We Launched Today. Here's Why We Built Annum.

Southern Oregon has a housing problem. Not a new one; anyone who lives here already knows that. But what's harder to see is how deep it actually runs.

Most of what gets measured is the visible stuff: evictions filed, vacancies counted, people showing up in shelter data. By the time those numbers move, the crisis has already happened. The family already lost their housing. The worker already left the region. The employer already couldn't fill the role.

We built Annum because we got obsessed with what happens before all of that.

The part of the crisis that doesn't show up in the data

When we surveyed workers across the Rogue Valley, the headline number was stark: 56% say housing is unaffordable. Oregon ranks 47th in the country. None of that was surprising.

What was surprising was everything underneath it. Only 11% of workers reported an unexpected move in the last two years, which, on the surface, looks like stability. But dig deeper and a different picture emerges. 55% are using credit card debt to cover housing costs. 54% are working a second job just to stay housed. 43% are sharing housing they don't want to be in. 47% have delayed moving into more appropriate housing because the system made it too hard to get there.

These aren't people in crisis by any traditional measure. They're showing up to work every day, paying rent, keeping it together. But they're absorbing compounding stress in ways that don't show up in any data set, and they're one unexpected expense away from a situation that does.

The distance between what workers are privately managing and what the data can see is the problem Annum is built to solve.

What we actually do:

Annum is a community-wide housing navigator. It works in three steps.

We start by listening. Our AI-powered assistant, Dorothy, has real conversations with residents about their housing situation: rent burden, goals, and early signs of instability, all through a simple, mobile-friendly app. Not a form. A conversation.

From there, we match. Annum identifies the programs, available homes, and financial aid each resident may already qualify for. We help them understand eligibility, prepare documents, and stack multiple sources of support. Because the aid usually exists. The problem is that it's fragmented across agencies, nonprofits, and employer programs that most people don't know about and don't have time to navigate.

Then we act. Employers, municipalities, and community organizations get real-time data on what workers are actually telling us, so leaders can target resources, design better programs, and measure what's working instead of guessing.

Southern Oregon is where we start

We're launching first in the Rogue Valley, in partnership with SOREDI, Oregon's federally designated economic development district. SOREDI has built a public-facing data dashboard that pulls Annum's survey data alongside national sources, giving policymakers and employers a live view of regional housing conditions that didn't exist before.

More than eight employers are already on the platform, including Goodwill, Worksharp, and Rogue Community College. We're already approving residents for affordable housing options in the community, including a 36-unit development that was struggling to fill units before Annum generated 26 qualified applications from workers who never would have found it on their own.

As Jen Trumm, Director of Human Resources at Southern Oregon Goodwill, put it: "For the first time, we can connect our workforce to real housing solutions, not just point them somewhere and hope for the best."

That's the difference we're trying to make. From pointing to solving.

What comes next

Southern Oregon is the first market, but it won't be the last. Aspen is next, with more cities to follow.

If you're a worker in the Rogue Valley, the Annum app is free and available to download today. If you're an employer, municipality, or economic development organization that wants to understand what your workforce actually needs, we'd love to talk.

The data to act on this crisis already exists. It just lives in the people the system hasn't been built to see yet.

That's what we're here to change.

Read more in today’s press release, and thank you so much for following along on our journey.