The housing crisis looks different when you’re the one trying to fix it, especially as a student. This exclusive executive conversation uncovers how Diego Diaz, a BA/MBA candidate at Willamette University, turned alarming data on Oregon’s unsheltered child homelessness into a driving force behind his advocacy. His founding of the YIMBY Actions chapter in Salem marks a bold step toward reshaping a state hit hard by youth homelessness.
Diego shares the origins of Project Picket, the affordable housing app he built solo for a Hackathon. Designed to connect first-time homebuyers and leverage Oregon’s ADU reforms, Diego’s hoping to have his project backed by Columbia Bank and eventually achieve national expansion. His vision blends community benefit agreements, technology, and grassroots mobilization to create a scalable path to affordable housing.
#YouthHomelessness #OregonPolitics #HousingAdvocacy #YIMBY
Diego shares the origins of Project Picket, the affordable housing app he built solo for a Hackathon. Designed to connect first-time homebuyers and leverage Oregon’s ADU reforms, Diego’s hoping to have his project backed by Columbia Bank and eventually achieve national expansion. His vision blends community benefit agreements, technology, and grassroots mobilization to create a scalable path to affordable housing.
#YouthHomelessness #OregonPolitics #HousingAdvocacy #YIMBY
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NewsTranscript
00:00Diego, welcome to 10 Minute Talks. Let's start with you telling us a little bit about yourself
00:11and your background. Thank you. I'm a student at Willamette University right now. I actually
00:17just completed my first year and yet I'm starting the MBA because I transferred in and so I'm one
00:24of the few students at Willamette that's actually been able to transfer into like a dual degree
00:27program but aside from that I believe I was the only Willamette University student who competed. I
00:33was on a solo team but most relevant I started EMB Actions 76th chapter in Salem, Oregon and so
00:44with that I it was something that I was pushed because I had gone through some of the data. I
00:54had been previously in housing advocacy working with some of the other organizations in Oregon
00:59like Portland Neighbors Welcome and the Thousand Friends of Oregon but it was specifically the item
01:05of like youth homelessness that struck me. It was sometime around April actually not terribly long
01:11ago when going through the data in just a random presentation that had been made by somebody else
01:17a bar chart comes up with the top line being the rate of unsheltered child homelessness in Oregon
01:24compared to other states where Oregon actually has 14 times the national average per capita rate of
01:31unsheltered child homelessness and it's actually three times more than the second and third place which
01:38is Hawaii and Washington and so that was something that really it felt staggering it's sincerely because
01:52it was such a large scope of an issue and it was so incredibly dire in this state that I just felt
02:00like there were nowhere near enough resources being allocated to actually fighting this compared to
02:08other issues in the state I just felt like it was very disproportionately small so I myself started
02:17Salem Yes in my backyard and now it's been about a few months we had our third meeting just last night
02:24and yeah things are going pretty well I mean so far we've met with Governor Kotex Senior Housing Policy
02:30Advisor she helped us draft our first strategy that we're going to be taking to there's 90 days until
02:36the start of our next legislative session so that's essentially the time that we have to build our
02:42entire movement because it's only a 35-day session so that's really the long and short of it is a few
02:49months ago uh found out just how bad the youth homelessness statistics are for Oregon uh and
02:56in the time since we've been meeting with a lot of really awesome people I mean uh I am actually
03:03wearing a shirt from YIMBY town 2025. I got a scholarship to attend just last month and so I was in
03:11Connecticut in New Haven for the conference with 1200 other YIMBY advocates across the country out of the
03:1780,000 total that are a part of the movement and that was just awesome I've been doing this for a
03:22matter of months and most of that work has been on my own and YIMBY action again thousands of people
03:29some of them have been doing this for over a decade so with their collective knowledge that I was able to
03:34really build off of during that conference I was able to bring that uh home I believe on September 18th
03:40so it was about a week after that that was actually the start of this hackahouse competition which
03:45was just really awesome that is amazing I mean for having seen this and having to come to be a winner
03:55of one of the three prompts for this year's hackahouse competition is truly an absolutely amazing and
