Governor's Budget: Prioritize Fewer Band-Aids, More Brick-and-Mortar

When gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek was on the campaign trail, she made it clear that housing and homelessness would be among her top priorities should she win the race in November. Now that she’s in the governor’s office, we’re seeing that promise play out. Kotek declared a Homelessness State of Emergency just after taking office. And this past week, she made that priority even more clear when she rolled out her proposed budget for the coming biennium. In it, housing and homelessness represented some $1 billion of the $116.5-billion biennial budget. And while it comes as no surprise to see Oregon’s new governor make good on her campaign promises, it was likely a surprise to some to see what got left out in order to make those priorities pencil.

On the losing end of a strategy to prioritize housing: Oregon State University-Cascades, which didn’t see the funding it requested for a new student health and recreation center added to Kotek’s budget. OSU-Cascades was looking to secure some $45 million in state bonds to put toward a center that would include faculty offices, classrooms and sports facilities including courts, yoga/dance facilities, climbing walls and outdoor sports fields.

While funding for K-12 schools represented the largest portion of the governor’s proposed budget, that budget didn’t include any new funding for construction projects at any of the state’s universities. Kotek told reporters that it was an intentional decision to focus instead on housing. Officials from OSU-Cascades in Bend said they plan to make an appeal to the governor and the lawmakers who will ultimately approve that budget to get its recreation center added back in.

While housing and homelessness remain Kotek’s top priorities, other big ones included funds for education and behavioral health. Knowing that, it’s rather ironic that a facility aimed at fostering student and staff health got the axe – but this, then, is the cost of prioritizing housing in a state where some 11,000 people live without shelter. These are the sacrifices Oregonians are being asked to make. Fix a humanitarian crisis; then we may be able to get back to thinking about recreation services for college students.

Still, if this is to be the case, Oregonians need to see the payoff in the way of real, actual housing being built – not Band-aid solutions like tents or camps. To be sure, offering safe, temporary places to set up a tent or park an RV can and should be part of a strategy to get more people off the streets – but Oregonians who want to see an end to this crisis should continue to push for the longest-term solutions the state can muster.

Thus far, a good portion of the governor’s proposed budget is dedicated to building housing – but it remains to be seen whether that will be enough. The budget includes $130 million to build new supportive housing and $770 million in bonds to get new affordable homes built for both renters and homeowners. But in addition to that, the proposed budget includes $172.2 million for connecting people to long-term rental assistance, and $73 million to create “long-lasting homelessness prevention programs” in the state. The first two items mentioned appear to be more of the long-lasting stuff. With items like the former two, it will behoove the governor to offer clear communication and transparent spending plans to help Oregonians understand how and why those price tags are where they are.

Thus far, Gov. Kotek has followed through on her promises to prioritize some of the biggest pain points facing the state – even at the expense of some other local projects.

To make the biggest dent in the problem, Oregonians should continue to demand fewer Band-Aids and more brick-and-mortar.

This article appears in Source Weekly February 9, 2023.