Agenda Packet 1-14-19 Work Session

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January 14, 2019, Work Session – Item 2 At the end of May, council directed staff to implement a process that would tie together the many overlapping initiatives and proposals that address housing issues. The goal of the process was to provide council with an objective, fact-based work product informed by stakeholder perspectives and to guide future policy decisions to achieve the above outcomes. Staff implemented the Housing Tools and Strategies project to meet this council directive. The HTS project has had three basic elements: •Identify housing issues through stakeholder engagement; •Identify potential tools, strategies, and actions; and •Evaluate potential tools, strategies, and actions.Staff contracted with two consultants to support the HTS project: a professional facilitator (Carrie Bennett of Learning Through Difference, LLC) to implement the stakeholder engagement process and an economics firm (Strategic Economics) to provide technical analysis of the tools and strategies that can address the affordability of housing in Eugene. Engagement Process The engagement process focused on assembling a Working Group of 36 stakeholders representing three broad categories: housing affordability, development barriers, and community values. The Working Group members agreed that the challenge of housing affordability in Eugene is indeed a problem and one that the City can and should act to address. The group agreed that the impacts of housing (un)affordability extend far beyond those experiencing the problem directly with negative impacts rippling throughout the community. In all, the working group discussed and evaluated 83 different options of ways that the City might increase the affordability, availability and diversity of housing in Eugene. The options fell into four broad categories: •Strategy 1: Remove Land Code Barriers •Strategy 2: Reduce the Time and Cost Burden for Development of Housing •Strategy 3: Increase Inventory of and Access to Affordable Units •Strategy 4: OtherIn addition to the direct engagement with the Working Group, staff conducted research regarding best practices to address housing affordability. Staff looked both at best practices from other cities and collaborated with Better Housing Together, a community-led initiative with over 40 member-organizations working to increase the affordability, diversity and supply of housing in Lane County. Better Housing Together conducted extensive outreach in 2018 with individuals who play a direct role in bringing housing to the market, including real estate professionals, affordable housing developers, architects, private builders, and others. They provided insight into how the City’s policies and administrative procedures affect the cost and type of housing production in Eugene.