City Council recently took another step toward addressing Bend’s affordable housing crisis when it approved the sale of City land to a local affordable housing developer. But despite the high demand for such units, this action is unlikely to bring relief to a nearly impenetrable rental market for at least a couple more years.
At the Dec. 2 Bend City Council meeting, the council voted and approved the sale of a five-acre parcel of land on Butler Market Road to Pacific Crest Affordable Housing, a Bend-based affordable housing developer. Pacific Crest’s proposed project for the area includes 64 units and it’s the builder’s first development that will be available to anyone at or below 60 percent of the area’s median income.
Pacific Crest’s John Gilbert and Rob Roy have passed a significant checkpoint, but many steps remain in what is typically a five-year process to get from conception to completion.
“So the steps are to find a site, to design the project, to negotiate the acquisition of the site, and then to get the funding for the site,” says Gilbert. “And then to finish the design, construct the site and then move everybody in. It’s a long process.”
For Pacific Crest’s proposed project—Canal Commons—the next step is securing funding. There’s always the risk of not getting funding during the initial phase of submitting their housing project application for state or federal funding, but Roy says they’ve only been turned down twice on their first try, and were still awarded funding on their second attempt.
For Canal Commons, the anticipated timeline looks like this: apply for funding in the spring or summer of 2016, begin design and predevelopment by fall of 2016—allowing construction to start in early 2017; and finally, the units would be move-in ready by 2017, according to Gilbert.
The proposed layout for Canal Commons incorporates play areas, a living street—designated for both pedestrians and cars, a community center, a garden, and a proposed pedestrian walkway over the canal, which would connect residents with running trails, places to walk their pets, and Pine Nursery Park.
“We allow pets in our buildings—and all of our buildings are [for] senior[s] so far—but it really brightens the lives of a lot of our residents and overall it makes people happier to be able to have their pets with them,” Gilbert says.
Despite the extensive, arduous process, Gilbert says that the City is doing what it can to help get projects off the ground.
“Before the great recession there were concerns for having affordable housing, and then during the recession everybody was focused on economic growth and other issues, and now that the economy is coming back and in-migration is picking up, the housing crisis has gotten worse,” he says. “The City Council is definitely looking at ways it can mitigate that, and one of the ways is to find excess parcels of land—like this five acres on Butler Market Road—and make those excess parcels of land available for affordable housing.”
Roy agrees that appeal of living in Bend drives in-migration and the community needs to continue to have the discussion of how to move forward with regard to the affordable housing problem. He says the steps already taken by the City help.
“What Bend did to make this project happen, their SDC [systems development charge] waivers, and things like that that makes it possible when we go to the state for funding. The likelihood of getting funded is much higher if we can say, ‘Hey, the local community has already invested 10 percent of the total development cost in this,'” he says. “They look at that and think that helps.”
Rima Wilson—Pacific Crest’s funding manager and the former City of Bend Affordable Housing Manager—says those tools are important because incomes have not kept pace with housing costs, and inclusionary zoning is illegal in Oregon. Wilson adds that Oregon House Bill 2564—which would end the ban on inclusionary zoning—was introduced during the last regular Legislative session and passed in the House, but was still in the Senate when the session ended.
Wilson created a report based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics data to illustrate the income levels relative to occupations that fall below the median income in Bend. According to that report, a wide range of workers, in fields ranging from social services and education to healthcare and finance—including pharmacy technicians, nursing assistants, veterinary technicians, construction laborers, bank tellers, and recreation workers—”have annual wages at or below the current HUD income limit for affordable housing projects.”
The income guide for a four-person household limits their gross income to around $35,000 per year. From there, the income limit decreases: for a three-person household it’s $32,000 per year; a two-person household would be roughly $28,500; and the maximum pre-tax income for a single-person is $24,960.
“In Bend, [housing prices have] gone up so much faster than incomes have gone up,” says Wilson. “Incomes just aren’t going up at the same rate.”
Roy adds that market rate housing is difficult to afford for people just coming out of high school and college.
“The combination for say, [Millenials], is so many people have large student loans, and in addition, the cost of housing goes way beyond what the incomes are,” he says.
Between the project completion time and demand for more affordable housing units in Bend, Pacific Crest Housing plans to pursue more projects and continue chipping away at the larger housing demand problem. Roy says the company currently has new sites in La Pine and Prineville, and a few in Sisters, and is looking for more sites here in Bend.
“With this project, we’ll be at 175 units,” Roy says. “So it’s cumulative, it takes time, but if we do nothing, we’re going to have a catastrophe.”
