Housing Production Strategy (HPS)

In 2019, the Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2003 which requires each city above 10,000 population to adopt a Housing Production Strategy (HPS) within one year of completing their Housing Capacity Analysis (HCA). The City of Sandy adopted the latest HCA on April 1, 2024. In accordance with the adoption schedule set by the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC) the City of Sandy has to complete and adopt the HPS by December 31, 2025. The City of Sandy was awarded a grant from DLCD for $55,630 to assist with consulting costs associated with the HPS.

An HPS is an 8-year action plan that outlines specific steps a city will take to address the community’s unmet housing needs identified in its Housing Capacity Analysis (HCA). The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) will review and approve each city's HPS to ensure it effectively meets housing needs, encourages necessary housing production, encourages preservation of existing lower-cost housing, increases opportunities for people experiencing homelessness to become housed, and promotes fair and equitable housing outcomes. Key Requirements of the Housing Production Strategy are found in OAR 660-008-0045 through 660-008-0070.

On September 16, 2024, the City Council held a work session for an introduction to the HPS. This City Council work session included a presentation from ECOnorthwest and the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). 

The HPS must accomplish the following: 

Contextualized Housing Need: Cities must conduct a thorough analysis of their housing market and demographic conditions, considering various factors such as unmet housing needs of different groups of people (such as people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, People of Color, and other historically marginalized groups), existing housing policies, market conditions, and barriers to development. This analysis should also include data on homelessness, rent-burdened households, housing tenure, and the needs of people with disabilities.

Community Engagement: The HPS must detail how the city engaged with both housing consumers and producers, with a particular focus on involving state and federal protected classes, such as people with disabilities or People of Color.

Specific Actions and Policies: Sandy must outline concrete actions the City will take to support or increase housing production and preservation and promote fair and equitable housing outcomes. These may include infrastructure improvements, regulatory changes, financial incentives, and land use regulation changes, among others. Each action will be clearly defined and tailored to address Sandy's specific housing challenges.

• Sandy faces a significant barrier to housing production due to wastewater infrastructure limitations, which have led to a development moratorium. The HPS will include action(s) around addressing wastewater treatment deficiencies including pursuing funding from state and federal sources to upgrade the wastewater system. Without resolving this infrastructure issue, new housing development in the city of Sandy is severely limited. Therefore, while working to lift the moratorium, the HPS will also focus on preserving existing housing stock, promoting fair and equitable housing outcomes for current residents, and preparing the city to support future development once the moratorium is lifted. This approach ensures that Sandy can make progress on housing issues even with current limitations, while also positioning itself for growth when infrastructure improvements are completed.

Implementation Timeline: The HPS must include a clear schedule for adopting and executing each proposed action. This timeline should be realistic and account for the City's resources and capacity, while also demonstrating a commitment to timely implementation. The State will monitor the City’s implementation of the HPS and may take actions (as described below) if the City is not implementing the actions in the HPS and in accordance with the timeline in the HPS.

Equity Considerations: The HPS must demonstrate how the proposed strategies will promote fair and equitable housing outcomes, when considering the actions in the HPS and the City’s existing policies and programs to support housing development and preservation. This includes addressing the location of housing in relation to amenities and opportunities, ensuring Fair Housing practices, providing housing choices for protected classes, addressing homelessness, promoting affordable housing options, and mitigating gentrification and displacement.