For the last seven years, Oregon has been roiled to find solutions to secure additional housing. The price of new homes and rentals is steadily rising; renters have complained that the lack of adequate alternatives allows landlords to force them to pay higher rents and enter into agreements that heavily favor the landlord. Moreover, the effects of homelessness are manifest on the streets of many cities and suggest a breakdown in the social order. Housing has become a major, if not the major, political and social issue in the state for the last decade.

From the time she was House Speaker, Gov. Tina Kotek has been a driving force in responding to the so-called “housing crisis” in the form of legislation and state funding. Since 2019, Kotek has proposed, and the Oregon legislature has adopted, multiple solutions to relieve the situation of renters, to provide shelter for homeless persons and to increase the number of housing units, especially to low and moderate income Oregonians.

Let us consider each of these three areas.

Renters have seen benefits as the Legislature imposed statewide rent control, restricted the use of evictions, enacted tenant rights regarding security deposits, fees and the habitability of premises. These changes improve the situation of renters, despite concerns that they discourage construction of new rental units. The number of building permits for new multifamily units in Oregon, which range from basic to luxury housing, was about 5,000 in 2024 and 2025. These numbers are far short of the annual 36,000 new housing units the state declares as necessary. That deficit will not be filled by other forms of housing such as new single-family dwellings.

There are many reasons for these relatively low numbers, but they do show that investors are not lining up to build more units in Oregon.

Regarding homelessness, Gov. Kotek declared a housing emergency in 2023 and saw through legislation that mandated siting of homeless shelters despite local zoning restrictions and provided funding for their operation. Nevertheless, a recent federal report found that, while , approximately 27,200 people experienced homelessness in Oregon in January 2025, a 19 percent increase from the previous year and the second largest increase for any U.S. state.

Federal, state, and local funding for homelessness are likely to decrease as the numbers of homeless persons increase. This is discouraging news.

As to increasing the number of available housing units, it is here that the Oregon Legislature has been most active. Since 2019 Oregon requires that accessory dwelling units and duplexes be allowed in most urban areas and in larger cities that a suite of housing alternatives that increase density be allowed in single-family zones. It has established a statewide housing apparatus that keeps track of existing and proposed housing and allocates housing obligations on local governments to allow their fair share of the regional housing need.

These significant land use law changes were supplemented over the years by other measures designed to preempt local regulations as a means to encourage residential uses , especially those relating to low income or affordable housing. Local governments were admonished to use only “clear and objective standards” to regulate housing, to decide within certain time limits, that larger communities would provide a Housing Production Strategy to assure they were on target to meet their fair share of housing (with the state both assisting them and providing disincentives for failing to do so), allowing housing on certain commercial, public or religious land notwithstanding local zoning, requiring the use of up to 10 “adjustments” from various local zoning requirements in housing cases, encouraging use of Inclusionary Zoning” to give applicants who accommodate affordable housing increased density or other benefits, prohibiting or nullifying private covenants that would restrict certain housing, allowing “one-time” changes to urban growth boundaries and limit or eliminate local hearings or appeals in certain housing development cases. This partial list demonstrates legislative commitment to providing for housing development, a commitment that is, in terms of activity, far more detailed and extensive than that involved with landlord-tenant relations or providing shelters for the homeless.

The question is whether all this activity will produce results. Many of the land use measures are derived from changing state-local land use relationships in California, which does not have a statewide land use program comparable to Oregon’s half-century of experience with the Land Conservation and Development Commission, which has a stronger deference to local controls, and which is even more committed to overcome planning and zoning restrictions to accommodate housing. By waiting so long to do so, California’s efforts are meeting with local resistance and time consuming and expensive litigation which Oregon has largely avoided.

But what has all this activity meant for housing? While it is too early to come to a definitive conclusion, the numbers are revealing. In the last three years, Oregon has not met half of the 36,000 residential dwelling permits it projects as needed. Over half of the residential building permits issued between 2014 and 2023 were for single family housing. The state permitted 14,621 units in 2024, down 33 percent from the 2021 peak of 21,916. Multifamily permits (5-plus units) dropped by over 50 percent from 2022 to 2024. Lower birthrates, slower population increases and higher household formations as younger people strike out on their own puts a strain on housing and households get smaller (they now average 1.9). With all this housing need, the market should be building more housing. Why is this not happening?

The reasons are many, starting with interest rates as public debt and the stock market attract capital, the increased cost of materials and labor, especially after the Iran war, the lack of construction labor availability following immigration sweeps, low income levels that do not compete with other similarly-sized urban areas across the county and a state public financing system that leaves local government infrastructure dependent on bonding (requiring a public vote to raise property taxes) or systems development charges (which raise the cost of housing).

What do not appear to be reasons are litigation (LUBA has almost no urban housing cases) or local delays (there are almost no cases in which local governments have violated state laws against delays). This suggests that what is not needed is more state preemption of local land use regulations. Cities are barely keeping up as it is.

What is needed is money to deal with heavy systems development charges and subsidies to low income and affordable housing. King Canute could not command the tides and the State of Oregon cannot produce more housing by mere fiat.

Edward J. Sullivan is a retired practitioner in land use and municipal law with more than 50 years of experience in these fields. Contact him at esulliva@gmail.com.

