How Lincoln County residents are approaching Oregon’s housing crisis

The entire state of Oregon is facing a housing crisis, and the coast — where second homes and short-term rentals can skew the market — is no exception. “Think Out Loud” traveled to Lincoln County recently to hear about solutions.

We had a series of conversations about different approaches residents and organizations are taking to create more units, more affordability and more stability so that existing homeowners can stay in their homes.

We started in Newport, where Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center is putting the finishing touches on a new apartment complex. When it’s done, the building will house visiting researchers and students.

Bob Cowen recently retired as the director of the center. He took us on a tour of the building and talked about the need for workforce housing in Lincoln County.

We then traveled to the Siletz reservation, about 20 minutes inland from Newport. The tribe’s “Home of Your Own” program is meant to transition renters into homeownership.

Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Siletz Tribal Housing Department. Gail and Kevin Barker bought a home through the program about a decade ago. They joined us to talk about some of the challenges Native American communities face in finding and keeping housing.

We ended back in Newport at Surfside Village, a manufactured home park just a few blocks from Nye Beach.

Residents of the 55+ community recently banded together to form a co-op, meaning they now collectively own the land beneath their homes, as well as the houses themselves.

Terry McCoy is the secretary of the new co-op board. She took us on a tour of the park and introduced us to some of her neighbors.

We caught Bonnie Good and Tom Vincent watering the plants and reading in the garden, respectively. The couple has lived at Surfside Village for 25 years. We also spoke with 87-year-old Veloris Kaufmann in the airy corner unit she’s lived in for almost 15 years, and ended at the home of Ed Cameron. He’s the park’s oldest resident at 94 years old.

They all talked with us about the need for affordable housing on the coast, and the stability the new co-op model affords them.

Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.

Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. The entire state of Oregon is facing a housing crisis, and the coast – where second homes and short-term rentals can skew the market – is no exception. We’re going to spend the hour today talking about some solutions.

We recently went to Lincoln County to hear about three different approaches folks are taking to create more units, more affordability and more stability so existing homeowners can stay in their homes.

We started in Newport, where Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center is putting the finishing touches on a new apartment complex. When it’s done, it’ll house visiting researchers and students.

We met up with Bob Cowen. This was in mid-June, when he was about to retire as a director of the center. He gave us a tour of the construction site in South Newport where the nearly finished apartment building stood among the trees. I asked him why a marine science center needs housing.

Bob Cowen: The Hatfield Marine Science Center is an institution that has, overall, about 400-450 people – that’s not counting the students that come through. So we have both university and different state and federal agencies that have their researchers at Hatfield. Often, there are visitors. There are visiting scientists that come in, there are meetings. So we have need of rooms if they’re here for a week, they’re here for two days, they can be here for a month. So the need for professional housing, and not just putting it into the rest of the community when we have a housing shortage, was important.

We also have seasonally, particularly during the summer, lots of classes because we’re a marine lab, we’re down near the coast. So with all those students coming in, particularly at the height of the tourist season, again, we couldn’t just throw them into the mix of housing shortage. So we made a promise when we were building our new building at the lab, where we expected growth to be, that we were not going to bring more people in and contribute to that shortage.

Also, the reason we’re here, we’re elevated a little bit. We’re at about, I think 80-85 feet above sea level. And when we were building this other building, we also made the promise that we would not be putting people unnecessarily in tsunami danger.

Miller: So we’re above the inundation zone here?

Cowen: We’re above the inundation zone. We work in it, but we’re awake, we’re alert, and we have to be down near the water. We have running seawater through our buildings and everything. But it wasn’t necessary to do that for where people are sleeping.

Miller: But is that a little bit of a challenge, to find space, buildable space, that’s not too far from the actual center, that is above the inundation zone?

Cowen: It was very challenging, and that was one of the really nice things about this spot because we’re just a straight shot down to the center. It’s an easy bike ride or a walk, we’ll also have a rotating bus that will come through and help bring people around.

Miller: So you said that as part of the deal of your expansion, or as part of the agreement you made, you didn’t want to exacerbate the existing housing crunch in this area. What is the housing shortage like here right now?

Cowen: It’s pretty much along the whole coast, but certainly here in Newport, there’s a definite shortage of affordable and workforce housing, even in low-income housing as well. The city and the county are working hard to try to ameliorate that. They have different housing projects, but this building can sleep probably 150 people. And the housing that would be available for someone coming in for a week, a month or two months would be taking rental housing out of other areas. So this would really help minimize our impact on that.

