The Bend City Council is talking about whether they should keep charging builders a fee that is earmarked for local affordable housing projects. Bend Mayor Jeff Eager says the charge is set to expire soon, so the Council is deciding if it should continue.  It started several years ago and currently there is about $2.7 million in the affordable housing fund.  The money is used for low interest or no interest loans to help pay for the projects. "There's a lot of moving parts to it; and there's also a component where the fee may help leverage some State and federal funding for affordable housing that Bend wouldn't otherwise get. So we've just started looking into it and there's a lot of pieces to it and we'll be dealing with it for at least another one or two meetings."  Eager says on one hand, Bend needs affordable housing.  But there's a downside to charging a fee to regular housing because that makes the cost of homes go up. The charge is one third of 1% of the value of the project.  So the fee for a $300,000 home would be just shy of $1000.