Moving to Roseburg, OR (Winston: section 8, apartments, to rent)

[nslafata]

So after much debate my family and I are moving Roseburg. It seems like a nice, small town to raise a family. I of course know that with small towns come small town problems like drugs etc. I have to school age kids, one will be in elementary school and the other will be in middle school. So, how are the schools there? Are their girl scout troops? Which schools are the better schools to get them into? They are both in private/parochial school now because the public schools where we live now are horrible, but the private schools in Roseburg seem a lot smaller and tuition is a lot higher than we pay now.

Any other tips you can provide will be helpful.

We are going to rent for awhile before we buy a home just so we can get a feel for the area. What are some of the better apartments they have in the area? We would like something inexpensive but need a cleaner, safer area.

[PNW-type-gal]

As sort of an aside here: I am not sure we have any posters on CD who actually live in Roseburg. I think the closest poster lives maybe 15-20 miles away. So you may not be able to get any really specific answers about neighborhoods and schools.

[Larry Caldwell]

Both scouting and 4-H are big in the Roseburg area. There is also an active boys and girls club and good recreational facilities at the YMCA/Stewart Park, with summer league softball, indoor and outdoor tennis courts and an indoor pool.

Is there some reason you have to live in Roseburg? The whole area is primarily unincorporated rural residential. It's a standing joke that the population of Roseburg is 22,000 except for 8-5 M-F when the population is 50,000. You won't find much in the way of apartment buildings, so you will probably get stuck renting a house. Plan on owning a lawnmower. If transportation is not a problem, take a look at rural residential developments or smaller surrounding communities like Winston.

[nslafata]

We do not know a lot about the area. We would be open to living in an area outside of Roseburg, but we would like to know where the better schools are.

[Harpaint]

You could look them up on Great Schools or Zillow since no one has responded.

[Senah]

We lived in Roseburg for a few years, and moved recently.

In terms of education, they have had a hard time due to the very low taxes in Oregon. This has translated in more rural areas like Roseburg and Douglas Country in general to poor pay for school teachers and to support schools. For much of the time we were there, public schools had trouble paying for food for 5 days a week, as well as the staff 5 days a week. This lead to 4 day school weeks, which lead to 4 day work weeks for parents, which negatively affected businesses in town (local businesses, the big box stores seemed mostly unaffected).

Roseburg was a logging and lumber town for a long time, and when mechanization and the export industry changed how this industry functioned in the late '80s, this meant a huge job loss for the county. They have not yet recovered, which translates to a struggling economy, and a lot of people who didn't have higher education or alternative options for careers. Unfortunately, this has also translated into a higher percentage of the population on state and federal programs such as Medicaid, Medicare (disability especially), and food stamps, as well as unemployment.

For schooling, as public system is somewhat unstable, our feeling was that the private system seemed more reliable. I should say that while I worked with children and families, we did not end up having children in the schools in Douglas County. As the area is heavily Christian, the major private schools are almost all Christian as well, and we found that the curriculum heavily reflected this, more so than other areas with many people affiliated with Christian churches. If you wanted a more traditional secular education that is rooted in liberal arts and prepared your children for high school and 4 year college with the possibility of leaving the state, your best option would be the Cobb School: cobb-school

There is a lot of crime in the area, mostly associated with parole violations for drugs, specifically methamphetamine, which is why we ended up moving away. For safety, I would try and rent a small house out of town. Having a little space would be good for the kids and probably better for you. Be aware if you buy property that a lot of the wells are drying up in the area, so have an independent person come in and test both the water and the flow rate, and check water rights for any water associated with a property, as well as confirm there isn't black mold, as many people buying property in that part of Oregon have problems with both.

That said, I don't want to mention only the bad things about the area, as we enjoyed several good things. There is a lot of public land, and the growing season is long. If you like to garden, there is almost nothing that you cannot grow there. If you enjoy hiking and fishing/hunting, there are opportunities around which should satisfy. The coast is only an hour away, which is fun to do on the weekend. If you are wine drinkers, the Willamette (pronounced like "damn it") Valley is just north, and could be a nice weekend getaway.

[Carrie02]

Try the Geneva Academy. I hear it is good. It is located in Roseburg. As some of the other posters have stated, most schools run 4 days a week. Myrtle creek still runs 5 days a week with Wednesdays being an early out day.

[CrltenSpke11]

I think it depends what kind of a job the OP is looking for. I was in the Roseburg area 8 years ago and could not get a permanent job there. I applied for several jobs there and couldn't get any, I guess due to competition. Also, unemployment was high, and there were many layoffs there after I left, just before the big recession.

[morgancraft]

I'm relocating to Oregon in a few years when my granddaughters are just a bit older. I'd lived in various places along the west coast most of my life while I was still working, but I moved to the Midwest to be close to grandkids some years ago. I am disabled but fully mobile, and receive only social security disability so I am on a fixed income. I hear there are good medical facilities in the Roseburg area, and many retirees. Are there any better quality subsidized apartment buildings specifically for seniors? (Not Section 8, but still subsidized - that's where I am now.) What are shopping and transportation choices like? Quality of living? Good versus not so good neighborhoods? I don't expect Utopia, but I do want a good quality of life with access to recreational areas, shopping, medical care, etc.

[Hawk J]

Perhaps you can get a job at the VA Hospital.

VA Roseburg Healthcare System, Roseburg, Oregon

A man i know bought a used RV which had been cared for, at a really fair price, rented a space in a park, by Winston, along the Umpqua River (pretty good fishin'). He was happy there.