Dive Brief:
- Portland, Oregon’s city council passed its first-ever housing production strategy last week to meet its housing needs in the coming years as rents and home prices outpace income, according to a news release.
- The strategy outlines 35 ways the city can promote housing development that meets communities’ needs, from rezoning sites for affordable housing to implementing policies that increase the number of units accessible to those who are older or have a disability.
- “These are not pie-in-the-sky ideas that will sit on a shelf for years and years until there’s the political will to do them,” said Portland Commissioner Carmen Rubio in a statement. The strategy will help city officials decide what to prioritize in the coming years and offer transparency that the public needs to keep the city on track, she added.
Dive Insight:
Portland is among the many state and city governments tackling the housing crisis with new plans and policies. Some such policies also seem to be popular with the public: Survey results published last year by The Pew Charitable Trusts show that bipartisan majorities of the public support zoning policies that aim to increase housing supply and affordability.
Portland’s Housing Production Strategy is a state-mandated plan. In 2019, Oregon enacted a law requiring cities with a population greater than 10,000 to develop and adopt such a document. Tom Armstrong, supervising planner for the Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, told the news outlet Daily Journal of Commerce that the state is trying to make cities more accountable for meeting housing targets.
According to Portland’s Housing Production Strategy, the city faces hurdles such as rising development costs, difficult financing conditions and labor shortages. The city’s plan centers on themes including finding more funding for affordable housing and creating housing capacity in “high-opportunity, complete neighborhoods.”
Beyond passing the Housing Production Strategy, Portland city officials met with Los Angeles city leaders to learn which of the California city’s actions could work in Portland, Rubio said in a statement. For example, LA Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order in 2022 to expedite permitting for temporary shelters and affordable housing.
“My plan – what I would like to see and for us to get moving on now – is for affordable housing and some types of middle-income housing to be approved within 90 City desk days,” Portland’s Rubio said.