04:02impressive timeline and I am if this is what you've been able to accomplish in a very very short span of
04:09time I'm very excited to talk to you later about the future and what you have planned for things that
04:17will come up but I want to take two steps back and I want to talk about what so you you've clearly
04:24been impassioned to work on the affordable housing issue and work on the a very sad issue that continues
04:33to plague the entire country in the world at large homelessness and childhood homelessness
04:40how did you discover this year's hackahouse competition and what prompted you to join as a
04:44solo team so that is actually a very funny story so I'm a part of a professional network called the
04:50abundance network and so um one of the directors at ivory innovations who runs the hackahouse competition
04:57is actually in the same professional network and so she is based in utah and me being based in oregon
05:04this summer I worked for I think I had four internships this summer so I they're all housing
05:10related and I was trying to go to every single event related to housing every summit every conference
05:14um and there was one that I didn't know about the missing middle housing fund conference uh in
05:19Portland and so it was actually her that uh highlighted that hey a few ivory innovations people are going
05:25to be going to be going to this uh housing fund conference in Oregon uh did you know about it
05:29and I was like no no I didn't know about it that would actually be awesome I would love to attend
05:33so I sign up I do go attend there's like 300 other people there it's an incredible day of like workshops
05:40and uh just learning more about the issues uh just really deep diving into the categories that were
05:45discussed but also uh when I get to converse with her colleagues that were in attendance there
05:51uh it was very interesting when I I mentioned I was a university student I was still an uh undergrad
05:57at that point and they were like oh we at ivory innovations run the hackahouse competition for
06:04for college students to compete and this sounds like something I would be really in your alley and
06:09I was like wow this sounds like something that would be really in my alley so I actually signed up as
06:13a hackahouse student ambassador way back in june so uh my job it was actually again a very funny part
06:22was to recruit other willamette university students to compete uh in the hackahouse competition um but
06:29given the time between when school started for us and when um the competition was uh I did get eight other
06:39students to sign up but actually all of them ditched on the day of the competition so um
06:46they did pay me for being a student ambassador but I ended up being the only willamette student to
06:52compete but uh I still won so I I think um it's pretty uh I think we're still on pretty fine terms
07:01yeah I mean I I think any contribution that you can make whether it's awareness or getting people
07:10even interested in this issue is so worthwhile and I and more importantly let's talk clearly your
07:17solution resonated with the judges of the competition so with that let's talk about project picket walk me
07:26through your idea and let's start there yeah I just like to give the formal pitch here um so my name
07:37is Diego Diaz I am the founding lead of EMB Action's 76th chapter because I believe the housing crisis is
07:43the most pressing issue of our time and now according to Zillow just 15 percent of renters can afford
07:50home ownership the problem is concentrated the worst on the west coast and this 80 to 100 percent
07:56AMI bracket that we're talking about are our teachers firefighters and nurses who earn too much for
08:02subsidies but too little to get a mortgage these hard-working Americans and the priced out of
08:08opportunity high opportunity neighborhoods with access to schools and jobs and starter homes under
08:141400 square feet that are smaller and more affordable well they're a dying breed and together I want us to do
08:21something about it this is actually what changes everything Columbia Bank just signed a community
08:28benefit agreement for the west coast which puts three billion dollars in home loans towards expanding
08:33access to homeownership for disadvantaged groups and low middle income earners within our bracket we'll
08:39be partnering with them for what's next now I'd like you to meet picket a mobile app and financial
08:45product that will be Columbia Bank's most innovative offering yet empowering first-time home buyers to pool
08:51resources and unlock the American dream together so how does it work first pickets algorithm scrapes
08:57public data and realtor listings to find underutilized lots in high opportunity neighborhoods it picks the
09:03best ones into a curated catalog of prime build sites next first-time buyers set their preferences on
