Recent letter writers have extolled the merits of HB 2001, the so-called “middle housing” state legislation that dictates sweeping zoning deregulation. Proponents ascribe to this neoliberal “trickle-down” approach every benefit from affordable rents to more opportunities for home ownership to a nostalgic renewal of “streetcar” neighborhoods.

All of this is part of a grand myth, a false narrative ginned up by investors and promoted by naïve, mostly white advocates.

Among the many experienced and grounded advocates of true housing justice are three non-white women whose views Eugene Weekly readers should consider when deciding what outcome the current city planner recommendation for code amendments will actually produce. These amendments contain no affordability provisions and nothing to prevent displacement of low-income families as investors demolish low-cost rentals and replace them with luxury apartments.

Visit Housing-Facts.org/voices to view webcasts by Portland State University professor, Lisa Bates, Boston City Councilor, Lydia Edwards, and to read an illuminating interview with UCLA professor Ananya Roy.

Ananya Roy sums it up well: “Most important for the issue at hand, housing justice insists that the housing market is the problem, not the solution.”

Paul Conte

Eugene