Carrie Richter is an attorney specializing in land use and municipal law at the law firm Bateman Seidel. Contact her at 503-972-9903 or at crichter@batemanseidel.com.

The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed in the preceding commentary are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the Daily Journal of Commerce or its editors. Neither author nor the 91��Ƶ guarantees the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein.

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The residential building boom transforming New Jersey’s landscape is set to accelerate this year — and likely into the next decade — after many towns scrambled to approve deals with developers in the waning days of 2025.

Across New Jersey, municipalities engaged in down-to-the-wire legal fights and negotiations to resolve disputes brought by builders and housing advocates.

The catalyst was a Dec. 31 deadline in a state law that mandates each town provide its “fair share” of affordable housing, as determined by a formula devised in Trenton. The landmark 2024 law could spur the construction of tens of thousands of new units over the next decade for residents with low or moderate incomes — but often alongside huge additions of market-rate housing, which developers say is necessary to make the projects viable.

“We didn’t want this,” Parsippany Council President Paul Carifi Jr. said at a Dec. 16 meeting where the Morris County town approved a proposal to increase a project’s units from 600 to 1,100 to help meet its affordable-housing quota. “This is the state cramming this down our throat. If we don’t approve this … it’s over. It’s going back to the courts.”

Housing advocates, led by the nonprofit Fair Share Housing Center in Mount Laurel, see things differently. They say the process is helping New Jersey address what most observers agree is an affordability crisis in the housing market. Another nonprofit, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, has estimated that the state faces a shortage of about 205,000 housing units attainable for low-income residents.

On Monday, the Fair Share Housing Center stated that about 380 municipalities — “an unprecedented level of participation and compliance in the state’s affordable housing process” — had developed plans by Dec. 31. Another 40 missed the deadline, though some of those failures were because of “minor disputes” likely to be resolved soon, the group said.

“What we’re seeing is nothing short of a sea change,” Adam Gordon, the center’s executive director, stated. “For decades, New Jersey’s affordable housing system was bogged down by delay and litigation. This new law is working exactly as intended — bringing towns to the table, resolving disputes efficiently, and moving us toward the actual construction and preservation of affordable homes.”

Communities had until year’s end to settle challenges or explain to a court why they needed more time. The law also sets a March 15 deadline for towns to adopt their housing plans and adjust local zoning as needed.

Rules challenged in court

The pushback continues nonetheless from suburban communities, many in North Jersey, that say they are being forced to accept overdevelopment and increased burdens on local school systems, roads and municipal services.

Local Leaders for Responsible Planning, a 29-town coalition, has challenged the housing law. A federal judge held a hearing on Wednesday to consider the group’s arguments.

As the legal fight drags on, many municipal governing bodies worked into the last week of December to approve the proposed projects they needed to complete affordable housing plans. Some of those deals included tax breaks known as PILOTs, or payments in lieu of taxes, as incentives for builders willing to reserve a portion of their units as affordable.

Franklin Lakes, Ridgewood, Saddle River and Denville were among the other North Jersey towns to OK development plans by the deadline. As of Dec. 29, Demarest was awaiting a judge’s ruling on a complaint brought by a developer seeking to have his project included in the borough’s plan. The proposal seeks to raze the 19th-century home of the town’s founder to make space for 10 townhome units, two of which would be designated as affordable.

‘Fair share’ or ‘high density?’

The system traces back half a century to the state Supreme Court’s Mount Laurel decision. The 1975 ruling outlawed “exclusionary zoning” that the court said was designed to keep the poor and minorities out of some towns. The Mount Laurel ruling, expanded in subsequent cases, directed municipalities to change local laws to allow for the construction of their “fair share” of affordable units.

The state eventually created a Council on Affordable Housing to enforce that doctrine. But after 15 years of nonenforcement, the Supreme Court in 2015 again weighed in and shifted oversight to the courts. It allowed “builder’s remedy” lawsuits that could compel towns to accommodate projects as long as they offered a minority of the units — often as little as 20 percent — at below-market rates.

A further evolution came in 2024 when state lawmakers passed a law to codify and streamline that process, laying out deadlines for local governments. Towns that comply gain immunity from builders’ remedy suits.

“We face a somewhat perfect storm of low housing inventory and escalating pricing, which leaves thousands of working families all across our state with no viable options,” state Sen. Troy Singleton, a Burlington County Democrat and sponsor of the legislation, said at the time. “Without securing the most basic human needs — a place to live — the other policies we pass cannot be as effective.”

But critics like Montvale Mayor Mike Ghassali and Parsippany Mayor James Barberio have railed at the big housing complexes they say they have to approve to satisfy the state mandate.

“High-density housing may seem like a solution, but it raises serious concerns about our infrastructure and budget,” Barberio said during a 2024 meeting of mayors in which the state’s housing rules were blasted. “It seems like the state wants us to sacrifice quality for quantity.”

In July, Hawthorne Councilman Michael Sciarra said he was “disgusted” about having no better alternative than to endorse a plan designating two sites for construction of 111 new units, including 23 affordable ones.

“Does anyone ever get the feeling that you’re getting something shoved down your throat?” he asked his colleagues. “Well, that’s this going on right now. I can’t tell you how sick I am that we have to digest this, and take the bitter pill, because it’s the lesser of two evils.”

