Oregon Housing Production Advisory Council releases action plan framework

Oregon’s Housing Production Advisory Council released its next steps for meeting state’s housing production goals on Wednesday.

“Oregonians want healthier and safer communities, and that means we need to build more housing,” Governor Tina Kotek said in a press release. “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.”

The council will be broken into five work groups that will create recommendations on the following topics, according to the governor’s office:

• Availability of Land

• Land Development Permit Applications

• Codes and Design

• Workforce Shortages

• Financing

The policy change recommendations must meet these requirements, according to the governor’s office:

• 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 must submit its action plan to the governor’s office by the end of the year.

Governor Kotek signed Executive Order No. 23-04 back in January.

It created a statewide housing production goal of 36,000 per year. It also created the Housing Production Advisory Council (HPAC). The council will develop budget and policy recommendations in hopes of meeting that goal.

The production goal is an 80% increase over the state’s recent home construction rate.

Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA) says needs 140,000 homes across the state to combat its housing shortage.

Governor Kotek’s Executive Order directs the council to make sure that the policy changes they recommend, “plan affirmatively further fair housing,” according to the release.

“Those who are suffering the most from our state’s housing shortage are disproportionately lower income households and communities of color,” Governor Kotek said in the release. “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 members to the Housing Production Advisory Council on March 6, 2023. The council met four times in March to develop the framework of their plan.

The Housing Production Advisory Council has 25 home construction and development experts on it. They will recommends changes to state policy in hopes of reducing barriers to housing production.

The Housing Production Advisory Council Plan Framework is available here.