Plan calls for affordable housing

Providing affordable housing in Sisters is a high priority in a redrafted Sisters Comprehensive Plan, which was adopted by the city council last month.

Carolyn Gabrielson, a member of the Sisters Habitat for Humanity Board of Directors, praised Goal 10 of the plan, which outlines how the city will provide for housing needs.

"In terms of affordable housing, it makes substantial steps forward because it takes the long view," Gabrielson said. "It provides for residents with incomes of all levels. The commercial market does not address the need for more for those who make the median income and below, so I am glad the City is providing what the commercial market does not."

According to the plan's new policies, one in 10 of all new housing units built in the city by 2025 must be affordable to families with low incomes. Half of these units shall be affordable to families who earn up to 30 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI) -- $54,000 for a family of four -- and the other half must be affordable to families who earn 31 to 50 percent of the AMI.

The plan includes data from the Central Oregon Regional Housing Authority (CORHA) for its analysis.

According to the data, 24.9 percent of the 397 households in Sisters in 2000 lived in housing that was not affordable given their incomes. Of these households, 93 percent had annual incomes under $35,000.

The 2003 data indicate 139 local households are "cost burdened," which means they spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

In the last 10 years, the housing demographics changed dramatically, Thompson told The Nugget. The demographics dropped 17 percent in the lowest income bracket and jumped 17 percent in the highest, so that the city shows a significantly wealthier population, Thompson said.

"The reason is the market was providing housing at the high end and not at the low end," Thompson said. "That (providing low-end housing) was hard to do without the sewer system. The Pines closed and lost 29 affordable housing units within a three-month period and there was no place for them to go."

The Pines was a local housing complex made up of former logging residences which closed in November of 1998.

Higher-end homes are much more common. Seventy percent of the housing built in Sisters between 1994 and 2002 was single-family, detached housing, which is the most expensive housing type in the city, according to the data.

In Sisters in 2002, 47 single-family housing units were sold, ranging from $65,000 to $448,000, with an average price of $189,864.

Goal 10 also requires the City to develop a housing plan, which recommends the use of tools such as employer housing assistance, fee waivers and shared equity programs.