Miller: Has the housing shortage affected your ability to retain people or recruit people?

Cowen: Yes, that’s a really good question. When I first got here, it was clear that every time we tried to hire someone, a professional, they were having a hard time finding a place. They still do.

But the need for something that was nearby, without it being there, was driving some of our applicants either to go look for other jobs or to live much further away. And if they live further away, it’s a little harder for them to be part of the community, and unnecessarily traveling and things like that. It has been improved, it’s still a long way to go.

Miller: So what were the factors you considered when you were figuring out the design of this building?

Cowen: Well, the first thing we had to think about was the type of occupant and the duration. When we went through a couple of iterations of earlier designs on this building, we worked with our Oregon State University housing and dining group, and their mode is basically freshman housing.

Miller: Meaning, a small bath, bed …

Cowen: Yeah, a bed and a bath, and maybe not even a bathroom in the room.

Miller:… a shared bathroom.

Cowen: In a dorm situation, they also have a dining environment. We don’t have a dining hall, so we had to have kitchens of some sort in every room. And our typical occupant is not a freshman. Most of them are gonna be professionals. Neither you nor I want to go and rent a room or be in a room with just four other beds in it.

So we had to think about that and we had to be able to house people, either for a short time for very quick turnover, but also, I could see some of our graduate students or postdocs living here for a year or two at a time. So it had to be sufficiently comfortable, large enough, not so large that we couldn’t afford to build the rooms. Prices have to be reasonable.But we have three different size studios and then we also have a couple two-bedroom apartments in here.

Miller: Can we look inside?

Cowen: Yep, sure can.

Miller [narrating]: Bob took us on a tour of the building. We started in a small unit.

Cowen: OK, so this is one of the smallest studios. We’ll have either a king size bed in here or it could be split into twins. There’ll be a kitchen there. There’s a bathroom. So again, this is the small studio. The next size is about 4 feet longer, which really makes a big difference. And then on the upper floor, we have those that have lofts in them.

Miller: And are these gonna be subsidized or market rate? I mean, how much are people gonna spend for these?

Cowen: I don’t know the actual amount. It will be market rate or slightly subsidized. Yeah, we have to be aware that we’re not undercutting our community on pricing, but we’re also not open to just the general public to come in here and use our facility.

Miller: It’s a balancing act.

Cowen: Yeah.

Miller [narrating]: From the studio, Bob took us to a larger space.

Cowen: This is gonna be a community room, we’ll have tables, we have TVs in here. We’re at that point of our budget where we’re seeing if there’s any contingency funds left over. So if there are, can we build that gazebo? What I really would like to have is a volleyball court here. Every marine lab has a volleyball court, so we have to have one.

Miller: That’s a thing?

Cowen: It is a thing. [Laughter] And we wanna have things here as well as activities down at the lab, particularly for students, so their only source of activity isn’t a bar. We want to have lots of other things to do here.

Miller: So, it’s June right now. When are you thinking people are gonna be able to move in?

Cowen: We’re hoping that we’ll be able to take ownership of the building at the end of August, very early September, and that’ll have us ... our term starts at the end of September, so we’ll be able to move students in at that point, and anyone else.

Miller: That’s pretty soon. I mean, we’re still in a very active construction zone even though the bones are all done. You have only a few months and students’ll be living here.

Cowen: Exactly. It’s sort of crazy here.

Miller: What’s it been like to be the director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center at a time when there have been such massive, unprecedented federal cuts to research?

Cowen: Yes, that has been, actually, a real challenge. At Hatfield, we’ve got five different state and federal agencies, and we have seen already probably 10%, maybe 15% percent of the agency personnel have left the jobs, either quasi-forced into early retirement or came in in the probationary state.

Some of these cuts have really demoralized the community, so one of the things that I’ve been doing as director is just trying to keep people informed. We’re working with our federal legislators to try and help support, and get them to understand the role that all these people are playing. It’s not just basic science that someone doesn’t understand. Much of the work, most of the work, has very significant economic impacts on the fishing community, on the coastal environment – and they are immediate.

Miller: What role does the Hatfield Center play, just in the regional economy? I mean, if 10%-15% percent of people who work for the center are no longer working – and that’s a big chunk, already – what impact does that have regionally?

