PENDLETON — Despite an uptick in new housing construction over the past five years, 1 in 4 households are spending more than half their income on rent.

This fact was shared at a Pendleton City Council meeting on Tuesday, where Pendleton city officials assured the council that progress was being made on building more affordable housing, but were light on details.

A state law passed in 2018 required the city to hold a public hearing if a quarter or more of its households were considered “severely rent burdened,” a term that means a household spends 50% or more if its income on rent.

Pendleton hit that threshold in 2019, with the severely rent-burdened population jumping from 18.7% to 25%. Compared to three other Eastern Oregon communities, Pendleton’s rent-burdened population was higher than the ones in Hermiston and La Grande. And while Ontario is on par with Pendleton, the latter was the only community that saw a significant rise from 2018 to 2019.

The numbers could trend upward again next year: City Planner George Cress told Councilor Linda Neuman that the figures did encompass the February floods that permanently displaced several residents.

The city did issue 216 housing construction permits between 2014 and 2019, although a majority of the permits were for single-family housing. Cress wrote in a report that the city plans to add another 350 apartment units thanks to developments like the Westgate Apartments and old U.S. Forest Service building on Southwest Hailey Avenue.

But Pendleton will need to continue to ramp up housing development if it wants to keep pace.

Although these new developments might offer more affordable options for Pendleton residents, Councilor Carole Innes said she wants more housing specifically geared toward low-income and very low-income households.

“Affordable is a rather nebulous term,” she said.

Mayor John Turner said the challenge to building low-income housing development is that the federal tax credits that used to incentivize developers to build them have largely dried up.

City Manager Robb Corbett said more affordable housing could be on the way through the $6 million in flood relief the city received from the state for trailer replacement and affordable housing, but he demurred when asked for more specifics.

“There’s a lot of options on the table, but I would prefer not to go into detail until something comes to fruition,” he said.

The city has been working with the Community Action Program of East Central Oregon on potential flood relief housing projects. CAPECO approached a Riverside mobile home park owner on buying the park and converting it into an affordable housing community, but the owner declined the nonprofit’s offer.