Tax breaks for developers

His ire was still evident on Dec. 22, when the Hawthorne Council met again to approve a final deal with one of those developers.

“Too often, the state checks boxes by meeting quotas,” Sciarra said. “Developers make money, and municipalities are left to deal with long-term consequences.”

In some cases, like in Parsippany, existing projects already under construction were later awarded PILOT tax breaks after developers said they needed additional financial help amid soaring construction costs.

The prominent PARQ project in Parsippany, at the crossroads of interstates 80 and 287, was originally slated for 600 apartments and townhouses; the first 275-unit phase has already opened. But the town sweetened the deal for the developer when it agreed to expand its project to 1,100 units, helping the municipality complete its affordable housing plan by the year-end deadline. Of those units, 120 will rent at affordable rates and the rest at market rate. Those 120 units, and 80 “credit points” earned for building on redeveloped property, would fulfill the town’s latest obligations.

More towns crunch deadline

Next door to Parsippany, Denville in December passed a PILOT incentive for an existing 60-unit project. In a resolution, the township council said it needed “to improve the feasibility of the redevelopment, operation, and maintenance of the project.”

The construction along Route 53 is one of several efforts tied to Denville’s affordable housing goal. A court-appointed special master warned that failing to move forward with the Station Village project could result in a judge stepping in or imposing stricter requirements, Township Attorney Fred Semrau said during a Dec. 2 council meeting. Of the 60 units, nine would be set aside as affordable.

Semrau said the project was approved without a PILOT in 2020, and he acknowledged that granting one after construction had already begun was unusual. But the legal risk could not be ignored, he said.

“As [the developer] started to complete construction, they started really pressing: ‘Well, where’s the PILOT?’” Semrau said. “Our opinion was it was too late — you started construction. So, with that, they got the special master involved.”

The special master, he said, indicated the town was required to assist the developer in completing the project since it was part of the housing plan.

Some towns ‘are buying in’

Not every town that sweated out the year-end deadline was critical of the mandate. Around New Jersey, hundreds have cooperated, noted the Fair Share Housing Center. The nonprofit was a party in numerous challenges around the state where it pushed towns to meet Mount Laurel requirements.

Gordon, the center’s executive director, was recently appointed to Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill’s transition team. He criticized the latest efforts by municipalities seeking relief in court.

“This small group of wealthy towns have filed lawsuit after lawsuit trying to block the affordable homes New Jerseyans desperately need — and they have lost at every stage, including several state court decisions emphatically rejecting the lawsuit’s claims,” he stated. “We’re confident the federal court will once again reject these efforts and uphold a law that is already working.”

Editor’s note: Staff writers Marsha Stoltz, Philip DeVencentis and Stephanie Noda contributed to this article. It first appeared in the Daily Record and then was distributed on the USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect.

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MEXICO CITY — A fierce protest in Mexico City railing against gentrification and mass tourism was fueled by government failures and active promotion to attract “digital nomads,” according to experts, who said tension had been mounting for years.

The criticism comes after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum alleged that the July 4 protest derived from xenophobia, reviving a debate over an influx of Americans in the city.

Many Mexicans say they’ve been priced out of their neighborhoods — in part because of a move made by Sheinbaum in 2022, when she was the Mexico City mayor and signed an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO to boost tourism and attract digital nomads (remote workers) despite concern over the potential impact of short-term rentals.

Last week, that came to a head. Hundreds of demonstrators, in a largely peaceful manner, marched through tourism centers of the city with signs reading (in Spanish) “Gringo: Stop stealing our home” and “Housing regulations now!”

Near the end of the march, a group of protesters turned violent, breaking the windows of storefronts and looting several businesses. One protester slammed a butter knife against the window of a restaurant where people were hiding, and another person painted “kill a gringo” on a nearby wall.

“The xenophobic displays seen at that protest have to be condemned,” Sheinbaum said on Monday. “No one should be able to say ‘any nationality get out of our country’ even over a legitimate problem like gentrification. We’ve always been open, fraternal.”

The frustrations were built upon years of mass tourism and rising rent prices in large swaths of the city. The influx of foreigners began around 2020, when Americans flooded into the Mexico City to work remotely, dodge coronavirus restrictions and take advantage of cheaper living costs.

In the years since, choice neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa, lush central areas dotted with cafes and markets, have grown increasingly populated by foreign tourists and digital nomads. Temporary housing units are increasingly being rented through companies like Airbnb that cater to tourists.

Rents and living prices have soared, and English has been increasingly common on the streets of those areas. Some groups have described the phenomenon as a sort of “neo-colonialism.”

The Mexico City Anti-Gentrification Front, one of the organizations behind the protest, stated it was “completely against” any acts of physical violence and denied that the protests were xenophobic. Instead, the organization cited failures by the local government to address the root of the problems.

“Gentrification isn’t just foreigners’ fault; it’s the fault of the government and these companies that prioritize the money foreigners bring,” the organization stated. Meanwhile “young people and the working class can’t afford to live here.”

The organization, in its list of demands, called for greater rent controls, mandates that locals have a voice in larger development projects in their area, stricter laws making it harder for landlords to throw out residents, and prioritizing Mexican renters over foreigners.

