Oregon Is Spending More Than Ever on Low-Income Housing. A State Law Keeps the Details Secret. by Rob Davis Co-published with Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian/OregonLive August 21, 2026, 5:00 am

Oregon Is Spending More Than Ever on Low-Income Housing. A State Law Keeps the Details Secret. The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each subsidized apartment has nearly doubled. But, thanks to a carve-out in its public records law, Oregon doesn’t have to provide the details of that spending. by Rob Davis Co-published with Oregon Public Broadcasting and The Oregonian/OregonLive August 21, 2026, 5:00 am https://www.propublica.org/article/oregon-affordable-housing-cost-secrecy?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=secondary Oregon Is Spending More Than Ever on Low-Income Housing. A State Law Keeps the Details Secret. Oregon’s spending on low-income housing has exploded in the past five years. The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each apartment has nearly doubled, to $540,000. But the public isn’t allowed to see the details of how all these dollars are being spent because Oregon is one of the only states in the U.S. with a carve-out in its public records law that prevents disclosing the financial details of subsidized housing projects. The issue is especially pressing in the Pacific Northwest, where leaders have tied the lack of affordable housing to the region’s dire homelessness crisis. Despite all of Oregon’s spending on housing, its homeless population continues to grow. Understanding and controlling construction costs could make it possible to, with the same amount of money, either build more rent-restricted apartments or discount rents more steeply. In other states, researchers and journalists have used developers’ financial records to investigate spiraling costs of subsidized housing. The state housing agency’s director said in a statement that she’s committed to transparency, but that she also takes seriously the agency’s responsibility to comply with the state records law that exempts housing financials from public disclosure. Asked whether she supported the exemption and thought it necessary, she said: “The cost of construction is a topic of growing interest. We will take your request under consideration as we assess ways to proactively share construction costs so that they are more readily available to the public.”