AOC President and Clackamas County Commissioner, Martha Schrader is prioritizing housing in her service as Association of Oregon Counties (AOC) President.
With Oregon’s current 155,000 housing unit deficit knowing no bounds, hitting urban, rural, and frontier counties and cities alike. Commissioner Schrader spent two days last week in Salem meeting with key legislators, Governor’s staff and the Director of Oregon Housing and Community Services to advocate for House Bill 2228 A. This AOC priority legislation comes after two years of collaborative efforts to identify common challenges across counties, cities, and regions related to housing and was created in partnership with the League of Oregon Cities (LOC), Department of Land and Conservation Development (DLCD), and Housing and Community Services Department (OHCS).
HB 2228 A creates a new state-local partnership by providing six regional coordinators to assist counties and cities in providing the resources to complete housing construction. The bill would allow for technical assistance to be deployed directly to local government through a project based model on a regional basis for efficient, cost effective, and timely completion of housing projects.
The bill is complementary to a variety of other efforts the Governor and the Legislature are pursuing, including the $406.1 million investment in a housing initiative called for by the Governor in her 2019-2021 recommended budget. HB 2228 A is critical to counties, because without the assistance provided in the bill, counties would not be able to access many of the resources to be made available in the Governor’s housing vision due to current capacity issues. The strategic infusion of important resources in HB 2228 A can be stretched and leveraged across our state, and would position local governments to benefit from and help implement the Governor’s multimillion dollar investment.
HB 2228 A would help local governments prepare inventory and implement local changes to prime the pipeline for housing; allow for coordination with state programs; create incentives; remove barriers; and provide infrastructure for projects. The bill also provide a connecting point for county based mental health services to align with the Governor’s $54.5 supportive housing initiative.
AOC President Martha Schrader, Commissioners Claire Hall (Lincoln County) and Bill Baertlein (Tillamook County) engaged in this issue early in the Legislative Session, providing testimony at a hearing in February. The bill has been sitting in Ways and Means with further action anticipated in the foreseeable future in conjunction with other housing bills.
Contributed by: Megan Chuinard | Public Affairs Associate