Mexico’s protest comes on the back of a wave of similar protests across Europe railing against mass tourism. Tensions in Mexico have also been compounded by wider inequalities and the Trump administration targeting Latino communities in the U.S. as it ramps up deportations.

Protesters’ cries against government failures were echoed by experts, who said that surging gentrification is a product of both a shortage of affordable housing in the city and longtime government failures to regulate the housing market.

Antonio Azuela, a lawyer and sociologist, and others said that they do see the protest as a xenophobic backlash to digital nomads arriving in the city, but anger boiled over because of lax housing laws.

“What has made this explode is lack of regulation in the market,” Azuela said.

Mexico City’s government over the course of decades has made few efforts to control development and create affordable housing.

Legislators estimated there are about 2.7 million houses and apartments in the city, but about 800,000 more are needed. New affordable housing developments have arrived at the fringes of the city, said Luis Salinas, a National Autonomous University of Mexico researcher who has studied gentrification in Mexico City for years.

Controls, meanwhile, have been marked by lack of enforcement, and companies such as Airbnb have capitalized, he said.

Today, more than 26,000 properties in Mexico City are listed on Airbnb, according to Inside Airbnb, an advocacy organization that tracks the company’s impact on residential communities through data. For comparison, there are more than 36,000 Airbnb properties in New York City and 19,000 in Barcelona, where protests have also broken out.

“The government has treated housing like it’s merchandise,” Salinas said. The government’s actions “are completely insufficient,” he added. “The federal government needs to be intervening far more nowadays.”

Airbnb said it helped contribute more than a billion dollars in “economic impact” to Mexico City last year and that spending by guests has supported 46,000 jobs in the city. “What’s needed is regulation based not on prohibitions, but on respect for rights and transparency of obligations,” it stated.

Last year, Mexico City’s government approved the most ambitious rent control law since the 1940s to moderate prices and set caps on short-term rentals to 180 nights a year, but Salinas said that enforcement of short-term rental legislation is on pause until after the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

And even then, the country’s government will have to take far greater actions to get the situation under control, Azuela said.

“This isn’t going to end by just reining in Airbnb,” he said. “They’re going to have to do a whole lot more.”

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In California, builder’s remedy has become a handy tool for housing developers to skirt local zoning rules. Now, Gov. Tina Kotek is weighing whether to bring the policy to Oregon.

Such a rule would add to other housing policy tools the governor has enacted in Oregon, such as establishing a statewide housing production goal and requiring each city to produce a housing needs analysis.

In California, builder’s remedy allows housing developers to bypass local zoning if a city is out of compliance with its housing element — a formal, adopted plan for where in a city housing may be built. Under Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, the state has aggressively pursued enforcement of the rule for cities without certified housing elements.

Builder’s remedy was added to California’s law books in 1990 but was little used until the 2020s. In recent years, California developers — backed by state leaders — have used builder’s remedy to advance projects in cities that have rejected land use approvals for housing projects or dragged their feet in the process.

“I’d say it’s the number one tool that’s led to the creation of housing in California in the last 10 years,” said Ezra Hammer, a Jordan Ramis attorney and shareholder who has practiced in California and Oregon.

Past Oregon governors have looked to California and Washington for housing policy, and Kotek is following suit. Builder’s remedy was recommended by the Multifamily Housing Development Workgroup, which was convened this spring by Kotek and Portland Mayor Keith Wilson.

Upon the recommendations’ release in May, Kotek “committed to exploring” how builder’s remedy “could work to bolster housing production in Oregon.”

The work group’s builder’s remedy recommendation came alongside other well-worn housing policies such as cutting permitting wait times and encouraging office-to-housing conversions.

“Anything that’s helping clear the decks and make way for approval of additional housing, especially in communities where local officials are not keeping up with housing production, is a good thing in our state,” said Sarah Zahn, managing director of Security Properties. Zahn was a member of the housing policy work group.

Developers have pushed for builder’s remedy projects in cities such as Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach and Santa Monica. The Golden State’s largest cities — Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco — have compliant housing elements.

“There’s an inherent friction between states that have a housing crisis and want to see housing built immediately, and cities that want to maintain local control over zoning decisions,” said Spencer Kallick, a land use attorney with Allen Matkins in Century City, California, who has worked with builder’s remedy developers.

“Some cities get it and understand that they need to relax certain zoning standards to provide much-needed housing close to jobs and transit,” Kallick added. “Other cities should get it, but for community and political needs they are more reticent to give up local control.”

Kallick said California cities that do not have compliant housing elements fall into three categories: cities with small staffs and meager financial resources to update their housing element, cities that don’t mind builder’s remedy taking effect to encourage housing and, finally, cities that have battled the state over their housing elements.

At least 20 percent of units in builder’s remedy developments must be affordable. Developers have used it to propose projects such as One Redondo, which would bring more than 2,000 housing units and mixed-use development to Redondo Beach. The city has resisted construction of housing on the site of a defunct power plant, and the developer has launched a series of lawsuits.

Kallick warned that builder’s remedy is not a panacea, and it still requires great patience to get projects built.

“The developers who are doing builder’s remedy projects are ones that deeply understand the intricacies of the law and have the commitment to see projects through because they see the need for new housing in the state,” Kallick said.

