Three ways to meet Oregon's housing needs
Oregon is short approximately 140,000 homes for people who are living here today.
With a dearth of options for people with moderate and lower incomes, many Oregonians are missing out on stable, affordable housing. Bend and Central Oregon is one of the fastest growing and least affordable places in the state. Our teachers, medical technicians, day-care providers, store clerks, nursing assistants, service industry folks, and nonprofit professionals are unable to find needed housing. It’s a challenge faced across the age spectrum from young people just starting out to older people on fixed incomes.
Every Oregonian deserves a home they can afford, that meets their needs and is well-located in a livable neighborhood near schools, stores, parks, transportation options, and more. And, when we build those homes within our current urban growth boundaries, we preserve the open spaces and wild lands outside our cities and towns that are central to our livability and so crucial to mitigating climate change and preventing biodiversity loss.
Looking ahead to the Oregon state legislative session that opens on February 5, 2024, LandWatch will be counting on our members and supporters to voice their support for an approach to development that urgently addresses our housing needs without eroding bedrock laws that are vital to our livability, human health, and a healthy environment.
If you’re interested in testifying during this session, fill in this interest form and we’ll provide you with additional information to make your voice heard.
three key ways we could meet the housing needs of Oregonians, quickly:
1.) Invest in infrastructure for housing – especially housing for those of moderate and lower incomes – inside current Urban Growth Boundaries.
Oregon’s cities already have tens of thousands of acres designated for residential use inside their urban growth boundaries (UGBs), but the lands lack key infrastructure, such as roads, sewers, water, or sidewalks. Investing in these lands is the most important step the state can take now to unlock large parcels and get them “shovel-ready” to quickly produce housing.
Limited infrastructure dollars go farther and faster when they are spent inside UGBs. Residential lands inside UGBs are often closer to existing infrastructure - or have some of the infrastructure in place and need just a bit more. This often means less cost and less time to get more homes on the ground than through a UGB expansion.
Ninety-five percent of the current housing underproduction is impacting people with moderate and lower incomes. Affordable and middle housing providers often need relatively small amounts of financial assistance to extend a sewer line, build a sidewalk, provide access to a parcel, or consolidate land – and then they can do what they do best. Build many units of housing for the people with moderate and lower incomes who need it most.
2.) Incentivize housing production on the lands and buildings we already have.
Oregon has great redevelopment opportunities that are located near stores, schools, and transit and need a range of infrastructure upgrades to bring thousands of homes online, including affordable homes. This includes thousands of housing units planned for areas like the Bend Central District and Core Area in Bend, and underused parking lots and commercial lands and buildings in almost every city and town.
There’s even federal funding to redevelop housing in these great locations.
3.) Let key changes to how Oregon delivers housing take root (Oregon Housing Needs Analysis).
During the 2023 legislative session, Oregon made BIG moves on updating and streamlining planning and development processes for where and how all types of housing get built. We’ll get more diverse homes for more people, sooner if we let the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) play out - and it is already underway.
Working with the state, OHNA requires every city to adopt zoning; streamline UGB expansions, urban reserves, and land swaps; and enact other measures to ensure diverse housing meeting the needs of all residents is built. When the OHNA program fully kicks in in 2025 and 2026, many cities will be implementing their housing production strategies and will be able to use quicker, streamlined land use processes. We don’t need additional, short-sighted policies that undercut or complicate this effort.
As we ramp up housing production, there are some serious pitfalls to avoid. Urge your legislator to advance housing solutions that don’t undermine our land use system. Send a message now.
Three misguided approaches tO AVOID:
1.) Overriding land use and environmental laws will not produce the housing Oregonians need, where they need it, anytime soon.
Sidestepping land use laws to quickly expand UGBs to build primarily private-sector, higher-income housing will take many years to build, will not result in many homes, and will not provide the housing Oregonians need most. It puts more people farther away from the services, stores, and jobs they need, and makes affordable living even more unattainable.
2.) Making lands inside current UGBs compete with ‘quickie’ UGB expansions for scarce infrastructure dollars doesn’t make sense.
Adding more land – when so many cities need investments in the lands they already have – exacerbates existing infrastructure funding gaps and fails to make the most of the land we have. It is not a responsible use of Oregon’s resources.
3.) Building at the edge exacerbates inequality and increases climate change and wildfire risks to lives, livelihoods, and homes.
In Central Oregon, expanding the urban footprint means developing into the wildland-urban interface. This approach has numerous serious negative consequences.
Building in these wildfire-prone open lands puts more lives, livelihoods, and homes directly at risk and increases the likelihood that more catastrophic wildfires will occur. Also, when we pave over farmlands and natural areas, we lose the carbon-sequestering power of those lands forever, as well as vital wildlife habitat.
Homes at the far edge of our cities and towns are further from schools, stores, and jobs. They require more roads and more driving, which results in more greenhouse gas emissions, heat islands, and stormwater runoff that ends up in rivers and streams.
When we only build housing at the margins of our cities, we perpetuate injustice for those who have traditionally been racially redlined and economically excluded from areas of opportunity: those of lower incomes, people of color, Black people, indigenous people, and those on fixed incomes. Instead, housing policies and investments should focus on neighborhoods closer to urban amenities. Those who cannot or choose not to drive a car also deserve well-located housing choices inside UGBs with services close by and active transportation options.
We can meet the housing needs of Oregonians, and quickly
To build more housing, faster, we need to invest in the infrastructure needs throughout our cities and towns. Infrastructure improvements like pipes, sidewalks, and roads are necessary for the creation of new housing. Lack of funding for these improvements is one of the most significant barriers to available land in our city becoming ‘shovel-ready’ for housing development.
Of the many policies and options on the table for addressing Oregon’s housing crisis, few will have the positive impact that robust, sustained infrastructure funding will. Right now, Bend has available land within its UGB that can become much-needed housing if it is served with infrastructure.
Moving infrastructure funding forward during the 2024 legislative session will be key to increasing housing quantity, choice, and affordability in Bend and every Oregon community.
Are you fired up? Here are two ways you can help advance a good housing policy in Oregon:
1.) SIGN UP TO TESTIFY
We’re seeking folks who are interested in testifying via Zoom during the legislative session.
2.) Write to Your REp
Urge your legislator to advance housing solutions that don’t undermine our land use system.