A keynote speaker asked his Vancouver business audience to focus on the social value of the community’s housing stock instead of its economic worth at a Friday breakfast to benefit a local nonprofit housing resource center.

But it’s difficult to separate the two, Marc Levy, president and chief executive officer of the nonprofit United Way of the Columbia-Willamette, said at the breakfast.

Residents value the ability to live within their means. Employers, in turn, appreciate having access to a large pool of potential employees, Levy said.

“Housing is a key aspect of that,” Levy told the crowd of about 150 people at the 11th-annual Home is Where the Heart Is fundraising breakfast.

The event at the Red Lion Hotel Vancouver at the Quay was sponsored by Columbia Credit Union and other financial lenders. It was organized to benefit the Community Housing Resource Center, a nonprofit that offers counseling programs for homebuyers and homeowners.

Increasing demand

More than 3,000 clients were served in 2010 by counselors and volunteers at the housing resource center at 103 E. 29th St. in Vancouver, according to Teri Duffy, the center’s executive director.

She said mortgage default counseling services are still in high demand at the center as the Clark County foreclosure rate continues to be one of the highest among Washington’s 39 counties.

In February, Clark County ranked No. 2, with one out of every 426 houses in some stage of default, according to California-based RealtyTrac Inc.

There were 384 Clark County homes in foreclosure in February, compared with 255 foreclosures filed during the same month in 2010.

“Behind all of these numbers are people,” Levy said.

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