Housing experts said it remains to be seen how builder’s remedy would work in Oregon. In California, not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) politics remain hugely influential, and opposition to development is sometimes boosted by concentrated wealth among residents.

Builder’s remedy probably doesn’t make sense outside of the Willamette Valley population centers, Hammer said.

“Builder’s remedy is going to be a tool in a few places,” he said. “It’s really built around multifamily housing. That’s going to work in Portland, maybe some of the larger suburbs around Portland, and it’ll work in Eugene. And that’s it.”

Oregon developers will have to wait at least until 2026 for the state to adopt builder’s remedy. Legislators did not consider it during this year’s session.

Developers have expressed interest in building townhomes or garden-style apartments that currently run afoul of Portland’s minimums for floor area ratio, Hammer said. Those regulations dictate building size relative to lot size.

City regulators, Hammer said, have “taken this tool that’s built for extremely hot markets and overlaid it on portions of the city where we would be blessed to have housing development.”

Builder’s remedy could sweep aside that type of zoning restriction, Hammer said.

“Portland would be ripe for it,” he said.

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MADRID — Spain’s government wanted to send a message last month with its crackdown on vacation rental company Airbnb, a minister told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The message was that the Spanish economy and its housing market are not a “free-for-all” that value profits over the rule of law.

The government ordered Airbnb to remove from its platform almost 66,000 holiday rentals identified as violating local rules by failing to list license numbers, listing the wrong license number, or not specifying the apartment’s owner. Airbnb is appealing the move.

Spain is one of the world’s most visited countries. It has approximately 49 million residents but last year received a record 94 million international visitors.

Meanwhile a housing affordability problem that is particularly acute in cities such as Madrid and Barcelona has led to growing antagonism against short-term holiday rentals. Airbnb is perhaps the best-known and most visible facilitator of such business.

The rise of Airbnb and other short-term rental companies is related to rising rents and housing costs, according to Spanish officials.

“Obviously there is a correlation between these two facts,” Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told the AP. “It’s not a linear relation. It’s not the only factor affecting it; there are many others. But it is obviously one of the elements that is contributing.”

The country has a shortfall of 450,000 homes, a recent Bank of Spain report stated. In the tourist hot spots of the Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, half the housing stock is tourist accommodations or properties owned by nonresidents, according to the report.

“Tourism is for sure a vital part of the Spanish economy; it’s a strategic and very important sector,” Bustinduy said. “But as in every other economic activity, it must be conducted in a sustainable way. It cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people — their right to housing, but also their right to well-being.”

The country has seen several large protests that have drawn tens of thousands of people to demand more government action on housing. Homemade signs, including one that read “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods,” at a recent march in Madrid point to the growing anger.

“A balance must be found between the constitutional rights of the Spanish people and economic activities in general,” Bustinduy said.

Regional governments in Spain are also tackling the issue. Last year, Barcelona announced a plan to not renew licenses for any apartments in the city as short-term rentals (approximately 10,000 are currently licensed) by 2028 to safeguard the housing supply for full-time residents.

Airbnb said that while its appeal goes through the courts, no holiday rentals would be immediately taken down from the site.

In response to Spain’s order, Airbnb has said the platform connects property owners with renters, but it doesn’t have oversight obligations, even though it requires hosts to show that they are compliant with local laws.

Tech companies like Airbnb must be held accountable, Bustinduy said.

“There is a battle going on about accountability and about responsibility,” he said. “The digital nature of these extraordinarily powerful multinational corporations must not be an excuse to fail to comply with democratically established regulations.”

Bustinduy, who belongs to the governing coalition’s left-wing Sumar party, dismissed the idea that the Spanish government‘s action toward Airbnb could discourage some tourists from visiting.

“It will encourage longer stays, it will encourage responsible tourism, and it will preserve everything that we have in this wonderful country,” he said, “which is the reason why so many people want to come here.”

The minister also took a shot at low-cost airlines. Spain has pushed against allowing such airlines to charge passengers for hand baggage. Last year, it fined five budget airlines, including RyanAir and easyJet, a total of $179 million for charging for hand luggage.

“The principle behind these actions is always the same: preserving consumer rights,” Bustinduy said. “Powerful corporations, no matter how large, have to adapt their business models to existing regulations.”

Editor’s note: AP reporter Joseph Wilson contributed to this report from Barcelona.

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SAN FRANCISCO — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday urged cities to clear homeless encampments, escalating once again his efforts to address an intractable issue of his time in office: the makeshift tents that line many underpasses, parks and local streets in the state.

Newsom’s administration drafted a local law that counties, cities and towns can directly adopt or modify to achieve the Democrat’s goals. He’s also releasing $3.3 billion in voter-approved funds to expand housing opportunities and treatment options for homeless residents.

“The time for inaction is over,” he stated. “There are no more excuses.”

Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, made tackling homelessness a priority of his administration when he took office in 2019. Other Democrats in government have since joined the effort to crack down on encampments. More than 187,000 Californians need housing; the state has one quarter of the nation’s homeless population.

With tents lining streets and disrupting businesses in numerous urban areas, homelessness has become one of the most pressing public health and safety issues in California and one sure to dog Newsom if he runs for national office.

His declaration comes a year after the U.S. Supreme Court made it easier for officials to ban homeless individuals from camping outside in public. It was a ruling welcomed by many Democratic leaders, including Newsom, despite critics describing the decision by the conservative court as cruel.

