Our rural communities in House District 17 have a housing cost problem where wages tend to have very slow growth while housing prices for new developments continue to rise. This leads to residents in our district having to pay prices far beyond what they can actually afford leading to many cost-burdened households. Politicians all along the West Coast have failed to foster an adequate and equitable housing market. This affects the whole state. Rural Oregon rent is 16% higher, and home prices 30% higher than rural areas in other states, and that’s unacceptable.
Oregon’s land use system, historically in the interest of resource protection, environmental concerns and aesthetics, has been difficult for rural communities to navigate when having rural land approved for development. Often zoning restrictions block opportunities for the types of housing options our communities need in order to live within our means. These kinds of housing development restrictions cost rural communities economic prosperity, revenue and especially an adequate housing supply. When the supply is kept down, rent and housing market prices go up.
The zoning and rent stabilization bills passed by the Oregon legislature in 2019 were a decent start but much more must be done to liberalize land use and local zoning laws to bring quality developers into our district to stimulate and encourage expected population growth. If we ignore our need for reasonable housing needs in our communities we will continue to see more of our own houseless, living in cars, entire families staying with friends on couches, and homeless camps popping up in our parks and wilderness areas. As our representative for House District 17 I will hold our legislature accountable for making sure we are allocated our fair share of public funds from the legislature to be invested in affordable housing so our community members and kids in our schools have a quality, secure, and affordable place to call home.