Will a New Housing Bill Be the Solution to Oregon’s Housing Crisis?

By: Collin Bell

The Eugene City Council questioned at a meeting Monday if a new Oregon law has the solution to Eugene’s housing crisis.

House Bill 2001, passed by Oregon Legislature in 2019, requires that large Oregon cities allow multi-unit housing like duplexes, triplexes and other forms of middle housing, to be built on single-family residentially zoned areas.

According to Eugene officials, increased demand and underwhelming supply has left Oregon in an affordable housing crisis. City planners said over 25% of Eugene renters pay more than half of their income on housing

According to city officials, new middle housing in Eugene will decrease housing costs, but Eugene City Council members questioned Monday if these changes will make housing more affordable.

“The demand is gigantic, the supply is non-existent,” Mike Clark, Eugene City Councilor, said in regards to the lack of affordable housing in Eugene.

According to Tyler Bump, a senior economic advisor at ECONorthwest, the cost of a newly built middle housing unit would land anywhere between $1500-$2900 to rent and $230,000-$485,000 to own.

Councilmember Matt Keaton said the median income in Eugene is just over $25,000 and the costs of new middle housing would likely price out a large portion of the Eugene community.

Bill Aspegren and Carolyn Jacobs, two board members of the South University Neighborhood Association, shared similar concerns. They worry that a profit-driven market will replace affordable single-family housing with more expensive middle housing.

“What gets built, where it gets built, is entirely driven by investors,” Jacobs said regarding concerns that the market won’t be drawn to build affordable housing.

Eugene officials reported in 2020 that over half of Eugene residents pay “more than they can afford for housing.” The city council discussed ways to solve these issues including potential incentives for builders who offer affordable housing options.

According to Bump, the lack of middle housing in Eugene puts the most pressure on the lowest economic households who have the fewest options. The increase of middle housing in Eugene would relieve some of this burden, Bump said.

According to city officials, the legacy of long-standing discriminatory zoning practices is at fault for the lack of middle housing in Eugene. City officials said that these practices were often created to exclude low-income people of color from living in certain areas in Oregon cities. Even though these practices are now illegal, the negative impacts are still felt today.

City officials said they are taking steps to change these inequity issues in the creation of Eugene zoning laws.

“We are approaching this project with an anti-racist lens,” said Sophie McGinley, assistant city planner. “Things like zoning and especially single-family zoning are seemingly benign, but they have their roots in racist history.”

One way city planners are trying to change some of these equity issues is through community outreach. McGinley explained that normally, those who participate in Eugene’s public outreach programs are homeowners and older members of the community who have the time and economic means to do so.

McGinley said it’s great these individuals are able to participate, but they want to include voices that normally don’t. To do so, Eugene has created a community outreach program with the Portland-based non-profit Healthy Democracy.

“There’s a difference between who volunteers and who is in the general population and there is an important gap there to be filled,” Linn Davis said, the program’s director.

The program offered participants pay, child care and tech support to make participation easy and inclusive. 29 participants were chosen randomly to represent the Eugene community based on demographic factors like race, gender and age.

The group created 41 guiding principles on what middle housing in Eugene should look like. Moving forward, these principles will help guide city officials on how to implement middle housing in Eugene.

Over the next few months, Eugene officials will continue with public outreach and will begin writing strategies to implement HB 2001. Eugene must amend strategies to implement the law by June 30, 2022.

City officials said that market factors will dictate how fast new middle housing is built and expect it to be a multigenerational process.