09:09picket almost like Zillow distances to schools stores and more several buyers the same preferences are matched to
09:16ideal parcels and they get to look at floor plans together if they agreed to collaborate they proceed
09:21with FHA section 203k loans from Columbia Bank and put down just a 3.5 percent deposit on their fraction
09:28to both purchase the site and build a cottage cluster taking advantage of recent ADU reforms on the west coast
09:35our last step is that all buyers are now homeowners building wealth in a limited equity cooperative which is
09:42uniquely compatible with both FHA loans and cottage clusters
09:46our unique value proposition here is that we can avoid most
09:49permitting fees and regulatory hurdles by using ADUs
09:53in in a proven cottage court model where in
09:57Oregon and Portland specifically these units are up to three hundred
10:01thousand dollars cheaper than the average detached home which makes a world of
10:05difference when you're trying to qualify for a mortgage with income where
10:08you really just can't find anything else in this market segment and so you'll see here
10:14an example of six ADUs in Oregon being built on what was once a single family lot
10:19on the other hand you'll see an example of a typical suburban lot in Portland being built to
10:25new zoned capacity after recent reforms tripling the dwelling units per acre without changing the
10:30streetscape at all and by partnering with the same builders insurers and suppliers across the board
10:37we can achieve great economies of scale perfecting everything so every project will run like
10:43clockwork and most importantly i'm not just pitching i am uniquely positioned to implement
10:50this in the real world i hold the fellowship with columbia bank that is exclusively focused on
10:56solutions to increase their lending to low and middle income borrowers by 79 in three years in
11:01order to be in compliance with their federal obligations this is the key deliverable of my nine month work plan
11:07and this project could be how i pull it off your vote of confidence could help turn this innovation
11:13into a reality it is so impressive that you came up with this in what is a very short period of time so
11:21walk me through a little bit about how you're in a unique position with your fellowship and the hack a house
11:30competition and why this idea is something that isn't just an idea and can actually translate into a real
11:38implementable solution awesome well i would have uh loved to expand upon that i hold i had a whole other
11:45slide on it but um our presentations are limited to just three minutes so it's very narrow the scope of
11:52what i had to try and get across and so on the right here you'll see a map uh it's a map of the west
11:58coast with some areas highlighted in blue uh these are actually where columbia bank has their branches
12:04and so the blue is what's called an assessment area they have an obligation with the federal reserve
12:10under the community reinvestment act to uh essentially it binds them to reinvest in the communities that
12:19they operated and have branches in so in 2022 they signed a five-year community benefit agreement of
12:278.1 billion dollars total for uh most of northern california and the west coast uh broader so uh
12:35uh the this is split into multiple buckets and so for uh expanding access to home ownership across
12:43this entire region uh is about three billion dollars total and so the this is three billion dollars in
12:50home loans that they have to make to certain groups and so um for low and middle income borrowers in
12:56particular they need to increase their lending to this uh market segment by 79 percent over three years
13:03in order uh to merge as they've been merging with columbia bank and so this is actually a very critical
13:10issue both for them and of course for um the people who are low and middle income borrowers who can't
13:17get a loan and so um for many of these it's because they can't qualify for a mortgage on a specific
13:24property because it's just so difficult to find something in this missing middle or starter home range
13:31primarily it's there's all other reasons that contribute to this but uh for most new construction
13:36nowadays because there's a fixed cost to things like permitting and other processes that uh one has
13:45to go through in order to build a home uh the best way to maximize your return is to build like a mcmansion
13:52is to build the largest thing that you can on this lot when you've already paid and gone through all of
13:57the uh hoops to do everything you might as well build the largest unit which isn't great for uh
14:04average people who do want to try and get into something that's maybe one or two bedrooms and so
14:10uh what you'll see on that uh or actually you asked about the columbia bank fellowship so um for
14:17this 8.1 billion dollar community benefit agreement that they have signed uh there is one fellow that is
