Oregon lawmakers are teed up to take a swing at the state's housing crisis with a vote on a substantial $376 million housing package, aimed at tackling the one-two punch of unaffordable home costs and a growing homeless population. According to the Oregon Capital Chronicle, the package is a collection of four bills that could grant cities greater leeway to construct housing beyond city limits, potentially easing the squeeze on housing availability.
The proposal, which sailed through the Joint Ways and Means Committee, would see less cash than what was originally on Governor Tina Kotek's wishlist, with a sizeable chunk earmarked for issues like infrastructure improvements, middle-income housing loans, homeless shelters, and state rent assistance this falls short of Kotek's ask for $600 million and her $550 million counteroffer spoke volumes without yielding her spokeswoman's response to questions on the cuts. The News from the States details the scaling back of Kotek's plan, particularly a controversial piece allowing cities to bring in up to 50 or 100 acres of land outside urban growth boundaries for development, bypassing the usual bureaucratic hoops.
While lawmakers are banking on this legislation to ease housing pressures, there is controversy over the decision to shrink the land set aside for city expansion. "The farm and forest land that we try to project with our UGBs are just as critical to living in the state as our housing capacity," Rep. Mark Gamba, a co-chair of the Legislature’s environmental caucus, voiced his concerns reported by the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Additionally, infrastructure is high on the agenda, with about $94 million going to water and sewer projects, a move Rep. David Gomberg, heralded during a hearing emphasizing the essential nature of these upgrades for housing growth.
The bill's journey has not been without its detractors, who regret seeing it diminished from its original scope, with Rep. Khanh Pham lamenting the loss of $15 million for affordable homeownership, saying "I think it would have been really critical to addressing key gaps in construction budgets," according to KATU. The package's diminished proportions notwithstanding lawmakers are also set to fulfill Kotek's full request of $65 million for shelter operation funding, a dose of good news for shelters relying on state assistance, as highlighted by the executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, Jimmy Jones, who underscored the necessity of careful state spending of these funds to the same source.
