Oregon Housing Production Advisory Council issues Action Plan framework to reach goals

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon's new Housing Production Advisory Council, which Gov. Tina Kotek established to ramp up home construction across Oregon, released its next steps Tuesday for reaching the state’s housing production goals.

“Oregonians want healthier and safer communities, and that means we need to build more housing,” Kotek said. “Council members have done an amazing job to set the table for this essential work. They have prioritized finding solutions that are feasible, make the greatest impact in addressing our housing shortage, and center equity and racial justice. The council’s goals are bold and ambitious – and that is what we need to meet this moment.”

Going forward, the council will break into five work groups to develop recommendations on the following topics:

• Availability of Land
• Land Development Permit Applications
• Codes and Design
• Workforce Shortages
• Financing

The specific recommendations for policy changes and investments outlined must meet the following minimum requirements:

• Addresses known barriers to housing as prioritized by the council.
• Identify changes to state laws and rules that hold promise for accelerating production, thereby supporting the state’s annual housing production target.
• Prioritize housing affordability levels by the scale of the deficit of each housing type.
• Plan for production that is equitable and affirmatively furthers fair housing.

The council’s action plan is due to the Governor’s Office no later than Dec. 31.

On the first full day of her administration on Jan. 10, Governor Kotek signed Executive Order No. 23-04 to establish a statewide housing production goal of 36,000 per year and create the Housing Production Advisory Council (HPAC) to develop comprehensive budget and policy recommendations to meet that goal.

The new production goal represents an 80 percent increase over recent construction trends, and it will take an ongoing commitment from local, state, federal, nonprofit, and private sector partners to achieve this target. The pilot Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) estimated Oregon’s housing shortage at 140,000 homes across the state.

Additionally, Governor Kotek’s Executive Order 23-04 charges the Council with ensuring the policy changes and investments included in their final action plan affirmatively further fair housing.

“Those who are suffering the most from our state’s housing shortage are disproportionately lower income households and communities of color,” Kotek said. “A fundamental part of this work is acknowledging past and present racially discriminatory and exclusionary housing policies that are still felt in communities today and working proactively to fix them.”

Governor Kotek appointed a diverse group of housing development subject matter experts to the Housing Production Advisory Council on March 6. Following appointments, the Council met four times in March to develop the plan framework.

The Housing Production Advisory Council is composed of 25 experts in the fields of housing construction and development charged with identifying and recommending changes to state policies to reduce barriers to housing production, thereby helping the state meet its annual housing production target for the next 10 years.

The Housing Production Advisory Council Plan Framework can be found here.