The key provisions of the model ordinance announced Monday include prohibitions on “persistent camping” in one location, a ban on encampments that block sidewalks and a requirement that local officials provide notice and make every reasonable effort to identify and offer shelter prior to clearing an encampment.

Providing a ready-made local law could bring uniformity to how cities and counties deal with encampments though Newsom is urging local officials to modify his proposal as needed.

Major cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have already started clearing out encampments, saying they are not fair to children, seniors and people with disabilities who need access to sidewalks and parks.

San Francisco’s new mayor, Daniel Lurie, pledged to clean up city sidewalks. Meanwhile, in San José, Mayor Matt Mahan has proposed arrests if a person refuses shelter three times. Both cities have ramped up the number of shelter beds available, so more people have somewhere to go.

In Los Angeles, first-term Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, has made clearing encampments a priority. But sagging tents, makeshift shelters and rusting RVs remain an all-too-common sight in just about every neighborhood. An annual tally last year estimated that more than 45,000 city residents were homeless.

Efforts to reduce homelessness are facing increased stress, as the city contends with a nearly $1 billion projected budget gap along with the massive and costly job of rebuilding the Pacific Palisades neighborhood that was destroyed in a January wildfire.

Bass’ office did not promptly respond to a message sent Monday seeking comments on Newsom’s announcement.

Critics say there is no evidence that punitive policies reduce homelessness, and camping bans make it harder to link people up with stable housing and employment. People may lose critical documents or contact with a case manager, forcing them to start all over again, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The California State Association of Counties stated that the state has not provided as much money to address homelessness as it says it has, and that half of the money has gone to housing developers.

In 2024, California voters approved a measure that imposes strict requirements on counties to spend money on housing and drug treatment programs to tackle the homelessness crisis. It was a signature proposal for Newsom, who campaigned for the measure’s passage.

Under the measure, counties are required to spend about two-thirds of the money from a voter-approved tax enacted in 2004 on millionaires for mental health services on housing and programs for homeless people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse problems.

The governor has also pushed for laws that make it easier to force people with behavioral health issues into treatment. And he has repeatedly threatened to withhold state money from cities and counties that do not step up to address homelessness.

But despite the roughly billions of dollars spent on more than 30 homeless and housing programs during the 2018-2023 fiscal years, California does not have reliable data needed to fully understand why the problem didn’t improve in many cities, according to a 2024 state audit.

The audit found California spent $24 billion to tackle homelessness over the previous five years but did not consistently track whether the huge outlay of public money improved the situation.

Editor’s note: Associated Press writers Christopher Weber and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek announced her appointments to the Housing Production Advisory Council (HPAC) on Monday. The 25-member group will be charged with developing an action plan to meet a new goal for home construction throughout the state.

Kotek’s executive order established an annual housing production goal of 36,000 units to be available at all levels of affordability to address Oregon’s housing shortage. It is about an 80 percent increase from current construction rates.

“I know too many Oregonians are struggling to find stable housing or on the verge of losing it,” Kotek stated. “Employers, particularly in rural and suburban areas, are struggling to hire and keep staff because there is nowhere for them to live or they are commuting from hours away. This is not sustainable. We must build more housing.”

HPAC members include housing industry leaders, local government representatives, two Democratic legislators and two Republican legislators, a tribal member, and relevant agency directors.

Gubernatorial appointees include: J.D. Tovey (co-chair), rural Oregon and a Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation member; Damien Hall (co-chair), Metro area; Daniel Bunn, Southern Oregon; Thomas Cody, Metro area; Deborah Flagan, Central Oregon; Ernesto Fonseca, Metro area; Elissa Gertler, Oregon Coast; Riley Hill, rural Oregon; Natalie Janney, Willamette Valley area; Robert Justus, Metro area; Joel Madsen, Columbia River Gorge; Ivory Mathews, Metro area; Erica Mills, Southern Oregon; Eric Olsen, Willamette Valley area; Gauri Rajbaidya, Metro area; Karen Rockwell, Oregon Coast; Margaret Van Vliet, Metro area; and Justin Wood, Metro area.

Legislative appointees and agency members include: Sen. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City; Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland; Rep. Jeff Helfrich, R-Hood River; Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland; Oregon Housing and Community Services Executive Director Andrea Bell, and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development Director Brenda Bateman.

On Friday, the HPAC will convene for the first time. It’s scheduled to provide a recommended framework for its action plan by April.

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A combination of low supply and high prices for housing in the Portland-metro area is the foremost economic problem facing policy makers, an economist said Wednesday.

Prices in the Portland area are about five times median household income, putting housing out of reach of many residents and burdening low-income renters, said John Tapogna, president of ECONorthwest, a Portland-based economic consulting firm.

About 34 percent of households in the Portland-metro area are considered “cost-burdened,” spending at least 30 percent of their income on housing, Tapogna said. The problem is worst among renters, with 49 percent cost-burdened, he added.

“That’s unworkable,” he said.

Tapogna spoke at the Sentinel Hotel to give his annual report on the value of jobs for the Portland Business Alliance.

