Remember the debate about the incentives for the Jackstraw development in Bend? People claimed the city was giving away $10 million in incentives to a project that didn’t need them.

The Bend City Council decided in February that it needed to put its tax incentive programs for housing on a pause. Councilors and residents of Bend had too many concerns.

This week a subset of the Council got a look at two new, proposed incentive programs. And the fundamental question is: Will the right amount of money go to the right purposes?

The proposals are not finalized. The debate will never be settled, once and for all. But the proposals do seem on the right track to us, at least. They need more eyes on them and more skilled eyes than ours.

Think about the problem. In short, the rent is too damn high for many people to live in Bend.

Even an entry level teacher in Bend is going to be challenged affording typical rents. A new teacher at Bend-La Pine Schools, in their first year of experience with a bachelor’s, would earn $49,144 for the 2024-2025 school year.

A general rule of thumb is people should not pay more than 30% of their income on housing, so people can enjoy other things in life. So 30% would come out to a little over $1,200 a month for that teacher.

Good luck finding an apartment in Bend for that.

It looks like $1,800 a month is needed for many apartments. Of course, people can double up and triple up. It’s nothing new. And not every Bend teacher needs to live in Bend. But the overall trend is also that housing is becoming more and more out of reach to more people. If teachers have difficulty living here, it’s a signal of a problem. It’s worse for people who work in food service and in day care. It’s a problem that will grow.

So what the city of Bend hopes with the new policies is to encourage more development of multifamily housing with more affordable rents and also encourage more good jobs so people can afford to live here.

The first policy, “lowering rents,” would be for new development if 15% are rented to be affordable at up to 90% of area median income. The city wants the rent to rise for those units at a lower rate than the maximum allowed. New developments that comply would be eligible for an annual rebate for up to a minimum of 10 years.

It’s not as if a development meets the criteria, it automatically gets anything. The city’s Bend Urban Renewal Agency, which is the Bend City councilors in a different incarnation, would have the final say over if a development gets anything and what it gets. Councilors would have flexibility to offer annual rebates for longer than 10 years, for instance, if a developer was going to do something such as offer 30% of units at up to 90% of area median income.

The second policy, “good paying jobs,” would provide an annual rebate for 10 years to businesses in certain targeted sectors that create at least 5 new jobs with average wages of a salary of $72,000. That $72,000 salary is the cut off point, because that’s where it is calculated people can afford rent in Bend without being excessively burdened. The rebates would be for 10 years. The targeted sectors have not been identified and that may be controversial.

Councilors had questions, primarily about the first policy.

Why is the city going up to 90% of area median income rather than focusing its attention on people that make less?

Staff said the city already has programs and there are already state and federal initiatives that are aimed at providing affordable housing. The market provides housing for people making area median income. The city is going up to 90% to target a needed area.

Councilor Mike Riley, who is also the executive director of the Environmental Center in Bend, asked if there would be a provision requiring energy efficiency in the developments. Staff said they could include it if councilors wanted.

These two policies are going to go through several more reviews before approval. And they can also always be adjusted after they are put in place, if they are not delivering what the city wants.

But now is the time to comment on them if you have thoughts. You can review them in more detail by looking at the documents here: tinyurl.com/Bendincentives.