Gov. Tina Kotek outlines steps to rehouse Oregonians, increase housing production

Gov. Tina Kotek, governor of Oregon, told a joint session of the legislature that the state is making measurable progress on homelessness but urged faster action to expand housing supply and shelter capacity.

Kotek said actions tied to the homelessness state of emergency are on track to rehouse 3,300 households and prevent 24,000 households from experiencing homelessness by July. She said the state shelter program now supports more than 4,800 shelter beds and that, collectively, the state will have financed 2,800 affordable housing units and provided infrastructure to support more than 25,000 affordable and market-rate units.

Why it matters: Kotek framed housing and homelessness as the session’s top priorities, saying local and state partners must accelerate production and use funding strategically. “I am impatient about the pace of progress and some days just pretty angry that we're in this predicament at all and that we can't move faster to get more housing built,” Kotek said.

The governor credited new tools such as the Housing Accountability and Production Office for reducing barriers to housing production and said she will press the legislature for budget and policy measures to support both homeless services and housing production. She emphasized pairing prevention and shelter efforts with long-term housing supply increases.

Kotek described an Astoria example: when she visited, Clatsop County had moved from almost no capacity to meet need to adding shelter beds and coordinating housing and behavioral-health providers; she said the county was on track to produce new affordable units. She also recounted meeting a parent living temporarily at the Columbia Inn motel turned shelter, saying the man wanted a permanent affordable home for his family.

The governor urged legislators to take her budget recommendations seriously; she said details of her proposals will be forthcoming in the weeks ahead and asked lawmakers to keep “our collective foot on the pedal of progress.”

Meeting context: Kotek delivered the remarks as part of her broader State of the State address; no formal legislation or votes occurred during the speech. The comments outline executive priorities and funding requests that would require legislative action and local implementation to take effect.

Next steps: Kotek said she will present specific budget and policy priorities to the legislature in coming weeks, and local leaders and agencies will continue to implement emergency and production programs already in the pipeline.