Page 10
Street Roots • April 27-May 3, 2018
Rural Housing
Housing Rural Oregon
Hit hard during the recession, Prineville is now in the midst of an economic boom.
Home construction is soaring - but so are rents. And low-income housing remains elusive
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PHOTO BY A M A N D A W ALDRO UPE
A 76-acre lot in Prineville used to house the Ochoco Lum ber Co.’s sawmill. Josh Smith, Prineville’s senior planner, hopes the site will be used to develop multi-family housing.
BY A M A N D A WALDROUPE
S T A F F W R IT E R
RINEVILLE, Ore. - On the
eastern edge of Prineville is a
76-acre piece of land where the
Ochoco Lumber Co.’s sawmill once
processed millions of board-feet of
lumber. The site is now vacant, save for
a lonely fire hydrant, sagebrush and
desert grasses.
Zoned for mixed use and industrial,
it’s considered by some the perfect spot
to build high-density housing - even a
100-unit apartment building.
In Prineville?
“Why not?” said Josh Smith,
Prineville’s senior planner. “You could
easily put 100 units there. We’ve had a
few people kind of poke around at that
idea, but no one’s pulled the trigger ...
because it’s Prineville.”
Smith is right. Prineville, a city of
9,928, is not a place where one would
expect to see large apartment
complexes. But until a few years ago,
people would not have expected
Prineville to have one of the country’s
highest rent increases either.
Between 2011 and 2016, according to
a report released this year by Lending
Tree, the average rent in Prineville grew
by 45.7 percent - the second-highest
increase in the country. Bend had the
highest, with rents increasing by 54
percent.
The steep increases in the price of
rental and for-sale housing, combined
with the construction of the Apple and
P
See PRINEVILLE, page 11
] About this series
Poverty - with a view
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P a rt T h re e : P rin e v ille
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Once a rural timber and
agricultural region, Central
Oregon is now beset with a
housing shortage and an
increase in homelessness.
How will the region respond
as it continues to grow?
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This article is part of Street
Roots’ Housing Rural
Oregon series. It is the
third in a collection of stories
looking at Central Oregon.
Street Roots received
funding from Meyer
Memorial Trust’s Affordable
Housing Initiative to develop
dedicated reporting on rural
housing issues. Read
previous articles from the
series at news.streetroots.
org/ruralhousing