The Bend Chamber of Commerce is championing ADUs — Accessory Dwelling Units — as a way individuals can help ease the affordable housing shortage.
The Chamber has created an online guide for developing ADUs in the hopes that homeowners will build affordable housing and rent them to people who want to work in Bend.
“This will be her kitchen and living space. She’ll have a nice kitchen and living room space and a nice patio.”
Cynthia Maree is building a 560-square foot, 1-bedroom accessory dwelling unit alongside her new home in Bend for her mother to live in.
“If we no longer need to have a multi-generational home, we still have the income potential off of an ADU so the investment is well spent in creating this,” Maree said. “I think other people are realizing that too, whether it’s for people coming into visit or they want a little extra income and have a rental ability on their property.”
On Thursday, the Bend Chamber of Commerce launched an online ADU guide that explains how to plan, apply for permits and build accessory dwelling units.
“They looked at other communities to see how they were doing with ADUs. They looked at how do you finance these things. They looked at barriers to building them. What are the costs? What’s the cost benefit analysis of whether you should even attempt it?” said Talena Barker, vice president of leadership development at Bend Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber is mailing notices to 4,000 homeowners in Bend who are eligible to build ADUs on their property under recently updated land use guidelines.
Because ADUs are generally less than 600 square feet they should, theoretically, rent for less than apartments.
“We are trying to get more workforce housing into Bend where workers can live as quickly as possible. That’s going to take many strategies. ADUs are just one of them,” said Katy Brooks, CEO of the Bend Chamber.
All the basic information you need to plan, apply for permits and construct an ADU, whatever style be it an attached, detached out in the backyard, in a basement or over a garage, is available on the Bend Chamber of Commerce website.
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