Lars Larson: Oregon’s affordable housing solution? Make YOU pay for it

By Lars Larson,
NW and national radio host

I surely hope folks frustrated about finding a place to live understand you’re in a government-engineered housing shortage.

And now, state lawmakers have a plan to make it even worse.

But first, remember how we got here.

Urban growth boundaries made land for housing scarce…Oregon did to land, what OPEC did to oil…limit the supply and the cost goes up.

And for those who think we’re running out of land, humans occupy less than 4% of the entire state…and that much took more than a hundred and 50 years.

Then, government permits and fees add 60 to 100 thousand dollars in just paperwork cost to every new house.

That ain’t going to bring the rent down.

During the pandemic, the government punished landlords by telling them they could not raise rents to cover their costs…and they were banned from kicking out folks who didn’t pay the rent.

Now, Oregon lawmakers in Salem have Senate bill 799…that brings back the pandemic rent rules…so someone can stiff the landlord for the rent for months before they get kicked out.

Now, I understand, most of you didn’t go deadbeat on the rent.

But now, YOU get to pay for those who DON’T pay. If a few tenants decide not to pay, the landlord has no other place to get that money to pay HIS bills…except by charging more to those who DO pay.

That would be YOU.