Should Eugene offer more tax breaks to housing developers?

Presenter: For the last eight years, Eugene planners reported exceeding their own housing production goals. But with growing homelessness, the state declared an emergency and set the bar higher. Now facing a target of 1,676 new units this year, should Eugene offer more tax breaks to developers? Introducing a public hearing June 15, City Manager Jenny Haruyama:

Jenny Haruyama (Eugene, city manager): This public hearing is an opportunity for the public to provide comments on the proposed ordinance enabling two new housing production incentives. The two proposed property tax exemption programs aim to support:

1. the production of moderate income housing along transit corridors, and
2. the creation of housing and commercial centers. 

The programs emerged out of the city’s Urban Growth Strategies effort to address the city’s need for 26,000 new homes over the next 20 years.

Presenter: Speaking during the public hearing, Hope Baker:

Hope Baker: I’m in favor of incentives for affordable housing, even lower middle-income housing. But the people who build lower affordable housing and lower-income housing are usually agencies such as Homes for Good, and other nonprofit organizations. People in their backyards are not building affordable housing.

I’m opposed to more property tax exemptions because the city already can’t balance its budget.

I’ve asked for reportbacks on the existing MUPTEs for all the multistory multiunit structures all along Franklin Boulevard and up, some off Patterson, never gotten a report back. I’ve never heard one.

We don’t know how many MUPTEs for these multiunit properties / multiunit structures are still on the books. We don’t know how many have been extended. We don’t know the tax revenue loss from these MUPTEs yet you want to now extend this program to basically, you say along transportation corridors. 

There’s all kinds of single-family dwellings along transportation corridors that have room for maybe an ADU in the backyard. When you’re talking about the larger transportation corridors like Franklin Boulevard, it’s kind of a commercial area, so it’s not quite as impactful on neighborhoods.

A middle housing development on my back fence—they’ve been working on it for over a year. The site prep itself is extensive. The amount of—I wouldn’t call it remodeling of the existing structure, but the change that they did to the existing structure had—they have spent so much money on this, and these things will never be on the market for under $800,000. 

So I just am not in favor of giving individual property owners tax exemptions for more housing. 

Sylvia Barry: My name is Sylvia Barry. Over the past four years, I have been working with an incredible group of community members to address our housing and homelessness crisis. 

What started as research and conversations evolved into a truly cross-sector coalition called A.C.T. Now Lane, with 45 partners and growing including businesses, government, nonprofits, health care, individuals with lived experience, and many more, all working together to reduce the number of community members who are unhoused. 

As someone who has spent my entire career in the nonprofit sector, I thought I knew something about the homelessness crisis. But while staffing this coalition, I’ve learned a tremendous amount. Most importantly, that you cannot talk about homelessness without talking about our housing crisis. 

As the Council is well aware, Oregon has underbuilt for decades. Research shows that our high rents and low vacancy rates have contributed to some of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. 

And if we want to reduce the number of tents on the streets and the nearly 1,500 individuals backlogged at our shelters right now, we have to build more housing. 

In fact, almost every key stakeholder that we’ve talked to over the last few years, from shelter providers to law enforcement, have all urged us to focus on building more housing. 

So our group is working hard to find land funding, cost effective models, process improvements, etc. however, we need you to take action on three things:

1. Please support the housing production incentives and tax exemption programs being discussed tonight. 
2. Please schedule a public hearing regarding the Moderate Income Revolving Loan Fund as soon as possible. And 
3. Please support creative and thoughtful examples that combine affordable and workforce housing like the 1059 Willamette St. Project.

Larissa Ennis: My name is Larissa Ennis. I’m currently senior manager of development and communications at Food for Lane County. My comments tonight do not reflect the views of my employer. 

I’m here tonight speaking as chair of the Board of Commissioners of Homes for Good, Lane County’s affordable housing agency. I’m also a member of the steering committee for A.C.T. Now Lane, which you’ve just heard quite a lot about.

And like thousands of neighbors across our community, I have lived experience of homelessness.

Thank you to the Council and mayor for considering a suite of strategic investments to accelerate local housing production. As you know, our crisis is fundamentally driven by an inadequate supply of housing at all income levels.

I’m here to encourage Council to implement incentives for housing production. I will illustrate the necessity of such investments with a recent example. 

In late April, homes for good celebrated the grand opening of Ollie Court on 13th Avenue at Ollie Court. Eighty units of affordable family housing are co-located with an early childhood education center.

That project would not have been feasible without multiple strategic investments by the city of Eugene, among many other sources of funding. First, the city conveyed the land to Homes For Good, and then the city of Eugene invested more than $3 million in development resources to enable the creation of this residential community, including home and city fee assistance funds.

I can say with confidence that Ollie Court likely would not have been built if not for those strategic investments.

And I’m excited to say that as of June 1-ish, every unit in Ollie Court is fully leased up. That’s 163 bedrooms. A beautiful new early education center is lively with children learning and playing, and 80 families are secure every night and able to dream of what happens in their tomorrows.

Many development projects will only be greenlit with the support of tax incentives and additional investments from the city. For example, the 1059 Willamette project. I’m very in favor of that.

We also request that Council prioritize scheduling a public hearing for the proposed Middle-Income Revolving Loan Fund, which will support affordable home ownership that is so desperately needed. 

The incentives that Council is considering over the coming weeks are necessary parts of our community’s robust and innovative response to the housing crisis. These tools and more are needed to accelerate the housing development our community needs. Thank you for supporting these investments. 

Joe Liebersbach: My name is Joe Liebersbach and I’m a lifelong Lane County resident, and I’ve called the Eugene area home for over 15 years. First, I also want to thank you for all of your huge, fantastic enthusiasm from the February work session on these incentives.

Tonight I’m asking you to carry that same energy forward because for too many, our housing crisis isn’t abstract policy discussions or a dashboard or numbers on a spreadsheet.

This is what our housing crisis is: it means parents are considering leaving their job to be able to afford both rent and child care month to month. It means doubling or sometimes tripling up siblings or other loved ones in the bedrooms of a home. It means living further from our workplaces, increasing our carbon emissions during our commute to work.

My own family fits into multiple of these categories.

As a young father and early in my professional career, I often think about what it will take for my children to be able to live their lives right here in this community, to even helping one project move forward can help create homes for dozens of families.

And tonight’s action might feel technical, but its impact will quite literally be felt for generations. These buildings can house family after family after family, providing stability and a place to build a future.

We know Eugene needs to dramatically increase our housing production. You know the numbers. You’ve seen all the reports. I simply want to emphasize the urgency of this need. These incentives are not the entire solution, but they are an important step.

Lastly, as you consider this action, I would simply ask that you remember that we’re not just talking about dwelling units. We’re talking about people’s homes, their homes, places of refuge, places of stability, places where people can build a future here in our community.

I urge you to invest in my future, my peers’ future, our entire community’s future by supporting these housing production incentives and help create more homes for the people who want to call Eugene home. 

Presenter: The city conducts a public hearing on tax exemptions meant to boost housing production.