Senate housing committee advances mix of permit, financing and land-use bills; orders statewide study

The Senate Committee on Housing and Development on April 7 advanced several bills aimed at speeding housing production and creating new financing tools, and held a public hearing on a statewide study of barriers to affordable housing.

Sen. Khan Pham, chair of the committee, said the package reflects efforts to tackle long-standing obstacles to housing supply. "With state resources limited and federal funding increasingly uncertain, it's imperative that Oregon's funds for affordable housing leverage building as many affordable homes as possible," Pham said while introducing SB 52, the study bill.

The work sessions and motions that followed moved five bills to the next steps in the legislative process. Committee members passed amendments and sent the bills to the Senate floor with recommendations or to other committees for further review. Major items advanced included:

- SB 6 (building permits): As amended, the bill would require the agency or official responsible for administering and enforcing the state building code to issue a decision on a building-permit application within 45 business days of receipt of a complete application for covered middle housing and single-family residences in subdivisions of more than six lots. The committee adopted the dash-3 amendment and moved the bill to the floor with a “do pass” recommendation and a request that it be referred to the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

- SB 829 (affordable housing insurance): With the dash-2 amendment adopted, the bill would establish an "affordable housing premium assistance fund" and direct the Department of Consumer and Business Services to operate an affordable-housing insurance program to mitigate property-insurance premium costs for eligible entities and to report on the feasibility of a…