In the past, Roy says their plans for affordable housing have at times been met with resistance; however, two of Pacific Crest’s completed projects, Discovery Park Lodge and Mountain Laurel Lodge, have been confused for actual vacation lodges.
“It’s amazing the number of people who show up during the week asking if they can have a room for the night,” says Roy.
Both Gilbert and Roy have an extensive background in development and founded Pacific Crest more than a decade ago. Roy says that while some developers are looked at negatively, he and Gilbert are trying to have positive impact.
“We just came to the conclusion that we wanted to do things that were good for the community at large,” he says. “Then people can say what they want but at least we can sleep at night—knowing what we are doing is good and there’s a huge community benefit.”
This article appears in Dec 16-23, 2015.
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In the day and age of zero accountability for one’s own place in life, this will bother many people, but with low income comes high crime. One of the main reasons Bend is so desirable is because it’s expensive to live here and as a result, the crime rate is lower. These apartments are just super duper for the poorest members of society but I would like Roy to explain to me how bringing extremely poor families into a neighborhood is “a huge community benefit”. Is lowering the value of current homeowners’ properties in the area a benefit? How about increased car break-ins that coincide with low-income housing blocks? Maybe a benefit is more congested traffic on already deteriorated roads that aren’t designed to handle high population density and will continue to deteriorate because low income families don’t contribute tax dollars the way home-owners in the area do? If this is such a wonderful benefit to the community, why don’t they build them on the west side? I’m sure the residents of Thetherow or NW Crossing would love to have them in their neighborhood?
I disapprove of the name Canal Commons, because it capitalizes on the open water feature created by the bordering canal. This desirable waterway feature is not owned by the developer and in an effort to reduce the loss of water due to seepage and evaporation from the canal the irrigation district will someday pipe this canal. The part of the system in NE Bend has some of the greatest leakage and the greatest benefit in water saving from piping. I feel it is dishonest to market the project with the canal when it is not owned by the developer and will be piped. We are already seeing homeowners fighting the piping of the canals for this very reason and we don’t need more aversion to saving water.
I think “James” is delusional,”Bend is desirable because it’s expensive”! That makes absolutely no sense what so ever. Crime is lower here because Bend is still somewhat small, has minimal urban sprawl and a population made mostly of white, affluent people. Bend is desirable because of the proximity to a multitude of outdoor activities, small town feel,great beer, food and of course those views. The reason affordable housing isn’t build on the west side is because it’s not AFFORDABLE, it’s no secret land is more expensive on the west side. Low income families may not contribute as much as homeowners, but they still pay state tax and contribute their share….sorry they aren’t wealthy but they still smile at you while serving you your next trendy drink.
Affordable housing is a really big deal here right now, houses with multiple roommates, low paying jobs and growth need to be addressed. My family and I moved here in 1978, I have seen the many changes Bend has gone through, from logging town to now a destination. In my opinion, Bend was greatest around 2000-04, Bend had almost all of the same amenities it has now but a population around 50k.
The supply of all housing needs to increase, this will bring housing costs down and the quality of life will go up..and not just for those of you that have deep pockets.
Though it feels this way even to me, Bend is not all about you people that sold a house somewhere more expensive and then moved here and quit working. Bend is full of peopleinI the service industry that love it here but scrape by because even rooms for rent can cost 750/mth. If you look at the median hourly wage in Bend, it has barely risen since the 70’s, yet housing has skyrocketed.
It’s time that the UGB is expanded for real growth, open up land for development and bring prices down. People are going to keep moving here, let’s have some places for them to go instead of stacking them into overpriced and over crowded homes.
Brent
Now James may want to throw the Low Income people under the buss and “Ride the High Street” but he seems to forget that ALL of us “Share” this land . . . It’s not for just the “Richees”.
One of the “Real” problems is the Artificial Creation of “Wealth” from various forms of Fiat Money which is a Fraud Perpetrated on the American People by the owners of the Federal Reserve System . . . This “Fiat Paper Money” charade has become the Richees Delusion of Wealth & is used as a Tool to Lord Over the “Less Fortunate” . . . Thankfully their are Many who still know the value of “Real Work” and add “Real Value” to the community instead of Manipulating Fiat Funds to gain “Real Goods & Services” . . . The Days of “Fiat Riches” are nearing a Time of Reckoning . . . Best that EVERYONE Remember how to do Honest Work & Add Value to the ENTIRE Community as Your Wealth & My Wealth = Our Wealth as a SHARED Community.