The Roots of Oregon's Housing Crisis
May 10, 2022
Change is hard.
In 1973, Oregon Governor Tom McCall created a pioneering land use policy focused on preserving farmland, reducing pollution and preventing urban sprawl. At the time, it was a visionary move that took bold political leadership.
But what seemed visionary 50 years ago has played a pivotal role in creating Oregon’s modern day housing crisis. Today, our rural towns are struggling to address population growth as people seek a new hybrid work, lifestyle in these idyllic communities.
Increasingly, rural areas of Oregon once thought to be affordable are now out of reach for most home buyers as housing supply has lagged behind demand for decades. And just building more housing isn’t as easy as it sounds.
In this episode, we explore the challenges at the heart of Oregon’s housing crisis, what “affordable housing” really means, and why a new era of bold political leadership is required to solve this problem.
Listen as JESSICA SEIDEL, Senior Director of Marketing and Customer experience at Pahlisch Homes, JOHN ROBERTS Deputy City Manager with the City of Redmond, KATY BROOKS, CEO and President of the Bend Chamber of Commerce, REBECCA LEWIS Associate Professor School of Planning, Public Policy and Management University of Oregon, and JAMES ADKINS, Manager of Public Policy at Hubbell talk about McCall’s legacy, the housing crisis, and the prospect of modernizing Oregon’s land use policies.