The Problem: Oregon’s Housing Crisis & Stalled Development

Oregon faces one of the worst housing shortages in the nation, with a 360,000-home deficit projected over the next decade. Many shovel-ready projects are stalled due to financing gaps caused by high interest rates.

• Existing funding sources like LIHTC and LIFT are oversubscribed, leaving affordable housing developments stalled.

• The lack of flexible financing tools has resulted in fewer housing projects moving forward.

The Solution: A Construction Revolving Fund to Unlock Development

SB 684 establishes an OHCS Construction Revolving Fund to provide below-market rate loans for mixed-income housing developments with permanently affordable units. The fund helps cover high-risk subordinate construction loans (15-20%), filling gaps left by traditional financing models and facilitating public-private partnerships that drive new housing.

What is Mixed-Income Public Development?

A housing model that integrates affordable, workforce, and market-rate units within the same development:
✔ 70% workforce/market-rate
✔ 30% affordable housing, typically 20% at 50% AMI and the remainder at 60-80% AMI.

The Impact

With this revolving fund, we can:
📈 Leverage private investment while safeguarding affordability.
🔄 Create a self-sustaining funding cycle, reinvesting repaid loans into future projects.
🏡 Support job creation and strengthen local economies.

How SB 684 Promotes Housing Production

✅ Provides below-market interest rates (0-5%), varying by project, to maximize housing production.
✅ Ensures affordability by prioritizing public ownership, allowing housing authorities to retain ownership and long-term affordability.
✅ Supports public-private partnerships through co-development agreements, ensuring private developers receive structured returns while public entities maintain affordability protections.
✅ Maximizes flexibility in private developer exits, allowing rulemaking to ensure negotiated equity returns, cash flow splits, and profit structures that work for both parties.

This is a model that was first pioneered in Montgomery County, Maryland, and has been extensively promoted by the policy thinktank Center for Public Enterprise.

Talking points: What to say/write in your testimony

• Share your personal housing story!

  • Have you had a tough time finding a place to rent?

  • Can’t find a home you can afford in the neighborhood you want to live in?

  • Are you worried about the lack of housing production in Oregon and in Portland specifically?

  • Do you want to see more socioeconomic integration and housing that is affordable to Oregonians of all ages, wages and stages?

  • Do you want to see the state of Oregon be more innovative and aggressive in efforts to finance construction of both market-rate and affordable housing?

  • Do you believe that neighborhoods are more vibrant when we build more housing that is available to a larger spectrum of income levels?

  • Are you a developer or architect with specific experience and expertise who can speak about what lower rates for construction loans would mean for your ability to build housing?

  • Do you just want to build more dang housing in Oregon and want legislators to be willing to explore all possible options to do something about it?

  • Are you worried about the federal government’s expected attacks against affordable housing, and want to see Oregon develop innovative ways to build affordable housing without federal funds?

  We have a lot of technical policy experts who will be sharing written testimony (and if you have that experience, that’s very valuable as well!) but what’s most important is that legislators hear from everyday Oregonians demanding bolder action to build more housing.

• Oregon has a housing crisis, and high interest rates are one of the most significant barriers to new housing being built in Oregon. The state of Oregon should actively explore opportunities to provide subsidized financing to help construction of new affordable and market-rate rents.

• We need to find creative ways to finance new affordable housing, especially with threats from the federal government to cut funding for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program, which is already severely under-resourced. This proposal would allow construction of affordable housing in high-amenity neighborhoods and cities without using any LIHTC funding.

Template Testimony

You can use this testimony as inspiration for your own distinct remarks, as a template to build upon, or as a plug-and-play form letter. What’s most important is that you testify.

Chair Pham, Vice Chair Anderson and Members of the Senate Housing Committee,

My name is _______ and I live in [your neighborhood or region of Portland, or your Senate District if you know it]. I’m joining Portland: Neighbors Welcome in supporting SB 684 to establish a Construction Revolving Fund to provide below-market rate loans for mixed-income housing developments with permanently affordable units.

[Share your housing story! See prompts above!]

Oregon is in a deep housing crisis, and high interest rates represent one of the most barriers to construction of new homes. I urge you to support SB 684 to direct the state to address this barrier and help build more housing across the state.

Thank you.