Cowen: Well, it’s large. I mean, Hatfield, just in the number of people and the research that we conduct, the dollar estimate that we conduct, it’s about $40 to $60 million a year. And then with typical multipliers, when you’re trying to figure out what the economic impact is, it’s like three times that. So locally and along the coast, we have probably at least $100, $150, maybe even $200 million impact of things. And when you take a percentage away from that, just in terms of the people, their financial contribution to the community … these people are also part of our community. They’re the coaches of our soccer teams. They’re just wonderful people and it’s really hard to see this.

Miller: Have some of them left? I mean, because I imagine if you’re doing such a specialized job and you’re at the coast for a reason, are there other jobs for those highly trained people?

Cowen: Not here at all, not on the coast. And try and think of yourself, can you think of any sort of business that is looking for someone that knows how to collect fisheries data? That’s a hard one. These people, their skills are transferable. They’re very quantitative, they know how to do analysis, they know how to write, they know how to research. They will adapt, but their passion is doing this. They dedicated their education to being able to do this, so that’s just not a good situation, particularly when you know these people personally.

Miller: Bob, thank you.

Cowen: Yeah, pleasure.

Miller [narrating]: That was Bob Cowen, who recently retired as the director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center. He gave us a tour of the new apartment building the center is constructing in Newport.

We’re going to take you to the town of Siletz now. It’s about 20 minutes inland from Newport. We went there to talk about the “Home of Your Own” program. It’s run by the Siletz Tribal Housing Department. It’s meant to help people transition from renting into home ownership.

Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Tribal Housing Department. We sat down with her, in addition to Gail and Kevin Barker. They bought a home through this program about a decade ago. I had Gail describe their home.

Gail Barker: So, it’s on a little urban lot and the house is at 1,800 square feet, with four bedrooms, two baths. It has an open concept living room, kitchen with a laundry room that connects to a two car garage. It has a 9-foot ceiling in most of the house and a 15-foot vaulted ceiling with big windows and lots of light.

Miller: Kevin, what went through your mind the first time you saw it?

Kevin Barker: It was nice because it was modern, and the house that we were renting was like a ‘60s house that had no insulation and it was pretty … I liked it, but it wasn’t good for a family, so this was gonna be great.

Miller: Gail, do you remember the first time you took a tour of it?

G. Barker: Oh yes, we didn’t actually know until the day before that we were going to be picked to be able to have the option of purchasing the home, so it was quite a shock. We’d driven by the neighborhood, but we hadn’t been inside, and when we got in there and – Jessica was her name – she’s like, “OK, guys, well, we’d like to offer you this home.” And honestly, I never thought it would happen and I was brought to tears.

Miller: Sami Jo, can you explain how the “Home of Your Own” program works?

Sami Jo Difuntorum: Well, I can. So, the way that the program is designed, we wrote down the construction cost by about 30% to make it affordable for people up to 80% of median income. When we qualify people, they go into a lease for three years, and at the end of three years it converts to a standard mortgage. I believe it’s 25 years and we carry the note at 3%, fixed.

Miller: Three percent, no matter what’s happening in the market …

Difuntorum: That is correct.

Miller: … in recent years, it’s 6%, 7%, but it’s 3%?

Difuntorum: It is, and we don’t require a down payment. We consider living there for three years as a renter down payment enough. No, it’s a fixed price and it’s meant to be affordable and achievable for folks.

When we qualify people to go into the rental program, basically, we don’t use traditional credit markers. So we don’t consider student loan debt, medical debt, child support. It isn’t really our interest in whether somebody pays their cell phone bill. What we want to know is that this family is committed to keeping shelter for their family. That’s what matters. So we get to do things a little bit differently in qualifying tribal families. At the end of three years, it converts to a mortgage … and there you go, we have homeowners.

Miller: Kevin, how important was owning a home to you 10 years ago, which is when you first moved in, or 12, 15, 20 years ago?

K. Barker: It really wasn’t important to me until I had kids and then I had to have a place to put ‘em. My and Gail’s house, when we first got together, oh, it was like a shack on the river … remember that house in Tidewater? Oh, it was brutal.

G. Barker: It was built in the 1900s. It was on cedar stumps and literally part of the house was falling off, and it did. And then he fixed it because he’s a carpenter. But yes, I literally got pregnant and said, “No, we’re no longer living here, find me a house.”

Miller: And when you said that, did that seem possible at the time?

