ACCESS says Jackson County renters are "cost-burdened"

JACKSON COUNTY, Ore.– The results of the ACCESS Community Needs Assessment have been released.

It identified the lack of affordable housing in Jackson County as a critical issue.

The assessment found that half of renters in the county are cost-burdened, meaning they are paying 30 to 49% of their income for housing costs.

It also found Jackson County residents were more likely to be cost burdened than state and national averages.

Operations Director Christine Gleason said, “to hear it in the voices from the folks in the community and hear their struggles, I don’t want to say validated it and sound like we thought that we got it right, it’s not that but, it was a little bit of we read it right, we are tracking in the right direction.”

Gleason said ACCESS sends out the needs assessment to a number of organizations in the area to help put a comprehensive plan together to address the issues.

She said for the next assessment ACCESS wants to hold more meetings to make sure every community in Jackson County is represented.