Bend could get 1,000 new apartments soon

Amidst a housing crisis in Bend, there could be some hope in sight — the city could get more than 1,000 new apartments this year, according to planners.

Bend City Senior Planner Aaron Henson told NewsChannel 21 the city has been inundated in recent months with applications to build multifamily housing.

“There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” Henson said.

Henson said there are 10 projects in the works in various stages of the planning process.

“It’s really exciting to see so many new apartments in the permitting process,” Henson said Thursday. “It’s been nearly 10 years since we’ve really had any appreciable multifamily housing development.”

Henson said one 104-unit apartment complex was built in the city last year. Before that, the last apartments were built in 2003.

“This may be the first time as far as I can remember where the multifamily housing numbers may exceed single-family housing,” Henson said.

Last year, 775 homes were built in Bend. Henson expects that number will also surpass 1,000 this year.

When Bend renter Stephen Poklemba heard the news, he told NewsChannel 21 “Wow!”

“That’s probably a really good thing for Bend,” Poklemba said, adding that he struggled for more than a month last year to find an apartment: “I can’t afford any really nice places. It’s got to be cheap enough.”

Bend college student Samantha Ingrem said several of her classmates also had trouble.

“They’re having a hard time finding rent in Bend, so they’re living in Redmond,” Ingrem said. “I think it will definitely help the renting situation.”

Henson said although he expects most of the projects will be complete this year, some of the plans are not yet set in stone.

“We’ve gotten a lot of applications in,” he said. “We don’t know how many will actually get built.”

Henson said while all the new apartments definitely will help with Bend’s housing crunch, it won’t cure it. The city’s population is growing too fast for that, and more apartments and homes will be needed.