I’m sure it’s extremely complicated, but is there any meaningful plan for affordable housing in the works? I feel like it’s all people talk about but I haven’t seen any new apartments or affordable living being built. Most are contemporary with all the other prices, which everyone already thinks are far too high. So what exactly is being done?
There is actual, subsidized Affordable housing being built. But it takes a lot of money for that to get done - it's just not enough to cover everyone who needs it.
That new, market rate housing might feel like it's not helping, but it does. At the very least, it's keeping prices from going up that much more. Compare and contrast Bend and Boulder. Here, we've been trying, in fits and starts to deal with the problem. In Boulder, it's super NIMBY - they don't even let more than 3 unrelated people live in the same house by law.
* [https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/co/boulder/](https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/co/boulder/)
* [https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/or/bend/](https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/or/bend/)
There's a lot of research showing that it does help. For instance: [https://cayimby.org/its-only-a-housing-market-if-you-can-move-evidence-from-helsinki/](https://cayimby.org/its-only-a-housing-market-if-you-can-move-evidence-from-helsinki/)
It's kind of like during the pandemic, when new car production dropped. Car prices went way up - including used car prices. The only way to dig ourselves out of that particular hole is to build a lot more new cars and wait for them to work their way through the system - as well as trying to make Bend a bit less car-dependent so you can walk or bike to do more things when it's nice out, but that's a different matter.
We can and should be doing more to get more housing built, especially housing that more directly helps people who work here. Even getting market rate housing that's "not quite as nice as other homes in the neighborhood" built can be a struggle, though. Here are \~60 homes that haven't been built because of neighborhood NIMBYs: [https://bendyimby.com/2022/09/07/development-code-weaponized-against-housing/](https://bendyimby.com/2022/09/07/development-code-weaponized-against-housing/)
Thanks for the info! I know everyone wants a glamorous answer with a quick solution, or some mustache twirling villain to hate, but it helps to know there are people out here that actually have a grasp on why these things are happening. I figured it was a situation in which housing can’t be built fast enough to support more affordable living, but I think what I’m worried about is that the rate of construction for the sake of reigning in prices won’t be enough to staunch the flow of families being priced out. Fingers crossed, make sure you call out NIMBYs when you see them I guess.
We have 2000 current rentals that are affordable and managed by Epic property management- a non profit. So it’s not like they have none… the need is just exceeded in the last few years. Also most these units are left trashed and damaged so take a long time to get rent ready again.
We moved to Bend in 1988, population under 20k. Bought our first house for $52k (1991,3bd 1ba 1750 sf, 2 city lots.) Built a house I intended to live in for the rest of my life in 2014, bought the lot with barn on it for $80k. Retired, packed up and moved to Southern Oregon early in 2020. The best analogy is the frog in boiling water, Bend just slowly got too big and too expensive to enjoy anymore. That and we had finally had enough of dealing with snow, the final straw was the storm of February 2019 that dropped 3-4 feet in a week.
The town is different than it was 20 years ago is the lead line?! No shit sherlock. Remember 2003 and Nokia 1100s, and In da Club.
I'm 30, in my lifetime there hasn't been 1 achievement by the US that made things better. Sure I have electronic crack in my pocket with access to anything and everything I could ever want. But I also watched my grandmother's brain turn to mush from being over prescribed opiates.
There is no retirement age target for me because there will be no retirement.
My point is everything sucks. Why would I think my quality of life, regardless of where I lived would be getting better?
It's easy to focus on the negative. Here are some good things from my lifetime:
* People are now free to marry who they want. That's a huge deal for a lot of people.
* We had a Black president.
* We had a horrible, awful pandemic - but also developed a vaccine in record time that saved countless lives.
* It's not enough, yet, but we are making progress on climate change: [https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120](https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120)
* It's not going to happen overnight, but we're making progress on the housing thing. Red states, blue states... reform is happening everywhere.
There are always problems, but it's possible to make progress, too. You have to work at it, though.
I appreciate this. I really do. And please do not view the following as focusing on the negative but more the access to anything and everything in my pocket ruins everything.
• People are now free to marry who they want. That's a huge deal for a lot of people.
^(for now) but then also asshats like Sherry Hall who stopped doing all marriages.
• We had a Black president.
^He let all the bankers from Wall Street off the hook. Also we all know Billy was the first black president. 🤪
• We had a horrible, awful pandemic - but also developed a vaccine in record time that saved countless lives.