14:25assigned to uh kind of uh kind of coming up with the solutions across the entire entire thing not
14:31even just the the home ownership bit so home ownership is the primary one that is uh their
14:37most measurable um the other ones they can just do like philanthropy spending it's not very hard for
14:43them to do that but um for low and middle income borrowing there just don't exist the houses needed to
14:51actually disperse these loans um on and so with missing middle housing where you can do uh adus on
14:59a lot typically with a mortgage you have to buy the entire lot you have to buy the single family home
15:03that's sitting on this lot but uh in a limited equity cooperative you can actually get multiple
15:09people to uh like pool mortgages for a certain lot and so you're splitting uh the cost of like the land
15:16the cost of uh most things like six seven eight ways and that really does make a difference for
15:22affordability and portland itself is uh really one of the poster child cities in the entire country for
15:29this kind of adu uh or like small scale infill housing and so that's just a perfect model for
15:36what we have here and um with columbia bank uh when i mentioned that i was in a unique place to
15:43implement this uh it is actually next thursday so in six days i go up to tacoma washington for a
15:50meeting with columbia bank's board of advisors and so i am actually presenting this to
15:57the board um as a serious solution to you know what my work plan is like this is actually
16:04my work and my fellowship and um yeah i gotta say i can't wait i mean i'm excited to hear about the
16:14outcome of that meeting and i have to ask so it sounds like there's been a lot of work and portland
16:21and oregon were the case study for where this would be immediately implementable do you think that this
16:27is a solution that would be applicable nationwide if there were other banks or partners that and
16:35regulatory environments where this would be possible outside of the actual portland and oregon area yeah
16:43yeah so um you'll actually see on the left here uh we have a map of the nationwide adu reforms and so
16:51um the west coast is really where the strongest adu reforms have been concentrated but that is really
16:57uh subject to change like uh in the last few years has really been when all of this progress has been
17:02made which is why no other banks or large institutions have really jumped on it like
17:06there are some it's mostly smaller or regional banks maybe credit unions that have been giving out
17:11the loans for these adus but so far uh nobody like chase bank of america any of the others have really
17:19uh taken this as one of their mainstream products and so columbia bank would be in a very unique
17:24um position here where um in oregon you can uh it's not exactly by right but you can build up to a 900
17:33square foot adu on your property uh in washington state that's a thousand in the seattle area
17:39specifically it's 1500 which is bigger than like the three-bedroom house that i grew up in um
17:45and then in california that is 1200 square feet and so that's pretty great um
17:52i actually am not sure about every other state um on what they allow but i think it's a good starting
18:00point um for the west coast as like a pilot project or something i'm certain that if this project does
18:06find success it would lead to other uh other inspirations for other uh places uh if i guess
18:15primarily um the interesting thing about this from columbia or from the bank's perspective
18:21is that you don't really have to subsidize the loans that you're giving out like uh banks make
18:27money on the interest of course not on uh how much the loan is really for and so they're already
18:34competing on price by providing like a very it they are filling uniquely uh a place within the gap between
18:43supply and demand in a market segment where there's isn't anything else like they're the loan competitor
18:48here at this price level and so um i think there's an incentive for them and because of that it
18:55doesn't require like a penny and any kind of like state federal subsidies um and so because all of these
19:02incentives i feel are really well aligned there's a great path for like implementation and like broader
19:09adoption um in the industry so that is also something that's uh i'm looking at diego it sounds
19:17like there is there are rather many things that are coming up in the immediate future for you and for
19:25project picket i'm so excited to see what happens next for our audience we're going to put all of the
19:32the links to different things that diego mentioned in today's episode description diego thank you so
19:39much for joining me for this episode of 10 minute talks we're going to have to talk again soon awesome
19:44i look forward to it
19:53you
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