BEND, OR -- Bend received a very large check Tuesday from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)."It’s going to identify and remove barriers to housing production and preservation," says Mayor Pro Tem Megan Perkins. The $5 million grant is from HUD’s new Pathways to Removing Obstacles (PRO) Housing program. "We are the only city in Oregon to receive this grant," Perkins tells KBND News, "There were 21 awards for the country and we were one of the larger awards."

HUD distributed a total of $85 million nationwide. Perkins says, "They prioritized communities that have an acute need for affordable housing. And, the city of Bend is 6,000 units under where we need to be for affordable housing, right now." But, she notes, the city also had to show it has tried to address the crisis, "We had to be doing things. You can’t just sit back and say, ‘we don’t know what to do about affordable housing.’ So, we demonstrated that we’re doing a lot of the right things. But we also have these barriers in place still." 

The money will be used to complete a 12-month analysis of how the city can reduce barriers,"What are the barriers at the city level that are slowing down or impeding affordable housing? So, that could be anything from the permitting process or availability of subsidies." Perkins says there also be a five-year housing implementation plan. And the bulk of the funding will be used to provide more financial incentives, "That’s basically going to be a revolving loan fund, to really help affordable housing projects - give them that extra boost to make sure that they pencil."

Perkins says it's very early in the planning process, but the goal is to increase overall housing production, "As a city, we don’t build housing ourselves. People think that we do, but we don’t. We don’t have public housing, we don’t build housing. But I think we are seeing every level we can pull to make sure that we see some significant changes."

A Deputy Assistant HUD Secretary was in Bend Tuesday to present the city's award.