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Housing Program

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Mailing Address: 20 East Main St
Physical Address: 51 Winburn Way
Ashland, OR 97520
Phone: (541) 552-2043
Fax: (541) 488-6006
Contact: Linda Reid, Housing Program Specialist
Email:

The Ashland Housing Program encompasses a number of activities that promote and regulate the development of affordable housing within the community. Ashland Housing Program Brochure

Ashland's Affordable Housing Program: Ashland has an ongoing program that provides incentives to promote affordable housing development, as well as regulating units as affordable for a set period of time. For units established as 'affordable', the City imposes both a maximum rent or sale price, and qualifies the occupants of these units to ensure income guidelines are met throughout the affordability period. There are considerable variations regarding the terms of affordability and income guidelines for specific housing units within the program and thus it is necessary to contact the City's Housing Program Specialist with questions before renting, buying, or selling a covered affordable housing unit. If you have spoken with the Housing Program Specialist about the specific housing unit you are interested in renting or buying (provided it's covered under Ashland's Program), the income verification forms can be accessed via the following link:

Affordable Housing Application

If you are looking for housing in Ashland, this brochure should have some information to assist you in both finding housing and identifying some local resources that are available: Housing Resource Brochure

Community Development Block Grant Program: The City of Ashland receives approximately $150,000 annually from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds. These funds can be used by qualified non-profits for a variety of housing and community development projects that benefit low- and moderate-income persons in Ashland.

Housing Trust Fund: These Trust Funds provide a stable and steady source of funding for affordable housing. Trust funds enable jurisdictions to design housing programs and provide housing developers with a dependable source of funding to support projects. Ashland is presently working on the development of a funding source for the Housing Trust Fund.

Fair Housing Activities: "Fair housing" is the name for the federal and state civil rights laws that protect all of us from discrimination in housing based on our race, color, national origin, religion, gender, physical or mental disability, the presence of children under age 18 (familial status), marital status, source of income, sexual orientation and gender identity.

Get Involved: City of Ashland Housing and Human Services Commission meetings are open to everyone. The Commission encourages the public to attend and participate.

Why Support Affordable Housing?

Connected to the statistical face of affordable housing is the social face. It is proven that without affordable housing, not only individuals and families suffer, but also the community in which they live pays a high price.
In order to maintain a sustainable community, all three factors of environmental protection, economic prosperity, and community well-being must be addressed. The decline of community well-being and an increase in expenditures and environmental degradation is seen in: reduced productivity; an increase in homelessness, public assistance, and criminal behavior; a decline in education performance and proper nutritional health; road and parking congestion resulting in increased pollution, and higher costs for road maintenance and systems; increased fuel consumption resulting in increased pollution; increased travel time resulting in a decrease of family time and reduced hours of volunteerism with schools, churches, non-profits, and local government.
The percentage of families with children moving to or remaining in Ashland has declined in recent years due in part to the rising cost of housing. This demographic shift has impacted school enrollment as well as the employment sector of the community, which has seen the negative affects related to the price of housing. Recently, college professors, City Department Heads, and Physicians have turned down jobs citing the cost of housing as the primary reason.
Our quality of life is directly related to our ability to provide affordable housing. What are we doing to assure that people who grew up here can continue to live here? Unless we take steps to assure that Ashland is a community for the young as well as the more affluent aging population, this town will lose its sense of community and inclusion.