Affordable Housing

Affordable housing has always been an integral part of Oregon’s land use planning program. Oregon’s Statewide Planning Goal 10 (Housing) eliminates zoning barriers to building affordable housing. Every city in Oregon must zone land for a variety of different housing types and sizes, to meet the needs of all Oregonians, regardless of income, family size, age, or other characteristic. The planning laws forbid exclusionary housing policies – zoning that prohibits apartment buildings or other multifamily housing, manufactured housing, or government assisted housing.

Since its inception, 1000 Friends of Oregon has strived to ensure that housing affordability is integrated into the planning program as well as into our own work. We have relied on advocacy, litigation, and public education and outreach to achieve this.

In 1994, then Executive Director Robert Liberty spearheaded the creation of the Coalition for a Livable Future, an alliance of community groups in the Portland area dedicated to addressing the links among a variety of issues, from housing to water quality, food security to urban design, economic inequality to transportation choices. 1000 Friends is also part of the statewide Housing Alliance. The Housing Alliance brings together advocates, local governments, housing authorities, community development corporations, environmentalists, service providers, business interests, and others dedicated to increasing the resources available to meet Oregon’s housing needs to support a common statewide legislative and policy agenda.

Some criticize land use planning for having an adverse impact on affordable housing. Not only is this inaccurate, as many studies have shown, but in fact the opposite may well be true. As evidenced in the studies listed below, traditional land use zoning often restrict the development of multifamily, affordable housing, thereby disadvantaging low-income residents. In contrast, growth management processes, such as those used in Oregon cities and counties, allow for responsible and conscious planning and expansion done with residents of all income levels in mind.

Studies of Portland housing prices and growth management suggest that housing prices in the city and other metropolitan areas are primarily determined by national housing and economic trends, as well as regional employment trends and income levels. The city’s urban growth boundary tends to increase housing prices very slightly, but more importantly it encourages dense urban, more affordable, housing development.¹

While housing prices might rise slightly as a result of urban growth management, the development that does occur is designed with affordable living in mind, resulting in more affordable communities. The well-designed, compact neighborhoods that typically result from growth management provide both housing choice and transportation choice – walking, bicycling, bus, train, and car. Having schools, shopping, employment, and entertainment nearby or a bus ride away saves time, money, and energy and creates a sense of place. Through responsible growth management, planning for affordable housing becomes planning for affordable neighborhood communities.

Further resources and information on affordable housing and urban growth:

  • “Growth Management and Affordable Housing: Do They Conflict?” by Anthony Downs, prepared by The Brookings Institution, 2004
  • “The Link Between Growth Management and Housing Affordability: The Academic Evidence” by Arthur C. Nelson, Rolf Pendall, Casey J. Dawkins, and Gerrit J. Knaap, prepared by The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy, February 2002

¹ Goodstein, Eban & Phillips, Justin. “Growth Management and Housing Prices: The Case of Portland, Oregon,” Contemporary Economic Policy, Vol. 18, No. 3, July 2000.