Metro President Lynn Peterson, Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington, Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury, and Clackamas County Chair Jim Bernard met on the WEA forum stage for the first time to talk about regional issues.

   The one topic they came back to more frequently than others was housing.

   Kafoury said there is a housing crisis with a large number of people facing housing instability, and it is a supply and demand issue.

   Bernard said the housing crisis results in people moving out of the urban area and to places like Estacada, where they are commuting on narrow rural roads.

   Harrington touched on the homeless situation and said not everyone recovered from the Great Recession, and it's going to take more at the local level to address it.

   The leaders also talked about state legislation to change zoning to allow for more housing.

   Harrington said she didn't like the state pushing the local governments on it, but that it was needed.

   Peterson said the region needs different housing types for all stages of life.

   She also talked about the possibility of a regional transportation funding measure in 2020 and the task force currently researching corridors and making recommendations.

  Peterson said it's important to look at these corridors from "stem to stern" and gave the example of looking at the TV Highway Corridor all the way to Forest Grove.

   Thank you to Kaiser Permanente and Legacy Health for its sponsorships of this event.

   TVCTV will broadcast this program on its channels in the near future.

   For now, photos from the event have been shared on WEA's Facebook page.