Washington County staff urge clarity, funding as Metro drafts regional housing coordination strategy

WASHINGTON COUNTY — County planning and housing staff on Wednesday walked the Washington County Board of Commissioners through Metro’s draft regional housing coordination strategy and outlined specific recommendations and concerns about Metro’s proposed set of 16 actions.

The presentation — led by Steven Roberts, Washington County director of land use and transportation, and Molly Rogers, director of housing services at the housing authority — summarized Metro’s October draft, described statutory context, and asked the board whether county staff should submit a comment letter included in the board packet.

Roberts said Metro is responding to state requirements tied to the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis and related legislation and that Metro has proposed a six-year strategy intended to coordinate production of a wide range of housing across the region. “Metro has indicated that there may be a need for as many as 9,000 homes each year and about two‑thirds of those to be affordable,” Roberts said. He also said the unincorporated parts of Washington County were assigned a target of about 26,000 housing units over 20 years under the state’s allocation — roughly 1,300 units per year for the county’s unincorporated area.

Why it matters

County staff framed their response around two consistent themes: (1) Metro’s draft contains items that would expand Metro’s role into activities the county and other local entities already perform, and (2) the county does not have the funds or staff capacity to absorb new regulatory or reporting requirements without outside resources. In multiple places staff asked Metro to clarify whether a proposed action would create new county reporting or impose new obligations on local permit or housing programs.

Key points from the county presentation

- Staff identified three program areas where they recommended revisions or removal from the strategy: new Metro roles in predevelopment financing/technical assistance, a proposed affordable housing stabilization strategy (operations/solvency), and certain supportive-housing and voucher-portability actions. County staff argued those three areas risk duplicating the work of housing authorities, service providers and other governance bodies.

- Staff supported actions to expand brownfields cleanup funding, create a regional funding pool for local housing production strategy implementation, build a permitting/production dashboard, and evaluate the Urban Growth Management Functional Plan housing audit. In some cases staff asked Metro to limit reporting frequency or use existing state reports to avoid duplicative data requests.

- County staff repeatedly emphasized funding concerns. Commissioners and staff said Washington County issues roughly 700–800 single‑family building permits and roughly 200–300 apartment units per year in unincorporated areas, which is substantially below the target implied by the state allocation. Roberts said the county is likely “three to four hundred short” of the 1,300‑unit annual rate assigned to the county’s unincorporated areas.

- Staff questioned whether Metro should use some discretionary pots of money cited in the draft — including Metro’s 2040 planning grants and administrative funds — for new direct project financing or technical assistance, warning that those resources are limited and could duplicate existing lenders and gap-financing programs.

Fair housing, SHS, and scope concerns

Staff flagged the proposal’s references to affirmatively furthering fair housing — a federal requirement tied to HUD — and asked Metro to clarify how any Metro role would relate to existing obligations borne by local housing authorities and project owners. They also urged Metro not to fold Supportive Housing Services (SHS) operations, voucher portability and other homelessness-response tools into the regional production strategy without clearer justification. Several commissioners characterized actions 9–11 in the draft as scope creep that would move Metro from coordination and planning into operational areas handled by other agencies.

Process and timeline

County staff said Metro began the strategy process in February and plans to adopt a strategy by December. A public comment opportunity on Metro’s draft was open at the time of the meeting and staff noted the comment deadline runs through the following day. Staff also asked Metro to identify how it will track implementation and measure progress; an annual reporting expectation for jurisdictions was referenced but county staff requested clarity on who will check or enforce progress and how frequently regional metrics will be reviewed.

County feedback on the draft comment letter

Staff presented a draft comment letter and the board provided detailed editorial and policy feedback, including requests to emphasize that the county cannot complete the new tasks without dedicated funding and technical assistance, to stress that Metro should avoid creating duplicative duties for local governments, and to highlight successful lessons learned from Metro’s 2018 affordable housing bond while asking Metro to publish stronger evaluation findings. Commissioners suggested highlighting several sentences in the letter so council members who read only portions would see the county’s principal concerns.

No final board action on the draft letter was taken at the meeting; commissioners provided direction and asked staff to revise the letter and follow up with Metro. County staff also told the board they had requested one‑time administrative funds from Metro earlier that day and that Metro had approved the county’s $10 million request for one‑time resources, a staff update given to commissioners during the session.

Votes at a glance

The public portion of the work session ended with a procedural vote to adjourn into two executive sessions. The board moved and seconded a motion to adjourn to executive session “pursuant to ORS 192.660(2)(h) for the purposes of discussing potential litigation.” The motion passed unanimously, 4–0. (Commissioner Snyder was excused.)

What’s next

County staff will finalize the comment letter with the changes requested by commissioners and submit it to Metro before the public comment deadline. Staff also asked Metro to provide follow‑up on the metrics and timelines Metro will use to track implementation of the regional strategy.

This item was a discussion and guidance session; the board did not adopt final county policy on the Metro draft during the meeting.