.
Said Clallam County Commission Chair Mark Ozias, who participated in McAleer’s segment Wednesday: “Among the things that this research underscores for me is how important it is that we focus on and being intentional about leadership development support for entrepreneurs, business development skills, and supporting the people in our community who have great ideas, have passion and who need a little bit of support.”
But even with support, workers in Clallam County still face challenges.
“The takeaway is that people who work for a living — especially people who work in the private sector — they’re struggling to get by,” Underwood said.
”Meeting their daily needs is a struggle.”
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Paul Dunn can be reached at reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at paul.dunn@soundpublishing.com.
