At the Bend Area Habitat for Humanity Build It! Breakfast, Executive Director Scott Rohrer told business leaders in the region, “There is a crisis in affordable housing in Bend.” Rohrer went on to tell the audience that the average median income in Bend has gone down for the last four years in a row while housing costs have
skyrocketed. “Four years ago lots that were on the market for $24,000 are now listed at $80,000,” he said. The city of Bend’s Affordable Housing Manager, Jim Long told the audience that new housing often costs upwards of
$400 thousand dollars making it un-affordable for the typical family of four in Bend. The median income for a family of four in Bend is $58,400 annually. Both Rohrer and Long underscored the need for more high density housing in Bend where an average sized lot could accommodate 2 or even 3 connecting town homes. The Source Weekly is exploring the growing interest in tiny homes, micro homes, and other solutions to the skyrocketing price of housing in upcoming issues.
This article appears in Mar 9-16, 2016.
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Let’s talk more about tiny houses, let’s talk more about cottage code that can actually work within the city of Bend. Not just for developers and people who own an acre or more.
Let’s talk about having the city of Bend develop code such as Fresno has that addresses the use of tiny houses and makes them legitimate. This is a movement across the country and Bend is quickly falling behind.
Tiny homes are nothing more than glorified mobile homes and tiny home communities are nothing more than glorified trailer parks. Substandard housing is not the answer.
Tiny homes may not be for everyone, but some folks may be perfectly happy living in one. This is especially true for those that don’t want to shell out incredible sums of money to have a little mansion and keep up with the Joneses. There’s nothing substandard about that, in fact I would say it’s a fairly smart move. And what is wrong with mobile homes or trailer parks? For years they were a viable place to live for lower income people, and if I had to choose between that and a more socially acceptable apartment I’d take a trailer in a clean park in a moment.