Housing Production Strategy

The City of Sweet Home is currently developing a Housing Production Strategy (HPS) designed to increase new housing construction and redevelopment to meet the needs of existing and future city residents. The HPS will identify tools, actions, and policies to address local housing needs in the context of community interests and priorities.

Background
State law requires that cities with a population of 10,000 or more prepare an HPS based on a “contextualized housing needs analysis” that considers recent market trends and the needs of disadvantaged communities. The City of Sweet Home’s population surpassed 10,000 people in 2022. The HPS will include specific measures and strategies to increase housing production, along with a timeline for adopting and executing each measure. The Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) reviews and approves each city's HPS to ensure that it promotes fair and equitable housing outcomes.

DLCD developed a guidance document of housing production strategies a jurisdiction could employ to increase housing production in their community. This document provides a good overview of different types of strategies a city could include in their HPS. Sweet Home will use this list as a starting place and work with technical experts and interested parties to determine which priority strategies work best for our community.

Timeline and Engagement Activities

The City of Sweet Home is scheduled to approve our HPS by December 31, 2024. Below are key elements of the project schedule and anticipated engagement activities:

Analysis of contextualized housing needs – Sweet Home will first explore current data and trends, housing needs for certain segments of the population, and barriers to housing development. This work will be informed by interviews and discussions with key community leaders in Sweet Home, particularly from groups that are historically underrepresented. This analysis will be shared on the City’s website once it is complete.
Strategies to accommodate housing needs – In this step, the project team will identify a list of potential strategies to effectively address community housing needs. The City will explore the benefits and drawbacks of each strategy and prioritize those that make the most sense for Sweet Home through a series of roundtable discussions with community leaders and housing developers.
Housing Production Strategy Report –The draft report will include an implementation schedule and details how each proposed production strategy will increase housing production consistent with community housing needs. The Planning Commission and City Council will review the report at public meetings. The draft and final reports will be shared on the City’s website.