G. Barker: You know, it was really tough. Me and my husband got married in 2008, the year the economy crashed. Both of us actually had really good paying jobs at the time and both of us lost our positions. So, to keep our vehicles, we moved into the shack at Tidewater. And I don’t know if I’ve forgiven him for that choice still, but that was really the reasoning behind it. It was affordability.

Miller: So what did it mean to you when you were able to become a part of this program?

K. Barker: Oh, it was great and it allowed us to put roots down. We actually had another kid after that because we had room now. We had a four-bedroom house, made our family bigger and it gave us a place to stay. I don’t want to worry about moving. About a year after we moved into the house, I got a job at the Tribe, which made it more convenient because now I live a mile from work.

Miller: And then, as we’re hearing from Sami Jo, after the three years of leasing, of renting, that’s when you could start to actually own the house itself. What was that like?

G. Barker: It was really amazing. They also offered us classes to help us improve our credit, so that it would help to get some of the costs down that come along with mortgage insurance and things like that, and learn more about what it means to do the financing and all the pieces to it. So, that was an advantage to the program as well.

Miller: Kevin, what were some of the aspects of that class that you remember?

K. Barker: A lot of it was, now that you’re a homeowner, who fixes everything? That was actually part of it.

Miller: Is it you, since you …

K. Barker: Well, it’s me. The houses I rented before, I did that anyway, in exchange for lower rent, so it wasn’t really a big deal for me, but there’s a lot of people who’s lived in apartments their whole lives who, when something breaks, it gets fixed. Well, now they were explaining that and telling you, “Well, you’re gonna have to learn how to do that yourself or pay someone to do it.” You’re the homeowner now.

Miller: Sami Jo, how do you measure the success of a program like this?

Difuntorum: Well, this particular program, we’ve had zero foreclosures. Everybody that started out in the program is still in the program, except for people that have left the area. So I think that’s success. But I think the fact that we have a waiting list of people that are fighting to get into the program all the time, so we’re gonna build phase four, probably next year.

So in terms of success in the program, I think the fact that people really want in that program, it’s a nice community. I don’t think there’s any crime in that neighborhood either, is there?

G. Barker: We all have an online connection. We all talk to each other and if one of us hears a noise or sees somebody, we alert all of us in the neighborhood and that really has kept the crime and everything down.

Miller: Do you feel a different sense of connection to your neighbors as homeowners than you did as renters?

G. Barker: Definitely. I definitely do. I feel like we all have an investment in the community around us. And we watch each other’s houses, watch each other’s kids and let each other know that something is good or bad. And it’s nice to be able to, over time, be able to watch other people’s families be successful alongside ours.

Miller: Sami Jo, how do you explain the fact that, in 13 years or so … and no foreclosures, and a lot of homeowners, it’s their first time, I imagine, owning a home. How have you been successful? I mean, as you said, that’s one of the markers of success. Well, what’s the secret?

Difuntorum: Well, for one thing, we don’t use traditional credit scores.

Miller: I can imagine someone saying, then the success is all the more surprising. If these smart actuaries – and maybe smart is, who knows if that’s true or not – but if they have all these hurdles put in place to make it more likely that that people won’t go into foreclosure, and you’re not even using those hurdles, yet you have found a way to have people be able to stay in their own homes.

Difuntorum: Well, I think those hurdles are barriers, sometimes. When we look at credit scores with some of our Native families, something like 50% didn’t have a credit footprint at all, so they would never have made it into a homeownership situation. And one medical situation will wipe out your credit for a lifetime, so does that mean that you’re not going to be a good homeowner or a good community member? It doesn’t. So I think that’s a success.

We do this in a way that makes sense here, instead of using the traditional model. I also wanted to mention that people can, and if you have, went to the private market, and gotten loans, and paid their note off to us, and they pay a bank, probably not as good a terms.

Miller: Can you explain the way this works? My understanding is that homeowners here own their homes, but technically not the land beneath it. Is that right?

Difuntorum: Correct. It’s what’s called tribal trust land. Each land, their home has a lot and they lease that. So they have a mortgage payment and then they have a $100 payment, and along with that we pay for all the trash collection.

Miller: So we’ve been talking about this home ownership program, but my understanding is in this housing office you also run other programs, including ones for people who are renting. What are the other programs that you think are really good models here?

Difuntorum: Oh, gosh, well, I think they’re all good models. They all serve a specific segment of the population. The long-term rental program, for example, your rent is based on your income. So the less income you have, the less rent you pay, and I think in some instances, when you have elders, you want that for them. You want them to be able to live comfortably.