Mike Wilkerson, an ECONorthwest project manager, said he expects housing construction, which already lags demand, to slow in 2020 and 2021 as the market continues to react to rising construction costs, higher interest rates and policy interventions such as Portland’s inclusionary housing program.

Tapogna said inclusionary housing was “well-intentioned” but “needs to be reconsidered.”

When an audience member asked what trade-offs the business community needs to make to encourage housing, Tapogna suggested it’s up to residents to welcome more housing into their neighborhoods.

“The trade-off is going to be the parking spot in front of your house,” he said. “It’s going to be how many neighbors you have in your leafy, single-family neighborhood.”

There are several legislative proposals in the Oregon Capitol and at Portland City Hall that seek to address the housing crisis. House Bill 2001 and Portland’s Residential Infill Project would change traditional single-family zoning to encourage “middle housing” – duplexes, accessory dwelling units and the like. Other proposals would cap rent increases and place restrictions on evictions without cause.

Cost-burdened renters are significant contributors to the Portland region’s short-term homeless population, Tapogna said.

“What is driving Portland’s homelessness crisis is the high cost of housing,” he said.

The housing troubles come amid a historic economic expansion. In July, barring a recession, the expansion will officially become the longest since World War II. Employment data from January showed 304,000 net new jobs in the U.S. despite a prolonged government shutdown.

In Oregon, construction employment led the way, growing 7 percent in the 12 months ending in November.

The Portland-metro area has added high-wage jobs, improving to 16th in median income among American cities.

“These are good numbers,” Tapogna said.

Venture capital investment in Portland still trails such investment in comparable cities such as Seattle, Austin and Salt Lake City, Tapogna said.

“This is not a huge venture capital town,” he said.

ECONorthwest’s report also looked at East Multnomah County. The portion of the county east of Interstate 205 suffers from commuting churn: 69 percent of residents work outside of the area, while 67 percent of East Multnomah County workers live elsewhere. That creates a strain on workers who log long commute times and expensive child care bills, Tapogna said.

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A mixed-use project rising in the Eliot neighborhood, in Northeast Portland, stands out for its commitment to the African-American community.

The Beatrice Morrow, now under construction at the site of the former Grant Warehouse on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard between Cook and Ivy streets, will have 80 affordable housing units as well as commercial and community space. For the residential units, priority will be given to people who either were forced out of the neighborhood because of gentrification or are at risk of being forced out.

“We’re definitely excited about the opportunity for folks who have been displaced or who are at risk of displacement from this neighborhood,” said Travis Phillips, director of housing development for nonprofit Portland Community Reinvestment Initiatives. “We’ve certainly gotten a lot of interest from folks who want to live there.”

Gerding Edlen is developing the project, which has a budget of approximately $19.3 million. Costs are being covered with money from a mix of public and private sources. The five-story building is being built by Portland-based general contractor Colas Construction.

Carleton Hart Architecture, another Portland-based firm designed the structure; Leeka Architecture and Planning designed the retail space.

Dark brick cladding is being used for the upper four stories to help the structure blend in with the area’s many older, unreinforced masonry buildings. Also, a large rooftop solar array and similar elements are expected to aid pursuit of a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold rating.

Indoors, the residential component will feature a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom units available for rent to families and individuals with incomes between 50 and 60 percent of the area median income.

The ground floor will be dominated by 6,000 square feet of retail space, a large community room and 112 bike parking spaces. A large playground will sit between the back of the structure and the parking lot.

“We have a particularly generous community room,” Phillips said. “The idea behind that being that, really, the community in Northeast Portland has seen a number of the larger gathering spaces go away and there aren’t the same spaces there used to be for folks to gather, so it was a priority for us.”

The building’s name comes from Beatrice Morrow Cannady – a well-known civil rights activist in early 20th century Oregon. Cannady served as editor of the Advocate, Oregon’s largest African-American newspaper. She used the platform to defend the civil rights of the state’s approximately 2,500 African-American citizens after she became owner of the publication in 1930.

The project also is an integral part of Pathway 1000 – PCRI’s initiative to build 1,000 new affordable units in North and Northeast Portland over the next decade. Developed by the group’s executive director, Maxine Fitzpatrick, Pathway 1000 envisions a mix of housing types ranging from large multifamily developments like Beatrice Morrow to a series of single-family row homes planned for completion this summer.

“If you can bring some of the old neighborhood back, they’ll be able to participate in the community as it used to be geographically, a community of color, and they can support the local businesses that are there,” said Bill Hart, founder and principal at Carleton Hart Architecture. “Their typical customers are the ones being moved out.”

Neighborhood residents’ response to the project has been positive, Carleton Hart project architect Martin Segura said.

“The existing site was a former warehouse and an empty lot,” he said. “And the fact we’re bringing back energy to a neglected piece of property has gone a long way.”

Segura added that the interior design conceived by local firm Mia Knox Design features artwork from local African-American artists. Meanwhile, a broad palette of bold colors will render each residential story unique.

PCRI was formed in the 1990s on the heels of a well-publicized scandal that revealed mortgage lenders had set minimum mortgage amounts and effectively redlined a large swath of North and Northeast Portland. In the fallout, banks started lending in formerly redlined areas, kick-starting the long process of gentrification. Today, houses in the immediate vicinity of the Beatrice Morrow are selling for an average of nearly $600,000. The Beatrice Morrow is intended to roll back that reality by at least a small amount.

