KGW’s Straight Talk with Laural Porter Laural Porter/KGW

Oregon's housing crisis has been front and center during this year's legislative session as the state and its new governor, Tina Kotek, struggle to tackle a problem that has been years in the making.
The scale of the shortage makes it difficult for even aggressive solutions to produce quick improvements; it will take a long time to build the hundreds of thousands of housing units Oregon will need to not only make up for the exiting shortfall but stay ahead of future population growth.
But there is one approach that can produce additional housing much faster, and without having to build anything at all: home sharing, in which existing homeowners rent out their unused rooms to tenants.
Tess Fields, executive director of Home Share Oregon, Margaret Van Vliet, former director of Oregon Housing and Community services, were guests on this week's episode of Straight Talk to discuss the state of Oregon's housing crisis and the immediate impact that home sharing can have.
They were joined James Dirksen, an Oregon homeowner who has rented out a portion of his house for more than 20 years, hosting a variety of tenants, to talk about his experience as a home sharing participant.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell joined KGW's Laural Porter for Straight Talk this week for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on issues like police staffing levels and body-worn cameras. He stuck around for a bonus episode to discuss police reform efforts, his working relationship with Mayor and Police Commissioner Ted Wheeler, and what will happen when Portland transitions to a new form of government in 2025.

Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell joined KGW's Laural Porter for Straight Talk this week for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on police staffing challenges, Portland's crime and homicide rates, the 2020 protests, gunshot detection technology and the implementation of body-worn cameras for police officers.

The rise in remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic hollowed out downtown Portland, which was heavily-reliant on office workers. Can anything be done to bring the core of Portland back to its former glory?

Data compiled by consulting firm EcoNorthwest shows that thousands of people are leaving Multnomah County, and taking hundreds of millions of dollars with them.

Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation officials Heidi Wallace and Carrie Bates were guests on Straight Talk to discuss how people can recognize when drinking has become a problem, where they can go for help to cut back, and the kinds of benefits that can come from reducing alcohol consumption.