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"Missing Middle" Housing Issue Focus Of City-Wide Forum

Part 3
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Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis says she’s pleased with the interest shown at this week’s middle class housing summit on the University of Oregon campus. The Wednesday event drew a capacity crowd of 235 people, including 40 that had to be turned away.

Vinis says many people in the middle class are getting priced out of the Eugene market, which has cost employers workers, and created a housing gap.

Credit Brian Bull / KLCC
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KLCC
Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis, at her 2018 State of the City address last month.

“We can not get ahead of the housing shortage problem if we are solely turning to our non-profit providers like St. Vincent DePaul or Cornerstone Community Housing," Mayor Vinis tells KLCC. 

"They are providing low-cost housing, in many cases, subsidized housing, but we actually –urgently- need to be building market-rate housing, so we really need to bring other people to the table if we’re going to address the missing middle crisis.”

Vinis says those other people include property owners, realtors, and developers.  She says next Monday’s Eugene City Council meeting will be a work session focusing on the “missing middle” housing issue.

Copyright 2018, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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