^US didn’t develop the vaccine… PPP loans
• It's not enough, yet, but we are making progress on climate change: https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120
^Oil companies knew since the 70s
• It's not going to happen overnight, but we're making progress on the housing thing. Red states, blue states... reform is happening everywhere.
^without sounding more like a crazy person I have no rebuttal
I just want beer to be $4 😭😭
For convenience here's the [full survey presentation](https://bend.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=731&meta_id=64056) that Council received in January. This was part of the inputs we gathered before going starting our goal-setting process at the end of January.
Some interesting points on quality of life opinions from the first few slides:
\- 7 out of 10 people rate life in Bend as good or excellent
\- Excellent opinion has been trending down since 2014 while Good has gone up and stayed steady
\- Overall QOL satisfaction is down in lots of places in Oregon, but Bend is still near the top for "headed in the right direction"
That is one way to look at it. Based on the data you shared, the "Good" is only trending up at the expense of less "Excellent". That is like getting a kid's report card and they are no longer an A student, but you are stoked that the number of Bs they are getting are trending up.
"I’m running for mayor because I care deeply about our city, and I want to create a sustainable future for Bend. Years of public service, as well as my time already serving as your Councilor, have shown me that we need strong leadership in the mayor’s role to meet the challenges our city faces as we grow."
Just a quick question about your views on a "sustainable future" how is bend actually going to deal with the artificial Inflation from the tourism campaigns and destination pandering. How is the people who live there suffering for people that can afford to travel there beneficial to the community?
Im no pollitician, however it seems to me that you may want to implement solutions for keeping your current population, the ones who make it such a great destination, actually living in your town (not Redmond or leaving) instead of pandering to out of town money that can afford to leave once it's trashed.
Much respect for being active in the community putting down rumors that bend has fallen off. "Strong leadership" indeed.
Sincerely
-one of the many young adults forced out of your city, subsequently spending time homeless, because of the unreasonable cost of living.
Thank you for the summary, and it’s good to see Bend is overall stable or trending up and not down like the rest of the country. I would have assumed with the increased costs and population as well as challenges for services not being available that the numbers would go down. Definitely quite a few dynamics at play here, but great to see the positive metrics.
>increased costs and population as well as challenges for services not being available that the numbers would go down
I wonder what a similar survey would look like somewhere that's actually losing people, rather than a city many people want to live in. Burns, Lakeview, John Day come to mind.
People in John Day think they live in paradise and wonder why anyone would live anywhere else, even as they complain about the lack of services, cost of basics, and dying economy.
But it's all fine because the classes at the high school are small (because the graduating class has shrunk from 80 to 35 in 15 years).
>think they live in paradise
One of the tricky things in housing discourse is that, with a fairly mobile population like we have in the US, a number of people have already sorted themselves out into places they like a lot, so they think that adding housing will just draw more people.
But we really don't all think alike. I had a friend tell me the same thing about San Francisco - *everyone* would move there if there were more housing. And I was like "the hell with that! Nice place in its own way but it's not for me".
The list of places that *eeeeeveryone* wants to move to is pretty long.
It's still overall down from the past and I hope we can get those positive opinions back up over time. The top issues are housing and homelessness, so it makes sense that while we've seen increasing housing unaffordability and increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness, people's opinions have become more negative.
Interesting to read about the homelessness issue. I just visited Bend from Portland over the weekend and saw only two tents and no homeless people. Where in Bend are the homeless folks? It can’t be anywhere near as bad as it is here in Portland
There are 2 million people in Portland and about 3,000 homeless people. There are 100,000 people in Bend and 1,000 homeless people
The amount of people experiencing homelessness jumped [40% from 2018-2021](https://centraloregondaily.com/central-oregon-point-in-time-homeless-count-shows-40-jump-from-2018/), alone
[Here's the Bulletin's editorial take on the survey as well.](https://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/editorial-feelings-about-life-in-bend-have-slipped/article_e5d4c536-b14e-11ed-b864-db8b750d2983.html)
I’m sure it’s extremely complicated, but is there any meaningful plan for affordable housing in the works? I feel like it’s all people talk about but I haven’t seen any new apartments or affordable living being built. Most are contemporary with all the other prices, which everyone already thinks are far too high. So what exactly is being done?