Part of our challenge, or at least what I figured was my challenge, was trying to figure out how to meet the housing needs of people that didn’t live in Siletz and didn’t want to live in Siletz. And I hear this a lot in other places, that the urban Indian housing situation is really hard because tribes don’t always own land in urban places. We partnered with NAYA, probably in the last 10 or 12 years. They had bought some land over in Northeast Portland in the Cully neighborhood. And they had put together all the financing and everything to build this 59-unit subdivision, but they couldn’t do Indian preference, and they really wanted to do that.

Our funding actually requires that it’s used for low-income Native people, so it was a new business model that others aren’t really doing. We came in as an investor and we secured 20 units of housing as affordable for Native people for 25 years. So I think that one’s interesting. I think our workforce housing, we just have a lot going on.

Miller: The housing shortage and housing affordability is something that affects people all over the state. It’s pretty acute on the coast. Do you think that there are specific challenges for Native people in Oregon or on the coast?

Difuntorum: I will say there has historically been a lack of investment in affordable housing for Native people. The only investment, up until recently, that we’ve seen, has been tribes and HUD, but there’s a whole lot of money out there from the state. And what I saw a couple years ago, when we started looking at data, I think it was during the pandemic, was that Native people are represented four times higher in the homeless statistics in the state than any other population that’s counted. So that suggests that it’s not just an affordability issue, there are some other issues.

One of the reasons that we invested in the Portland projects, the tribal people that live up there wanted to live in community with other tribal people. They didn’t just want affordable housing, they wanted to live among other Native people. So yeah, I think there are a lot of challenges for Native people seeking affordable housing.

Miller: Gail, what was the pandemic like for the two of you?

G. Barker: Well, me and my husband at the time had become foster parents, so we became stay-at-home parents. Well, I became a stay at home mother with six kids in the house. And actually it started with, I took my full-time job and then I went down to part-time so that I could stay and be helping with income, but that did not work. So six months later, into the pandemic, I just didn’t have childcare and was missing all the family time, so I ended up stopping working. Then my husband, he worked full time.

Miller: Could you have done that if it weren’t for the amount you were paying in mortgage? That was, I imagine, lower than you could have gotten in most other places you could have gotten in rent or mortgage?

G. Barker: No … it probably would have crushed us, to be honest. Our mortgage is a fraction of what it would be otherwise, so it enabled us to keep our cars, and keep momentum, and balance everything, and get through it.

Miller: Sami Jo, you mentioned HUD, which is, at the federal level, one of the biggest providers of housing funding. What’s it been like to navigate everything coming out of the federal government over the last five-plus months?

Difuntorum: Well, I will say that the Indian Housing Block Grant, it is the third largest federal funding source that tribes receive nationwide. We’ve been fortunate so far. Our funding’s been pretty constant. We have some good champions in Congress. Representative Cole has done a good job at being a champion for us.

Miller: So far, you haven’t lost funding?

Difuntorum: We have not. We’re looking at the ‘26 proposed budget. We saw the president’s budget request, which wasn’t great for anybody. I don’t think we were exclusive, but it is that … it’s a budget request. There is the House of Representatives and the Senate that will figure out what we actually receive, as with any program.

Miller: Sami Jo, Kevin and Gail, thank you very much.

Difuntorum: Oh, thank you so much.

K. Barker: Yeah, thank you for coming.

G. Barker: Thank you.

Miller [narrating]: Sami Jo Difuntorum is the executive director of the Siletz Tribal Housing Department. Kevin and Gail Barker bought a house through the tribe’s “Home of Your Own” program about a decade ago.

We end today at Surfside Village. It’s a manufactured home park in Newport, just a few blocks from Nye Beach. The 55+ community recently became a co-op, meaning the residents now collectively own the land beneath their homes, as well as the houses themselves.

Terry McCoy is the secretary of the new co-op board. She took us on a tour of the park on a beautiful sunny day. I asked her when she moved to Surfside Village.

Terry McCoy: I’ve lived here continuously for about two-and-a-half years, and then before that I kind of bounced in and out a couple times for two years before that.

Miller: What brought you here first?

McCoy: Well, what brought me here first was … I was a travel nurse at the hospital and they had a place for rent here, the place that they leased, the spot they leased. And I lived in an RV.

Miller: So, you already lived in an RV as a traveling nurse, and there was a place here where you could park it, live and work at the hospital.

