A Diverse Group of Eager and Creative Community Leaders Work to Find Solutions to the Missing Middle Housing Crisis

On Wednesday, April 5th, a group of over 45 community members from in and around Newberg met with a mission in mind: quickly come up with actionable solutions to a persistent, ongoing crisis and one of the biggest obstacles for local industry to attract, hire, and retain quality talent: a severe lack of housing units. For those families earning the median income, access to housing is simply out of reach and few programs and subsidies exist to address this problem.

In partnership with SEDCOR, the Newberg Workforce Housing Consortium, and The Missing Middle Housing Fund, a diverse group of passionate civic leaders, builders, contractors, investors, and other community leaders met at the Friendsview Community Center to identify problems, brainstorm solutions, and settle on action plans.

Nathan Wildfire, Missing Middle Housing Fund

"Each of the attendees brought energy and wisdom, and rolled up their sleeves, getting to work. There are no silver bullets to magically defeat our workforce housing crisis - but Newberg has the right ingredients to test a few different recipes, and fill the need for additional housing. A unified employer base, creative local officials, economic development professionals, and flexible capital are attracting the best ideas from around the state. It will be exciting to see what comes next."

Abisha Stone, SEDCOR Business Recruitment and Expansion Manager, Founding Member of the Newberg Workforce Housing Consortium

“Often when we are talking about the issue of workforce housing, the conversation stops once everyone is exhausted from complaining about the ʻpinch pointsʼ that are outside of their own control or influence – whether it’s regulation, funding, supply chain or workforce. Without other collaborators who represent those firmaments in the room, the conversations come to a disappointing end. The greatest value I found in the Let’s Build Newberg event was that each of these areas were represented, meaning the conversations didn’t have to stop for lack of knowledge or understanding. I overheard folks in breakout groups approach a topic from different viewpoints and end the conversation agreeing to meet to further vet out one of their ideas. For me, that was the real success of the event – breaking down silos amongst collaborators and identifying future change makers.”

To learn more about the Missing Middle Housing Fund, visit www.missingmiddlehousing.fund.

Since 2014, Sackcloth + Ashes has been on a dual mission. One, to create a great product people love to enjoy for themselves and gift to others. Two, to provide blankets to those experiencing homelessness. Since the company was founded, for each blanket purchased, a second blanket has been donated to a local homeless shelter. As the company has grown, those missions have remained constant.

We sat down with Chief Operating Officer Jordan Tardie over coffee at Broadway Coffeehouse to talk about finding more efficient ways to produce their Instagram-worthy blankets, creating new markets, and finding a sense of flow throughout their supply chain.

SEDCOR: As the business has grown, what are some of the changes to the production process you’ve needed to make?

Jordan

Tardie: We used to be in a relatively small and unconventional space just across the street here on Broadway. In total, if you don’t count the odd corners and some of the spare office space, we only had about 8,000 square feet of production space. Now, we are in a space at the South Salem Business Park which gives us close to 16,000 square feet of production space. So, yeah, that makes a huge difference.

When we were at the old space on Broadway, we connected with OMEP about tightening up our production process. But since we knew, we weren’t going to stay there much longer and would eventually grow out of it, we waited. Now that we get to work with OMEP, I am blown away at what they notice and the near immediate fixes they were able to recommend.

For instance, our production team was essentially batching each part of their process, which created significant bottlenecks. Let’s say we need to finish 600 blankets in a day. One person would take the rolls of fabric and cut them all and stack them. The next person would take that stack and sew them and stack them. That stack would move to be wrapped and boxed. With OMEP’s help, we’ll be able to move seamlessly from one task to the other and create a very efficient process.

From my perspective as a manager, I believe what we’ll implement will help create more unity and cohesiveness between the team since each person’s role will matter to the flow, not just their one task.

OMEP will also help us design the layout of our facility so we can utilize the tall ceilings and start racking more materials and products. Right now, we are renting storage space in Portland for our rolls of fabric. With their help, we’ll be able to store it all here, which means we’ll be able to save some money and time.

Each change is relatively small, but they will add up to big improvements in how we put together our product. Again, we’re trying to create a process with much better flow.

SEDCOR: Blankets might seem like a simple product, but is there more than people realize?

Tardie: It is surprisingly complicated.

We import the fabric from a producer in Italy who creates everything from the custom patterns we give them. Their fabrics are made from 95% recycled material, which I can talk about later. The fabric arrives in large rolls which we transform into our blankets.

Right now, we are keeping a very large quantity of product in our production facility because we didn’t want to have to miss out on big orders. Keeping that amount of product is a big investment on our part. We’d like to get to a point where we are able to quickly land 20,000 units and then quickly move those 20,000 units..

SEDCOR: Selling direct-to-consumer and through retail are obvious ways to move product. Are there any other angles you’re pursuing?

Tardie: We are getting ready for our new initiative called Change Agents. This program is a way for professionals, especially those in real estate and mortgage industries, to easily give a thoughtful gift to their clients.

I think we’ve found success in the last nine years because of the product we chose: blankets. The desire for a warm, comfortable blanket is universal. Everyone in this coffee shop has something in common. They all slept last night in a blanket.

We believe the group we’re targeting with this program represents a huge market of repeat customers. Whenever a real estate agent, as an example, closes a deal, they will be able to sign into their account, choose the company they work for, and order a blanket for their client at a 25% discount, including a custom note. We’ll take the order, include the note, and ship it directly to their client.

And, as always, we’ll ship one of our donation blankets to their local homeless shelter. Plus, the agent will see how many blankets have been ordered within the organization, which makes the agent feel part of a bigger movement where they work.

SEDCOR: What is something about Sackcloth + Ashes most people don’t know?

Tardie: Behind the scenes, we have put a lot of effort into our sustainability practices.

A few years ago, we went through a sustainability audit and then found all kinds of ways we could cut down on our plastic consumption and do more to include recycled and recyclable products into our process. This includes the tape we use, the shipping labels we order, the boxes we ship in, and more. Obviously, we target our message around the work we do for those less fortunate, but we are proud of what we’re doing for the planet as well. I think customers would be amazed at how close to plasticfree the business has become.

To revisit the maker of our fabric. Like I said, the fabric is about 95% recycled. The other 5% of virgin material is mostly to add durability. They import these mountains of used clothes and sort them by color. Like an artist working with paint, they can find the perfect combination of colors to create our custom patterns.

Sackcloth + Ashes blankets can be found at their online store: sackclothandashes.com. They can also be purchased at retailers, including REI.

If you are a professional and are interested in the Change Agents program, visit changeagents.com

CELEBRATING YEARS OF PASSION AND PROMISE