Governor's bill would expand middle‑housing and offer density bonuses for affordability and accessibility

State officials and a wide range of stakeholders presented March 3 on House Bill 21,38, the governor’s middle‑housing and infill proposal, which seeks to expand legal middle‑housing locations, remove barriers to development and incentivize affordable and accessible units.

Matthew Schawbold, director of the Governor’s Housing and Homelessness Initiative, and Aurora Jettl, a legislative and policy analyst at the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), told the committee the state faces a substantial shortfall in housing production: the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis cited a current deficit of roughly 100,000 units and a projected need of another 400,000 units over the next 20 years. Executive Order 23‑04 set a goal of 36,000 units per year, they said, and middle housing is a core part of meeting that target because it provides smaller‑footprint units that can be built in established urban neighborhoods.

The bill’s principal changes described in the dash‑1 amendment include: legalizing middle housing in all urban areas (including urban unincorporated lands subject to an urban services capacity test); requiring cities to allow middle housing on lots that already contain single‑family homes, ADUs or duplexes; invalidating private covenants that bar middle…