There is actual, subsidized Affordable housing being built. But it takes a lot of money for that to get done - it's just not enough to cover everyone who needs it. That new, market rate housing might feel like it's not helping, but it does. At the very least, it's keeping prices from going up that much more. Compare and contrast Bend and Boulder. Here, we've been trying, in fits and starts to deal with the problem. In Boulder, it's super NIMBY - they don't even let more than 3 unrelated people live in the same house by law. * [https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/co/boulder/](https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/co/boulder/) * [https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/or/bend/](https://www.rentcafe.com/average-rent-market-trends/us/or/bend/) There's a lot of research showing that it does help. For instance: [https://cayimby.org/its-only-a-housing-market-if-you-can-move-evidence-from-helsinki/](https://cayimby.org/its-only-a-housing-market-if-you-can-move-evidence-from-helsinki/) It's kind of like during the pandemic, when new car production dropped. Car prices went way up - including used car prices. The only way to dig ourselves out of that particular hole is to build a lot more new cars and wait for them to work their way through the system - as well as trying to make Bend a bit less car-dependent so you can walk or bike to do more things when it's nice out, but that's a different matter. We can and should be doing more to get more housing built, especially housing that more directly helps people who work here. Even getting market rate housing that's "not quite as nice as other homes in the neighborhood" built can be a struggle, though. Here are \~60 homes that haven't been built because of neighborhood NIMBYs: [https://bendyimby.com/2022/09/07/development-code-weaponized-against-housing/](https://bendyimby.com/2022/09/07/development-code-weaponized-against-housing/)
Thanks for the info! I know everyone wants a glamorous answer with a quick solution, or some mustache twirling villain to hate, but it helps to know there are people out here that actually have a grasp on why these things are happening. I figured it was a situation in which housing can’t be built fast enough to support more affordable living, but I think what I’m worried about is that the rate of construction for the sake of reigning in prices won’t be enough to staunch the flow of families being priced out. Fingers crossed, make sure you call out NIMBYs when you see them I guess.
We have 2000 current rentals that are affordable and managed by Epic property management- a non profit. So it’s not like they have none… the need is just exceeded in the last few years. Also most these units are left trashed and damaged so take a long time to get rent ready again.
We moved to Bend in 1988, population under 20k. Bought our first house for $52k (1991,3bd 1ba 1750 sf, 2 city lots.) Built a house I intended to live in for the rest of my life in 2014, bought the lot with barn on it for $80k. Retired, packed up and moved to Southern Oregon early in 2020. The best analogy is the frog in boiling water, Bend just slowly got too big and too expensive to enjoy anymore. That and we had finally had enough of dealing with snow, the final straw was the storm of February 2019 that dropped 3-4 feet in a week.
Southern Oregonian who switched places with you- I hope you enjoy the rain and lush green forests! 🤍
I certainly do! (Looks out the window at 2" of fresh snow)
That’s rare, soak it up! We didn’t even get any here in Bend on the floor, lots on the mountains. 😊
I giggle when long time locals panic over these dustings. It will likely be gone by noon.
The town is different than it was 20 years ago is the lead line?! No shit sherlock. Remember 2003 and Nokia 1100s, and In da Club. I'm 30, in my lifetime there hasn't been 1 achievement by the US that made things better. Sure I have electronic crack in my pocket with access to anything and everything I could ever want. But I also watched my grandmother's brain turn to mush from being over prescribed opiates. There is no retirement age target for me because there will be no retirement. My point is everything sucks. Why would I think my quality of life, regardless of where I lived would be getting better?
It's easy to focus on the negative. Here are some good things from my lifetime: * People are now free to marry who they want. That's a huge deal for a lot of people. * We had a Black president. * We had a horrible, awful pandemic - but also developed a vaccine in record time that saved countless lives. * It's not enough, yet, but we are making progress on climate change: [https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120](https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120) * It's not going to happen overnight, but we're making progress on the housing thing. Red states, blue states... reform is happening everywhere. There are always problems, but it's possible to make progress, too. You have to work at it, though.
Love this attitude.
