Oregon lawmaker outlines shelter framework, production tools and modular investments to address housing shortfall
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Summary
Representative Pam Marsh, chair of the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, told a Washington County forum that the state has deployed shelter funds, created a shelter framework (House Bill 3644) and invested in construction innovation but that a roughly 95,000-unit statewide deficit requires continued local action and production.
Representative Pam Marsh, chair of the Oregon House Committee on Housing and Homelessness, offered a sweeping review of state housing policy at a Washington County forum, saying the state has built shelter capacity quickly but now must focus on production and local readiness as funding tightens.
"The driving reason you have so many people on the street is because we don't have enough affordable housing," Marsh said, summing the state economist's analysis that rising median rent is the strongest factor associated with increases in homelessness.
Marsh credited Project Turnkey, a pandemic-era program that produced 32 sites statewide, and House Bill 3644, which she described as establishing a statewide shelter framework that clarifies what local governments should expect from state shelter funding and operations. She also outlined production-side reforms: middle housing legislation (referred to in the forum as House Bill 2,138), investments in modular and manufactured housing factories, a revolving loan fund and the Oregon Homes initiative to speed construction by pairing preapproved plans with preapproved land‑use rules.
The keynote review noted recent resource surges — a 2018 regional bond cited at $652,000,000 and a 2023 legislative allocation cited at about $200,000,000 toward housing and shelter — but warned that federal and state revenues have softened and that local planning and permitting must be faster and more standardized to benefit when funding returns.
Marsh urged local officials to prepare planning timelines, consider land availability and zoning options, and support factory-built construction where appropriate. "We have to stay the course. We have to be smarter than ever," she said.
Ending: Marsh described the current fiscal environment as constraining but said state and local alignment on planning and streamlined approvals could accelerate housing production when capital becomes available.