McCoy: I had come here, actually, and worked at the hospital before, and lived in my RV somewhere else. Then this spot came open, so when I came back for another assignment, I moved in here and I just never left.

Miller: How did you feel about moving to a 55+ community?

McCoy: Well, I was over the age of 60 and I thought, “I’m not old enough to live there!” [Laughter] I think I had some preconceived notions about it, that everybody was just gonna be holed up inside their homes and not interact with other people – and that is not the case. I mean, we’ll get to the co-op part, but it’s actually quite an interactive community and much more so since we became a co-op.

Miller: Am I right, that there was an effort, a decade ago or so, to become a co-op, but it didn’t work?

McCoy: Right. It didn’t work because at the time the asking price was way too high. There just wasn’t any way for them to get the proper financing for it, so they just let it go and some other owners bought it. And then when it came up again, the timing was right, the price was better, we got hooked up with CASA, the Community and Shelter Assistance folks, and NOAH, the Network for Oregon Affordable Housing, who helped us through all the legal stuff and helped us get grants and loans. And the owners were interested enough in selling it to us to become a co-op, rather than just selling it to a developer or whoever.

Miller: Were they local, or was it some big hedge fund? I mean, the fact that they were interested in selling to you makes me think that they had some connection to the community, or am I wrong?

McCoy: No, they’re from the Valley. They’re not a huge company. They have a couple of tiny houses here and I guess they were pretty connected to it.

Miller: An Oregon base as opposed to another U.S. city or something?

McCoy: Absolutely, yeah.

Miller: How did it happen, this next time around, that someone said, “Hey, let’s, let’s try this again, let’s try to buy this land?”

McCoy: There were a couple people who had been here before, when the first time didn’t work. In fact, the person that’s watering her tree, there, would be one of them. And I think when they heard it was gonna be sold again, they said let’s just try it again. So yeah, there were a few people who were very instrumental in getting it started.

We had an interim board of directors, or a pre-acquisition board of directors, and now we have another board of directors. But this lady here, Bonnie Good, and the lady across there, Sandy Blackman, were two people who were on the board who had been here during the first attempt and were really instrumental in getting it set up again.

Miller: Should we say hello?

McCoy: Yes … Bonnie!

Miller: How are you doing?

Bonnie Good: I’m doing great.

Miller: Do you mind if I record you?

B. Good: Not at all. Well, it depends on what I’m gonna say or what you’re gonna ask.

Miller: Well, we were just hearing that you’re one of the people who was here 10 years ago, when the first effort to buy the land fell through, and that you wanted to do it again.

B. Good: Right.

Miller: How are you feeling, now that it went through?

B. Good: Very, very excited.

Miller: You’re part of the ownership of the land you’re standing on.

B. Good: Yeah, believe me, we’re very, very excited about the possibilities and just the whole ... I moved to Oregon in 1974 and I moved to Oregon in Cottage Grove to be a part of a co-op called Cerro Gordo. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that, but they bought a lot of land in Cottage Grove. So I moved here with my daughter from California to be a part of the co-op in 1974. And now, 50 years later, I’m here at the Oregon Coast living in a co-op, so it really is kind of amazing. You know, life is pretty mysterious. You really don’t know how it’s going to unfold.

Miller: How long were you in that co-op in Cottage Grove?

B. Good: I was a part of it for probably about seven years and it sort of morphed into something different. I feel that, as you all know, the time is right for this kind of a living situation, more than ever before, especially here in Newport where property is so expensive and so difficult for people to find a place to live. Even to rent is really difficult.

So yeah, we worked really hard to make this happen. We have a wonderful new board that … I was just reading the minutes of all the things they’re doing. I’m just so proud of them and so happy to be a part of it, really, at this point in my life.

Miller: Do you mind if I ask how old you are?

B. Good: Eighty-one.

Miller: And you’ve been here for more than 10 years?

B. Good: We’ve been here for 25.

Miller: So you had 25 years where you paid rent on the land and, what, six months of paying essentially a mortgage, I guess – although a co-op calls it something different. How does it feel different? Does it feel different?

B. Good: It feels more secure, because somebody can’t come in and buy up this land. We’re two blocks from the beach. This is primo, primo property, and that was always our greatest fear, that someone would come in here and we’d all move. It happens so often in California. Ten years ago, there was an onslaught of all that happening. So I would say the difference is it just feels more secure now. It’s a wonderful opportunity.

Miller: Did you think of yourself as a hippie in the ‘60s and ‘70s?