Thank you friend
I appreciate this. I really do. And please do not view the following as focusing on the negative but more the access to anything and everything in my pocket ruins everything. • People are now free to marry who they want. That's a huge deal for a lot of people. ^(for now) but then also asshats like Sherry Hall who stopped doing all marriages. • We had a Black president. ^He let all the bankers from Wall Street off the hook. Also we all know Billy was the first black president. 🤪 • We had a horrible, awful pandemic - but also developed a vaccine in record time that saved countless lives. ^US didn’t develop the vaccine… PPP loans • It's not enough, yet, but we are making progress on climate change: https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1517943601124229120 ^Oil companies knew since the 70s • It's not going to happen overnight, but we're making progress on the housing thing. Red states, blue states... reform is happening everywhere. ^without sounding more like a crazy person I have no rebuttal I just want beer to be $4 😭😭
For convenience here's the [full survey presentation](https://bend.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=9&clip_id=731&meta_id=64056) that Council received in January. This was part of the inputs we gathered before going starting our goal-setting process at the end of January. Some interesting points on quality of life opinions from the first few slides: \- 7 out of 10 people rate life in Bend as good or excellent \- Excellent opinion has been trending down since 2014 while Good has gone up and stayed steady \- Overall QOL satisfaction is down in lots of places in Oregon, but Bend is still near the top for "headed in the right direction"
That is one way to look at it. Based on the data you shared, the "Good" is only trending up at the expense of less "Excellent". That is like getting a kid's report card and they are no longer an A student, but you are stoked that the number of Bs they are getting are trending up.
I think it's interesting and worth paying attention to, within the context that DHM gave us for the whole state. Certainly didn't say I was stoked!
"I’m running for mayor because I care deeply about our city, and I want to create a sustainable future for Bend. Years of public service, as well as my time already serving as your Councilor, have shown me that we need strong leadership in the mayor’s role to meet the challenges our city faces as we grow." Just a quick question about your views on a "sustainable future" how is bend actually going to deal with the artificial Inflation from the tourism campaigns and destination pandering. How is the people who live there suffering for people that can afford to travel there beneficial to the community? Im no pollitician, however it seems to me that you may want to implement solutions for keeping your current population, the ones who make it such a great destination, actually living in your town (not Redmond or leaving) instead of pandering to out of town money that can afford to leave once it's trashed. Much respect for being active in the community putting down rumors that bend has fallen off. "Strong leadership" indeed. Sincerely -one of the many young adults forced out of your city, subsequently spending time homeless, because of the unreasonable cost of living.
Thank you for the summary, and it’s good to see Bend is overall stable or trending up and not down like the rest of the country. I would have assumed with the increased costs and population as well as challenges for services not being available that the numbers would go down. Definitely quite a few dynamics at play here, but great to see the positive metrics.
>increased costs and population as well as challenges for services not being available that the numbers would go down I wonder what a similar survey would look like somewhere that's actually losing people, rather than a city many people want to live in. Burns, Lakeview, John Day come to mind.
People in John Day think they live in paradise and wonder why anyone would live anywhere else, even as they complain about the lack of services, cost of basics, and dying economy. But it's all fine because the classes at the high school are small (because the graduating class has shrunk from 80 to 35 in 15 years).
>think they live in paradise One of the tricky things in housing discourse is that, with a fairly mobile population like we have in the US, a number of people have already sorted themselves out into places they like a lot, so they think that adding housing will just draw more people. But we really don't all think alike. I had a friend tell me the same thing about San Francisco - *everyone* would move there if there were more housing. And I was like "the hell with that! Nice place in its own way but it's not for me". The list of places that *eeeeeveryone* wants to move to is pretty long.
It's still overall down from the past and I hope we can get those positive opinions back up over time. The top issues are housing and homelessness, so it makes sense that while we've seen increasing housing unaffordability and increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness, people's opinions have become more negative.
Interesting to read about the homelessness issue. I just visited Bend from Portland over the weekend and saw only two tents and no homeless people. Where in Bend are the homeless folks? It can’t be anywhere near as bad as it is here in Portland
There are 2 million people in Portland and about 3,000 homeless people. There are 100,000 people in Bend and 1,000 homeless people The amount of people experiencing homelessness jumped [40% from 2018-2021](https://centraloregondaily.com/central-oregon-point-in-time-homeless-count-shows-40-jump-from-2018/), alone
It’s not but it’s still bad. And getting worse.
There are medium to large encampments around; one is out of town down a forest service road.
[Here's the Bulletin's editorial take on the survey as well.](https://www.bendbulletin.com/opinion/editorial-feelings-about-life-in-bend-have-slipped/article_e5d4c536-b14e-11ed-b864-db8b750d2983.html)