Published 10:00 am Tuesday, October 27, 2026

Bend must plan for some 34,000 more homes in the next 20 years to try to accommodate housing needs, the state says.

How is Bend supposed to achieve that?

It’s one of the issues Bend City Councilors and city staff are scheduled to talk about this week . Bend doesn’t need to have a perfect plan that will hit every state target. It does need to have a reasonable plan that seems likely to achieve state targets.

Consider just one sliver of what the city must plan for: housing types. Most Bend housing is currently single-unit detached, about 70%. Another 17% is multi-unit, such as apartments. Middle housing, such as duplexes, triplexes and townhomes, make up about 13%. Most new permitted housing has been middle or multi-unit housing since 2014. That made up about 52% of new permitted units.

There is a “safe harbor” plan for housing types that has approval from the state.…