The housing crisis is worse than ever, and it’s one that many elected representatives and nonprofits have been working on for some time. Last month Gov. Kotek signed a package of housing related bills into law. They allow cities to expand their urban growth boundaries, protect existing affordable housing and provide financing to encourage the construction of new housing. Estimates put the need for new homes at 29,500 a year to keep up with population growth and the demand for housing.

Constructing new housing for middle income families is at the heart of the Oregon Community Foundation’s announcement of its $100 million “Building Hope Fund.” OCF says it’s a kind of down payment to spur even more investment from other sources to create a fund that will make affordable loans to developers so they can build middle income housing. OCF’s goal is 10,000 new homes built all around Oregon in the next 10 years.

Lisa Mensah is the President and CEO of the Foundation. She joins us to explain how she sees the loan program working and how it fits into their extensive and longstanding granting program for housing and other community needs throughout the state.

Editor’s note: Oregon Community Foundation is one of OPB’s financial supporters. We cover them as we do any other organization.

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News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/05/22/oregon-community-foundation-investing-tol/