QuickTake:

Although the city of Eugene has met some short-term benchmarks, it has a long way to go in addressing its housing shortage. Thousands more housing units are needed in the years ahead.

The city of Eugene is meeting some of its internal goals mapped out for housing growth, but it still falls short of what’s needed to meet the immediate and long-term demand in the city. 

That’s a main takeaway from the city’s new two-year report on housing and homelessness. The report, essentially an internal five-year work plan for the city spanning from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2027, offers a snapshot of the city’s progress in the last two years — and points to challenges as the city looks for ways to grow the housing supply. 

The plan says that the lack of adequate housing stock is a key cause of homelessness, which has increased in the region.

Rather than owning housing projects, Eugene works to make the regulatory environment and policies welcoming to encourage housing, city officials said. That includes incentives like property tax breaks for developers that put in multiunit apartment complexes. 

“We don’t own, operate, build or manage housing,” said Amber Allan, Eugene’s housing and homeless communications manager. “We really look to collaborate with the different partners, and that’s by offering those regulatory funding incentives to be able to support that development.”

For example, the report says the city met its internal goals, which are based in part on available resources, on areas that include affordable housing and permanent supportive housing.

Despite those bright spots, hurdles remain high. That’s because the goals in the city’s internal plan do not reflect the entire need. Needs remain, even in areas where the city met goals in its internal plans.

The goals set by the city’s internal plan are intended to be achievable with the resources available and forecasted during the five-year period, the plan said. 

But the plan added: “The goals are not scaled to meet the needs of the community.”

State projections show that Eugene needs to increase annual housing production by 70% annually compared to the last 10 years to meet the needs of population growth, homelessness and years of underproduction, the city report said.

The growth documented in the report is more of a starting point. 

For example, the report said the city issued 2,387 permits for new housing units in the first two years of the plan. That puts the city on track to meet its target of 6,000 permitted housing units by the end of the five-year period if applications stay at similar levels. 

This includes housing for all income levels and all housing types, including apartments and houses. 

But thousands more housing units are needed. The demands are much higher for the long-term: Eugene needs 26,273 more housing units for the next 20 years, according to a state housing needs analysis for Eugene. 

Affordable housing makes up more than half of that need, nearly 15,000 units. Affordable housing is for individuals who make less than 80% of the area median income. That’s about $67,000 for a family of four.

That need includes people who are homeless, people who are doubled up in homes and additional units to accommodate population growth.

The city is working on a long-term strategy and is required to submit its first housing production strategy to the state by the end of 2027, said Terri Harding, principal planner for Eugene’s community planning and design. 

Now, the city is permitting an average of about 1,000 housing units a year, and 100 units of those are affordable housing. To meet the state’s goals, the city needs 1,600 new housing units a year, with about 700 of them affordable.

Harding said city officials still are vetting more ideas. The city council will get an update June 23 about urban growth strategies. 

“We just already do a lot, and we do need to do more,” Harding said. “We always need to do more.”

The report highlights for fiscal years 2023 and 2024 found: 

  • Eugene exceeded its two-year goal of about 50 units of permanent supportive housing with the opening of 102 new units at three separate projects. Permanent supportive housing is specialized to help people exiting homelessness with rental assistance and other services that can include behavioral health services and onsite care. 
  • On the goal of affordable housing, the 70 new units at Peace Village Cooperative on River Road exceeded the city’s internal goals of 60 units. That project, by SquareOne Villages, assists people with home ownership when they earn up to 60% of the area median income. The city doesn’t own the project, but supported it with $1.2 million. The project opened in December 2023.

Ben Botkin covers politics and policy in Lane County. He has worked as a journalist since 2003, most recently at the Oregon Capital Chronicle, where he covered justice, health and human services and documented regional efforts to combat fentanyl addiction. Botkin has worked in statehouses in Idaho, Nevada, Oklahoma and, of course, Oregon. When he's not working, you'll find him road tripping across the West, hiking or surfing along the Oregon Coast.