Build it!
Fix the books, clear the land, and put Oregonians back on the path to homeownership.
Something is off in Oregon’s housing story, and it’s not subtle.
We’re told there’s never enough money. Never enough programs. Never enough authority. Yet somehow, in the middle of a housing “emergency,” Portland officials managed to discover over $20 million sitting unspent in housing-related funds. Not spare couch change. Real money. Money that was supposedly desperately needed. (Found Money Magically – Fox News 12 Story )
At the same time? Affordable apartments sitting empty. Thousands of people struggling. Lawmakers being pushed to do more, tax more, regulate more.
That’s not a funding crisis.
That’s a systems failure.
“When money sits idle and homes sit empty during a housing crisis, the problem isn’t resources. It’s how the system operates.”
The Housing Industrial Complex Problem
Let’s stop pretending this is just about supply shortages. Portland’s housing bureaucracy has become what can only be described as a housing industrial complex — agencies, bureaus, programs, consultants, and nonprofits moving money around in a maze where outcomes get blurry and accountability gets optional.
The City formally laid out how to spend the “found” $20.7 million only after the fact, carving it up across rent assistance, eviction programs, and development projects. (Allocation details) That means the money existed — it just wasn’t deployed.
Meanwhile, Oregon’s own housing strategy shows a different path: factory-built and manufactured housing as a homeownership engine, not just permanent subsidy. State programs are already replacing aging homes and preserving communities through targeted funding and HUD-backed initiatives. This funding is lacking, and slow, replacing a few dozen of homes, not the thousands we need, and this is not new supply, its replacement, it’s triage, not holistic solutions.
(OHCS manufactured housing overview)
So the question isn’t “do we need more housing policy?”
The question is: why does the existing system struggle to convert dollars into housed people?
And Yes — We Need More Land. Period.
Here’s the part Salem needs to hear loud and clear.
Oregon has wrapped housing in so many land-use rules, zoning layers, and permitting hoops that we’ve made it hard to build the very thing we claim to want.
We don’t fix that with more paperwork.
We fix it with more land and fewer obstacles.
Urban Growth Boundaries shouldn’t be sacred lines drawn in permanent marker. If people need homes, land needs to be available. Expanding buildable land is not sprawl doom — it’s basic economics. Restrict supply, prices rise. Free supply, prices stabilize.
And in a digital economy where people work remotely, start businesses from home, and aren’t chained to downtown office towers, the demand for attainable homeownership — yards, garages, small communities — is real. People want roots again.
“We don’t need a bigger housing bureaucracy. We need more places where homes can legally be built.”
The Ownership Gap Is the Real Crisis
The modern housing debate has drifted into managing people instead of empowering them.
Subsidized units have their place. But if the end goal isn’t ownership, we’re just creating a larger permanent renter class dependent on public systems that already can’t keep their books straight.
Manufactured housing is one of the clearest examples of how Oregon can build attainable ownership at scale. Legislative efforts to open land for these communities and age-targeted housing show what a pro-construction, pro-ownership path looks like. (HB 4082 overview)
That’s not theory. That’s:
- Lower build costs
- Faster production
- Real equity for families
Not social equity. Actual equity — the kind that shows up on a balance sheet.
If expanding land use for senior communities is something you support, you are an Oregon Voter, you can testify, but the window is limited, likely about 24 hours from when this story is published.
LINK HERE
Here’s the Story Voters Understand
“Portland found millions it said didn’t exist. Affordable apartments sit empty. Meanwhile, the state keeps restricting land and layering on rules that make building harder. Maybe the problem isn’t lack of programs — maybe it’s too many.”
That’s not anti-housing.
That’s pro-results.
What Lawmakers Should Deliver This Session
Salem shouldn’t double down on the same structures that just proved they can’t keep track of money. Lawmakers should be pushing:
- Audits and public accounting of housing funds
- Performance metrics tied to actual placements and occupancy
- Faster approvals, fewer land-use bottlenecks
- Urban Growth Boundary expansions where demand exists
- Policies that prioritize private construction and homeownership
Because Oregon’s future housing market shouldn’t be a maze of agencies trying to manage scarcity.
“You don’t solve a housing crisis by managing decline. You solve it by letting people build.”
It should be builders building. Families buying. Communities growing.
And yes — Oregon homes, built with Oregon lumber, on Oregon land.
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