B. Good: Yeah, I’m proud to say I thought of myself … Well, you know, I don’t know if “hippie” quite fits the mark, but I’m an alternative thinker, definitely that. And so is my partner Tom who’s back here reading a book on quantum something, so yeah … [Laughs]

Miller: Someone has just walked out from the side of your house. I assume it’s Tom. I hope it is.

I heard you were just reading a book about quantum something or other. [Laughter]

Tom Vincent: I’ve read a number of things about quantum physics.

Miller: Can I ask you a more mundane question?

Vincent: Sure.

Miller: Has your life changed since you became an owner of the land that you live on?

Vincent: Absolutely. I mean, the threat of having the land sold from underneath us, which I now call carnivore capitalism, is no longer here. As long as we pay our mortgage, pay our rent, pay our mortgage, everything’s gonna be just fine. And I would say it’s moved me from a survival level to a more compassionate level, that there were people, CASA, that were able to put us into this position, and that there are good people out there that are trying to move the world forward and we’re a product of it.

Miller: That’s interesting, from survival to compassion, meaning you feel like you have more compassion for other people in the world because you’ve been the recipient of this.

Vincent: Absolutely, yeah.

Miller: How many homes are there here?

Vincent: Thirty-three.

Miller: Do you feel like there’s a different sense of community among the 33 homes here or the residents here?

Vincent: It’s interesting that you mentioned that because I’ve seen a change in the way people interact. I mean, they’re not coming out and saying, “oh, it’s all so wonderful,” but their behavior speaks to the fact that there’s gratitude, that more people are participating. And the more people who participate, the more other people want to participate and it’s gaining momentum. It’s a remarkable experiment, by simply giving people the opportunity to be responsible for their lives in a more holistic way.

Bonn said it very well. I’ll say the same thing. It’s given us a sense of security that we didn’t have before. There was always this, “what if?” And now it’s, “What are we gonna do with this? How good can we make this?”

Miller: Thank you very much.

Vincent: Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you for showing up.

Miller [narrating]: Terry then took us to visit Veloris Kaufmann, who is 87. She lives in a quiet corner of the park with a beautiful garden and a bright, airy living room where we sat to talk.

Miller: How long have you lived in this house?

Veloris Kaufmann: Thirteen, fourteen years.

Miller: What first brought you here?

Kaufmann: Well, my daughter passed away. And I needed something to do. And my girlfriend said, “Why don’t you come over to the trailer court and get a place over there?” And I never dreamed I’d live in a trailer court.

Miller: Why not?

Kaufmann: Well, I always thought they were kind of trashy, back in the ‘50s and ‘60s. So I came and looked and I kind of liked this place because it had your own site, it was private and I love living here. I wasn’t so sure about being a co-op.

Miller: Really, why not?

Kaufmann: Well, I didn’t know if we had people who could pull it off.

Miller: What about you? Did you think you could pull it off?

Kaufmann: No.

Miller: Well, when you say “it,” what do you mean?

Kaufmann: Well, there has to be somebody who’s in charge and takes care of everything. And then all of a sudden some pretty good people stepped forward, so I joined.

Miller: And what have you noticed? I mean, how has it gone so far?

Kaufmann: Pretty good. I mean, they seem to take care of things, and are organized, kind, caring and loving people.

Miller: So they won you over.

Kaufmann: Yeah, they did. [Laughs]

Miller: Does it feel any different, your day-to-day life?

Kaufmann: No.

Miller: No, it doesn’t … One thing we’ve heard is that it’s given some residents here, some of your neighbors, more of a sense of security, that they had thought in the past that the owners could just sell and they could have to move.

Kaufmann: Oh, yeah.

Miller: But you didn’t have that fear in the past?

Kaufmann: I didn’t have that fear, no. I just figured if I didn’t like it, I’d move.

Miller: But now you do like it and you don’t want to move.

Kaufmann: No.

Miller: How would you describe the community around here, the neighborhood of this co-op?

Kaufmann: Oh, I think it’s fine. It’s friendly. Everybody’s respectful and yeah, I like it here. But I didn’t want to be a co-op at first … proved myself wrong. [Laughs]

Miller: It’s good to be open minded, when circumstances change.

Kaufmann: It turned out well.

Miller: Well, it was great to meet you. Thank you.

Kaufmann: Thank you.

Miller: You’re the first Veloris I think I’ve ever talked to.

