Newly elected Governor Kotek recognizes the housing crisis in front of us

Governor Tina Kotek looks to making housing a top priority for Oregon

    One of the biggest changes to Oregon over the last decade was the election of Tina Kotek. Governor Kotek’s campaign stressed the issue of housing, a key point for many Oregonians, especially during the 2020 COVID pandemic that saw many people face housing insecurity. On her official website, Kotek’s target is to aim for issues in housing regarding supply and affordability, an under-resourced homelessness services system, and the underfunding of critical support for vulnerable Oregonians. Whether Kotek succeeds with her plan and tenure as governor, only time will tell—but telling from her explicit plans she lays out to address the issue—she recognizes it from a wide range of perspectives, especially in the face of the Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has been criticized by progressives and conservatives when it comes to housing insecurity.

    The first point on her official website to address housing is to end unsheltered homelessness for veterans, families with children, unaccompanied young adults, and people 65 years and older by 2025, and continue pathways to permanent housing for all Oregonians. A big part of her plan is to create a trained workforce of housing navigators who find housing and reduce barriers for people struggling to find permanent housing and to expand access to state owned properties for temporary emergency shelters and navigation centers. The second listed is a plan to build enough housing to meet the need for people currently experiencing homelessness, address the current shortage of housing, and keep pace with future housing demand by 2033, as well as her third point—the plan to advance racial equity by reducing the racial homeownership gap by 20 percent by 2027. Increase down payment assistance, access to loans, and homeownership education to reach Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) households across the state.  Her fourth point, and one that needs to be constantly addressed, is to keep people housed who are currently on the brink of homelessness. This would mean creating a housing provider council that consists of private landlords, affordable housing providers, and tenant rights advocates to address keeping tenants housed. Her last point is to encourage private-public partnerships to have more effective and efficient responses to solve the crisis. She wants to establish a multi-sector, multi-region advisory group to guide Oregon Housing and Community Services’ policies and implementation. This would look to create an employment housing project through Business Oregon that will partner with the state’s largest employers to create a housing and transportation employment strategy plan. 

    Housing and housing insecurity are one of the key issues facing Oregon and its citizens, so much so that the crisis has had a national stigma that has affected the impressions of those out of state. In speaking with Rachel Cohen, a Vox reporter, in June Kotek echoes the concerns of long-term housing initiatives and the level of upkeeping to they require to see-through proper rehabilitation, “It’s true there are individuals who have significant health issues that are helping to keep them on the streets, and it’s true they have nowhere to live. So, for us, it’s the short term of helping people get into transitional shelter, continue to get people rehoused, and keep them there. We’re also trying to say we have to provide some level of ongoing rent assistance for a time, so people can stay stable and still get services,”. This is a concern I have towards public initiatives that combat housing insecurity, they are mostly short-term band-aid solutions and harm reduction tactics with little long-term goal and upkeep. This last part of her plan to address housing is the one that could falter the most, and has a lot of ambition that could ultimately fail to meet expectations—I believe this because, it is not on the private sector to solve the housing crisis, the power must be in the hands of the state to ensure that the private sector is making good on their promise. 

   Only time will tell if the proposed solutions and their implementation will make the impact the Governor wants it to make, however, it seems that she at least recognizes the deep-rooted issues with housing insecurity. So much of the housing crisis facing Oregon and the rest of the country has powerful effects that bleed into other issues such as medical finances, food insecurity, student loan debt and access to education— and the most demanding situation, incarceration. Though the proposals by the government ask for a lot of resources and funding, eventually it would make us look back at the issue as a minor inconvenience of the past. At a time when rhetoric against marginalized people is reaching to levels of violence, the most vulnerable of our people are the ones under financial distress and constant resource insecurity – these are things that the Governor knows is the reality and makes me feel better that this is the approach she’s taking to help solve this crisis.

To read more Governor Kotek's thoughts, here is her Vox interview from June 2023, and her official website on the subject,
Why Oregon’s homelessness crisis is among the worst in the US - Vox
Tackling Oregon's Housing and Homelessness Crisis - Tina for Oregon

Written By Omar Saradi