DLCD to Play a Central Role in the Affordable Housing & Emergency Homelessness Response Package

Governor Kotek signs legislation directing housing plans statewide to emphasize production, affordability, and choice.

SALEM – Today, Governor Tina Kotek signed bipartisan legislation into law that will address the state’s housing and homelessness crisis, including the urgent funding she proposed in response to the homelessness state of emergency, declared on her first full day in office. The $200 million dollar Affordable Housing and Emergency Homelessness Response Package includes House Bills 2001 and 5019.

“These bills, paired with my homelessness state of emergency, will move us forward to real, measurable improvements on the ground in all regions of the state,” Kotek said in her prepared remarks. “The resources in this package will help prevent homelessness for more Oregonians, supply more transitional shelter capacity, rehouse individuals experiencing homelessness, innovate in housing construction so we can support more production, and better serve specific populations with their shelter needs.”

The Affordable Housing and Emergency Homelessness Response Package (House Bills 2001 and 5019) includes a suite of policy reforms and funding that will change the way Oregon’s cities accommodate and plan for housing needs. HB 2001 represents the most significant update to the state’s implementation of Goal 10, Oregon’s land use goal related to housing, since the Statewide Planning Goals were established 50 years ago.

Among other policies and investments in housing and homelessness response, the legislation codifies the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis (OHNA), a result of several years of work starting with 2019 legislation (HB 2003) which aims to shift Oregon’s land use program in a way that empowers cities to take actions that meaningfully increase housing production, affordability, and choice.

The implementation of this program will be a coordinated effort between the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS), the Department of Administrative Services (DAS); in partnership with cities, counties, and regional governments. HB 2001 will make the following changes to planning for housing in Oregon:

• Requiring cities to regularly report on housing availability in their community for existing and future residents, including community members who have been historically excluded.
• Requiring every community to make progress on providing its fair share of housing choices. Community strategies must affirmatively further fair housing.
• Ensuring cities reduce key barriers to housing development, like zoning, inadequate infrastructure, and permitting costs and delays.
• Measuring local government progress towards production, affordability, and choice targets.
• Expanding and coordinating the state’s role in supporting local housing production.
• Working together to get lands to a shovel-ready stage for needed housing, while protecting Oregon’s landscape and working lands for a diverse economy.
• Giving DLCD authority to enter into accountability and enforcement agreements with cities that are not taking actions to realize the housing needs of their community.
• Coordinating action between DAS and DLCD on the allocation of housing targets with a schedule developed by DLCD no later than March 1, 2024.
• Requiring the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) to adopt new administrative rules related to Housing (Goal 10) by January 1, 2025.
• Requiring LCDC to adopt new rules related to Urbanization (Goal 14) that reduce the burden of analysis necessary to identify a need for a UGB amendment related to housing by January 1, 2026.

Local governments will need funding from DLCD to complete this work. HB 2001 appropriates $2.5 million in technical assistance grants to DLCD to fund Goal 10 projects in the 2023-2025 biennium. Additionally, the bill appropriates $1 million in technical assistance grants to fund Goal 14 – Urbanization related projects that would expand local land capacity for housing production. Finally, HB 2001 appropriates funds to DLCD to engage in a rulemaking process to conclude by January 1, 2026.

DLCD places great value on community engagement and feedback in all stages of rulemaking and policy development. Rulemaking activities conducted by the above deadlines will involve advisory committees made up of stakeholders and members of the public. Oregonians who want to stay informed or become involved in DLCD policy development work related to the Affordable Housing and Emergency Homelessness Response Package can sign up for DLCD email updates.

“This legislation represents a watershed moment for housing in Oregon,” said Land Conservation and Development Chair, Anyeley Hallova, “I can see clearly that this will lay a foundation for generations of affordable housing. When state and local governments work in coordinated partnership, we can respond more effectively to the real housing needs in communities, we can direct funding and create policy that uplifts production, affordability, and choice. Today we are fulfilling a promise to Oregonians that has gone unmet for decades.”