“Relative to the number of units that are needed, it’s a drop in the bucket,” said Hart, a Portland native. “But I think the fact she (Fitzpatrick) is focused on this Pathway 1000 and the commitment to bring folks back is the driving force that separates this from other projects.”

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Central Oregon is bursting at the seams. Deschutes County grew at a 3.6 percent clip in 2016, according to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate. In the past five years, the county has grown by 13.5 percent, gaining more than 20,000 residents.

“Just the amount of people moving here is crazy,” said Allison Rambel, a manager at Deschutes Property Management.

Now Oregon State University-Cascades officials are asking the state Legislature for $69.5 million in bond funding to kick-start in Bend a major expansion to serve 3,000 to 5,000 students. House Bill 2782 would authorize issuance of construction bonds; it’s now before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means, and no meetings are scheduled.

Eventually, the Bend campus could provide housing for 1,700 students, in addition to 300 units already in place, totaling approximately 595,000 square feet. Plans also call for 362,000 square feet of academic buildings, 147,000 square feet of campus life buildings, 95,000 square feet of recreation buildings and approximately 7 acres of parking.

Bend’s housing market already is by some measures even tighter than Portland‘s. Deschutes Property Management oversees 892 apartment units. During April, the vacancy rate at the company’s properties was 0.8 percent.

“In the Bend market, we just do not have enough supply to meet the demand,” Rambel said. “We need more.”

Bend has bounced back strongly from the Great Recession, when real estate values plummeted. Homes sold for a median price of $375,000 during the first quarter of 2017, up 13 percent compared to a year earlier, according to Regional Multiple Listing Service data. The average price per square foot of sold property has risen to $213, up from $199 a year earlier.

Homebuilders such as Pahlisch Homes are busily building single-family residences, and more multifamily projects have cropped up within the city. But strong demand for second homes as well as low-wage jobs tied to tourism and service industries have created greater pressure on housing affordability in Bend, according to a city report.

OSU-Cascades plans to build enough housing to allow about 40 percent of students to live on campus. That would leave from 1,200 to 2,000 students seeking off-campus housing in Bend.

Several residential buildings are planned, said Christine Coffin, spokeswoman for OSU-Cascades.

“Both the campus and the community are interested in housing as many students as possible on campus,” she said.

Housing matters for recruiting and retaining not just new students, but also instructional staffers at OSU’s expanding Cascades campus.

“It’s a tough housing market, both for students and for new faculty and staff we’re hiring,” she said.

OSU-Cascades’ planned expansion hinges on state funding, which could be tough to come by as Gov. Kate Brown and state legislators grapple with a $1.6 billion funding gap. Brown’s budget would supply only $20 million of OSU-Cascades’ $69.5 million request. That would enable the university to begin infrastructure improvements, but little else.

“That infrastructure would simply sit until at least the next biennium,” Coffin said.

Failure to expand the campus would limit OSU-Cascades’ capacity to serve students, she added.

“Without those buildings, we’ll have to cap enrollment,” she said.

Currently, OSU-Cascades’ campus serves 1,215 students and can accommodate up to 1,890.

The first phase of campus expansion would focus on two structures. One would be a 55,000-square-foot academic building with room for laboratory science, kinesiology and engineering programs, along with classrooms and faculty offices.

The other building would be a “student success center,” according to university officials. The three-story building would have academic advising, student life and gathering and study spaces. OSU-Cascades students recently agreed to increases of their own fees to help pay for construction of the center.

The expansion is planned for property adjacent to the existing campus, on a 46-acre former pumice mine and a retired county landfill that is filled with timber and construction waste.

The university is considering development of biomass and solar facilities in hopes of becoming the nation’s first “net-zero” campus able to generate as much energy as it uses.

OSU-Cascades officials also plan an “innovation district” to incubate businesses.

“Faculty and industry could come together with public-private partnerships,” Coffin said.

Officials are hoping for more businesses to spin off from the university. Onboard Dynamics, a company that works on technologies that compress gas within natural-gas-powered vehicle engines, grew out of research at OSU-Cascades, Coffin said.

University-led innovations could help stabilize the swings in Central Oregon’s economy, she said.

“This area was hit hard by the Great Recession,” she said. “Part of that was lack of industry diversity. Universities are known to be a stabilizing force.”

Bend has growing health care and tech industries. A company that began in Bend, Agere Pharmaceuticals, was acquired by Pantheon in 2015 and was part of Thermo Fisher Scientific’s $5.2 billion purchase that was announced Monday.

Growth in Bend has pushed the city to expand its urban growth boundary. The Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development gave its approval in December for a 2,380-acre expansion of Bend’s UGB.

Growth assumptions for the university were considered as part of the UGB process, according to city documents. The OSU-Cascades campus is well within the UGB.
“One of the benefits of the campus location is that it supports Oregon’s and the city of Bend’s land-use goals and provides infill development and avoids sprawl,” Coffin said.

The city applied for, and received, a grant to develop a management plan to examine growth in the central westside, which includes OSU-Cascades. The Southwest Century Drive area is expected to have capacity for 410 housing units by 2028, with about 275 homes planned for vacant land.

City officials also are implementing a transportation demand management plan to address traffic around the university’s growth.

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