In the last few months, Oregon legislators have revealed many proposals to address the housing crisis in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. These proposals include building more shelters, protecting those who live in tents, and creating easier pathways for Indigenous peoples to homeownership. Even prior to this global pandemic, Oregon has been facing a housing crisis for several years. Legislators gave little thought to this issue prior to the pandemic, and any solutions primarily come about on the local legislative level. The housing crisis was further exasperated by the wildfires back in September 2020, which destroyed entire communities and as many as 4,000 homes, many of which considered affordable housing. Prior to the wildfires and the global pandemic, Oregon had one of the highest rates of houselessness in the U.S. Per a study done by the Urban Institue, it was found that Oregon had 3.5 times the amount of unsheltered houseless people than the national average.
Oregon is currently experiencing a housing production shortage, in which the Oregon Housing and Community Services agency states in order to meet current housing demands, Oregon must doubt its production of housing, and triple its production of subsidized housing. Due to these demands coupled with the effects of the pandemic, Democratic legislators proposed spending $535 million toward this housing crisis. Roughly half of this allotment, $230 million, would be used to construct affordable rental housing, and $30 million would be used to help qualifying individuals put a down payment on a home. Another $50 million would be used for statewide navigation centers, which are 7-day emergency shelters aimed to help connect houseless persons with services that can assist them.
On Monday, March 8th, Democratic legislators announced of these policy proposals, which they consider to be of most importance for 2021. Such as Senate Bill 79: Racial Disparities in Homeownership, which will have funds set aside to offer grants and loans for home down payments. This bill acknowledges and addresses long-standing disparities in homeownership and will expand the use of the Homeownership Assitance Program (HOAP) to support new strategies identifying these racial disparities. Historically Oregon has used housing availability and location as a tool for banks, the government, and neighborhoods to discriminate against BIPOC. This has led to a generation wealth and homeownership gap between BIPOC and their white counterparts. Senate Bill 79 will also allow for the nine federally recognized Indigenous communities to have access to this homeownership assistance program which historically has not been seen. Lastly, it will also set out to have culturally specific counseling and financial literacy classes to fight language barriers of those setting out to buy a home.
For more information on Senate Bill 79 and other bills presented by legislators please visit: https://www.opb.org/article/2021/03/08/oregon-democrats-legislature-housing-homelessness-priorities/
Sources:
https://www.oregon.gov/ohcs/about-us/Documents/gov-relations/SB-79-One-Pager.pdf
https://legiscan.com/OR/rollcall/SB79/id/1021945
No comments:
Post a Comment