Last year the Oregon State Legislature requested that the Oregon Department of Transportation examine policies and actions that could improve quality of life through increasing housing options with easy connections to transit. This aligns with our strategic goals to address equity, address climate change, improve access to public and active transportation, and address congestion.

ODOT has completed its Oregon Transit and Housing Study identifying policies, strategies, and actions that can better link housing, including affordable housing, with transit services in the future. The study and its products are designed to inform state, regional, tribal, and local agency and transit provider staff about steps they can take to improve transit and housing outcomes in their area.

ODOT has invited people to browse the online open house. The online open house will be available until October 21st. It is designed to allow you to browse the lessons learned and products completed throughout this project on your schedule. There are no surveys or other work included. The virtual open house will allow people to explore the collected results of the case studies, survey, and the rest of the study.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

According to ODOT, the study can help guide public investment and lead to denser developments along bus, streetcar, and/or rail lines. It can help implement national and statewide emissions initiatives, such as the Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities Program, to help meet climate change targets. According to ODOT, this project provides recommendations and strategies to help make Oregon a better, more affordable place to live.

While housing policy is not directly a part of ODOT’s mission, they are pursuing this Study due to the important connection between transportation and housing on the quality of life for all Oregonians, especially those traditionally underserved. The information we uncovered can help ODOT, other state agencies, public transportation providers, and regional, local, and tribal transportation and land use agencies better enable links between transit and housing of all types.

The study identified several key takeaways:

1. Transit-supportive housing is not a well-defined concept nor a focused concentration within many of the policy and guidance documents. Many state-level policies affect the provision of transit, housing, and affordable housing, but few directly address all the concepts together. A clear and consistent statewide policy position across multiple agencies could help to reach numerous statewide goals – improve housing production and affordability, reduce GHG emissions, etc. – and direct funding and investment toward these goals.
2. Coordination between state agencies and local and regional partners is key in addressing and delivering transit-supportive housing. Land use, housing, and transit, while addressed within local community comprehensive plans, are aspects of the built environment that are often planned independently by separate agencies. Greater coordination between the agencies could result in identifying opportunities for additional collaboration that may ultimately benefit Oregon communities. Delivering effective transit-supportive housing will require fostering a shared understanding of the concept and partnerships among these agencies and local jurisdictions.
3. There are opportunities to leverage recent legislative, executive, and agency actions to further transit-supportive housing policies. HB 2001 and HB 2003 focus on missing middle housing and statewide housing needs, respectively.
4. Transit-supportive housing performance measures, evaluation criteria, and guidance would benefit any transit-supportive housing policy.

--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2022-10-08 06:57:57

Last Update: 2022-10-05 14:48:35