Bend 2030 Livability Series: Housing Affordability Forum to Be Held Next Week

Contact: Marika Yuma

Bend 2030 Project Manager
541-390-2832

Bend 2030 Livability Series: Housing Affordability Forum To Be Held Next Week

More than 900 have taken the Housing Affordability Survey

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BEND, Oct. 21, 2014—Housing affordability is a BIG issue. Prices are rising, homes are in short supply and everyone—the homeless, working families, renters, home buyers, young families, single parents, students, seniors, and the disabled—is feeling the squeeze. It’s time to talk about solutions.

Join Bend 2030 for its Livability Series: Housing Affordability Forum from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Bend Senior Center to weigh in with your ideas on the right way forward for our community.

Unlike any previous discussion of affordable housing in our community, Bend 2030 is rooting the forum in the results of a housing affordability survey taken by almost 1,000 people, available online at Bend2030.com. More than a third of survey-takers have shared their personal, and often heartbreaking, story about the lack of affordable shelter in our town.

Bend 2030 will share many of these stories and the results of the survey at the forum, along with a clear picture of the current housing market in Bend. Participants will get a close look at solutions to affordability and availability issues and consider who is responsible for fixing these problems—developers, taxpayers, the City of Bend, non-profits or the individual seeking shelter. The event will also feature a fun and interactive reception where participants will enjoy drinks and snacks and play creative and innovative “games” to help us better understand housing trends and opinions in Bend.

Survey and forum audience input will be packaged in a set of Bend 2030 housing affordability recommendations, which the organization will present to the Bend City Council and other decision-makers in our region later this year.

Funding for the Bend 2030 Livability Series: Housing Affordability Forum is provided by the generous support of Deschutes County and the Leadership Alliance of Bend 2030, including Bend Broadband, Bend Park and Recreation District, Brooks Resources, Central Oregon Community College, the City of Bend, Deschutes Brewery, OSU-Cascades, St. Charles Health System, US Bank, The Garner Group, Sunwest Builders and NorthWest Crossing.

For more information about Bend 2030 visit Bend2030.com and Facebook.com/Bend2030. Take the housing affordability survey until Nov. 2 at https://surveymonkey.com/s/bendhousingsurvey.

###