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What is the answer to affordable housing crisis in Eugene, Oregon - and the US?


In the last 20 years, the cost to buy a house in Eugene has risen 73%. (File/SBG)
In the last 20 years, the cost to buy a house in Eugene has risen 73%. (File/SBG)
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EUGENE, Ore. - All Oregonians need a safe, stable and affordable place to call home.

But the cost of a place to "call home" continues to climb.

Experts say it's causing people to think differently on what exactly is the American Dream.

Nearly 2/3 of renters nationwide say they can't afford to buy a home.

And in the last 20 years, the cost to buy a house in Eugene has risen 73%.

Average rents here are up nearly 50%.

And Eugene and Oregon aren't alone:

According to the affordable housing advocacy group Home1, about 11 million Americans spend more than half their paycheck on rent.

Harvard researchers have found nearly half of all renters are cost-burdened by their housing costs. That is defined as spending 30% or more of their income on rents or house payments.

"It's dire," said Ed McMahon with the Homebuilders Association of Lane County. "As everyone's aware, we are the second tightest housing market in America, second only to Seattle."

McMahon believes the biggest reason for the crisis is clear.

"We don't have enough buildable lots to build the front doors that we need to build," he said.

The Homebuilders Association is a partner in a Lane County consortium called Better Housing Together that's trying to forge a plan for more affordable housing.

On that same panel but with a different point of view are land-use planning advocates 1,000 Friends of Oregon.

"In many cases, communities have over 70 percent of their land zoned for single family homes and not more affordable housing types, such as apartments, duplexes," said Alexis Biddle with 1,000 Friends.

Some of the debate centers on urban growth boundaries - or UGB for short.

Under state law, each urban area in Oregon has to have a UGB. Housing tracts, shopping malls and other forms of development are not allowed to sprawl past the boundary unless local governments apply for and get extensions to those lines from the state.

From the Homebuilders perspective, it is supply and demand that is driving up the prices of homes and feeding this crisis even more.

"Part of the solution of this crisis is expand the urban growth boundary for housing," McMahon said, "and while we are doing that, we need to densify within the urban growth boundary."

Not all of the participants in Better Housing Together agree.

"Many of the people within the group have divergent interests," Biddle from 1,000 Friends said.

The Friends believe evidence must be strong to expand those UGB boundaries. Biggle argues a better solution lies in the bill passed this year by the Oregon legislature that largely bans single family zoning statewide.

"Cities above 25,000 need to allow a range of missing middle housing types, which include duplexes, triplexes and quads, and row houses," Biddle said.

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