Kaufmann: I’ve never met another Veloris in my whole life.

Miller: Have you, when you’ve introduced yourself over the years, do folks assume you were saying “Dolores?”

Kaufmann: Yes.

Miller: Did you say, “No, Veloris with a ‘V’?” How many times have you said that in your life, do you think?

Kaufmann: Oh, probably a million! [Laughter]

Miller: Well, thank you very much.

Kaufmann: You’re welcome.

Miller [narrating]: Our final stop was at the home of Ed Cameron. At 94, he is the oldest resident of Surfside Village. He told us all about his life as a reporter, an editor, a cartoonist and an artist, before recounting how he wound up at Surfside Village.

Ed Cameron: I had been living in one of the many cracker box houses from the ‘30s that used to harbor people from the Valley during the summer. My little cottage was in a group of four on a corner, so we were a community right there and that was lovely until …

Miller: Demolition?

Cameron: There’s a particular word, but I’ll just describe it. It was all bought up and replaced by condos, just sad. That had been gradually happening over the years and it finally got to me. Then I found this place, and like I say, I couldn’t be happier.

Miller: So what went through your mind when you heard about the possibility of forming a co-op, of taking ownership of this land?

Cameron: Well, I was enthusiastic about it because the other option would be to lose this place. I was amazed at how it happened, involving the statewide CASA, which helps units like this to negotiate the purchase of the property. I just stood by in amazement, how efficiently it progressed and came to fruition that, indeed, the place is going to be here for as long as I’m going to be here, anyway. I’m gonna expect that.

Miller: Am I right, that you were particularly excited about it because of what happened to your last home, that it was bought up and then torn down?

Cameron: Yep. Just that, was happy results of what looked like a very dismal future if I didn’t have my little cottage, but everything came out better.

Miller: Does it feel different here to you since the co-op was formed and since you all took ownership of this land?

Cameron: Definitely that, and it allowed us to have more interaction with each other, the meetings we held. And it’s created a new community out of our dilemma. And, well, the efforts of the whole board, I can certainly be grateful for them.

Miller: Do you like the meetings?

Cameron: Nope. [Laughter]

Miller: But you’re happy they’re taking place?

Cameron: Yes. They’re doing a great job and I don’t want to interfere with …

Miller: Interfere is a nice way to put it. You don’t want to have the responsibility of taking part in those meetings … But I understand that your daughter, who lives in Portland, does take part in them, on the computer.

Cameron: Indeed she does. Actually, she’s my representative to most people here, cause I’m pretty much happy by myself.

Miller: What’s it like to live alone right now for you?

Cameron: I love it.

Miller: What do you love about it?

Cameron: Well, I realized it’s what I had been needing all my life. I can’t say I wanted it, because I didn’t understand that’s what I wanted. I’m a lonely dude. I love it.

Miller: When I hear that, the first thing that comes to mind is that you wish you had more company with others, but I think what you’re actually saying is that you’re a solitary person who enjoys, for the most part, not having people around. I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but is that what you’re saying?

Cameron: Yeah.

Miller: You’re a lonely dude, happily so. Do you get lonely, in the sort of traditional way that people often use it?

Cameron: No. I don’t like conversations.

Miller: I’ll cut this short pretty soon, but I’ve been enjoying this so far. You don’t enjoy chit-chat or conversation?

Cameron: Yeah, and that’s because I write. You know, I’d rather write than talk in conversation because I can get it right.

Miller: As we’ve taken a tour of this neighborhood, I’ve heard that you are the eldest member of this community at 94?

Cameron: Yeah.

Miller: What’s it like to be the oldest person here?

Cameron: I really don’t notice it and nobody else notices. Yeah, I could be 98 and I’m still private, so it doesn’t make much difference.

Miller: What makes you happiest right now … or gives you joy?

Cameron: Well, frankly, it’s the artwork that I’ve been able to address commercially and to learn all that involves, like the mounting of the show and the marketing. I love that. It’s what I’ve always been doing. I’ve always been doing some kind of artwork, a lot of cartoons and a lot of other stuff too.

Miller: Well, thank you very much. It was a pleasure talking with you.

Cameron: Oh, thank you, sir.

Miller: That was Ed Cameron who lives at Surfside Village in Newport. The 55+ manufactured home park recently became a co-op, meaning the residents now collectively own their land. Thanks very much to Terry McCoy, the secretary of the new co-op board who took us on the tour and to everybody we talked to.

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