House committee hears bill to add expiration dates, subsidy details to OHCS preservation dashboard

Sen. Deb Patterson, D‑District 10, told the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness on April 23 that Senate Bill 32 would require the Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) agency to consolidate and publish key preservation information for publicly supported affordable housing on a single, searchable dashboard.

The bill would add expiration dates for affordability restrictions, the number of units affected, the type and source of rental assistance, tenant income eligibility levels and current preservation status to OHCS’s existing online tools, proponents said.

Sen. Patterson said OHCS already collects the data but currently publishes it across two separate databases, limiting accessibility. “Integrating this information into one dashboard that is user friendly would provide one centralized tool to help non‑profit groups, local housing authorities and private organizations identify opportunities to preserve affordable housing and provide targeted outreach to tenants who need the most help,” she said.

Advocates and housing providers described the scale and costs of the preservation challenge. Cameron Harrington of the Oregon Housing Alliance said OHCS’s 2023 preservation framework identified four categories of housing at risk and estimated that between 310 million and 390 million dollars would be required to preserve projects with time‑limited rent restrictions over the next five years. Harrington said the properties tracked in the existing OHCS dashboard are the ones SB 32 would document in more detail.

Jessica Blakely, director of development for the Salem Housing Authority, said the current dashboard flags units at risk but omits critical details that hamper early intervention, including owner intent and whether units are subsidized. She said Salem has 345 units scheduled to expire within the next 10 years and that preservation work can take years. "With the information that I just listed, we could initiate preservation efforts long before the restrictions expire," Blakely said.

Tanisha Rosas, senior government relations strategist at OHCS, told the committee the agency is neutral on the bill but confirmed it already maintains much of the underlying data and can publish additional fields. Rosas said OHCS’s current online preservation map and the agency’s “push” spreadsheet contain some of the information; SB 32 would standardize and surface additional details including rental assistance type and income eligibility that are not readily available in the dashboard today.

Multifamily Northwest, representing housing providers, and the Community Alliance of Tenants both testified in support, describing the bill as a transparency measure that would help owners, tenants and local governments plan for expirations. Multifamily Northwest’s written testimony notes a statutory deadline in the bill text that would require the OHCS update be completed by July 1, 2026.

Witnesses emphasized that the dashboard is a tool to advance preservation, not a funding solution. Harrington and other proponents said preserving many at‑risk properties will require substantial bond or other funding; Harrington urged a $285 million preservation bond package and highlighted a governor recommendation of dedicating $25 million of that for manufactured housing parks.

Committee members asked about which properties would appear on the dashboard (OHCS staff said it includes properties funded by OHCS and federal programs such as HUD and USDA Rural Development), the units counted, and how the information would be used by local governments and housing authorities. OHCS staff said agency compliance and preservation staff already engage with owners of expiring properties and that the bill would not change those operational responsibilities.

The committee closed the public hearing on SB 32 after public testimony and moved to the next item on the agenda.

Ending: The bill proponents said SB 32 would make preservation data easier to find and use, allowing earlier outreach and negotiations that proponents say could reduce displacement and the state resources required to preserve at‑risk properties.