It’s hard to answer the question: When is housing considered affordable? The people who do this work will tell you there is “affordable housing,” and then there is “Affordable housing.” (Note the capital “A.”) That fits some sort of official definition. Often, but not always that definition is “affordable to someone earning below 80% of area median income.”

Then there is “workforce housing.” That is often defined as being affordable by someone earning between 80% and 120% of area median income.

Workforce housing is also sometimes called “middle-income housing,” because some people find the label of workforce housing misleading. People who qualify for Affordable housing are often part of the workforce, too. They just don’t make as much money.

Another wrinkle is back to the first question we raised: When is housing affordable for anybody?

Some will tell you that you need to look at your gross income — that is, before taxes — and figure out if you are paying more than 30% of your income on your rent or mortgage.

But that could also create a false impression, as Josh Lehner, an economist with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, pointed out recently. People could be below that 30% threshold and still not have enough “residual income” for things like getting to work, having enough food for the family or buying a warm coat.

So are many Oregonians in that spot? You can probably guess: Yes. It is slightly different from the numbers Lehner got when using the 30% metric. And it’s more common among renters than people who have mortgages. You can see his calculations here: tinyurl.com/ORaffordable.

What Lehner’s analysis reinforces, though, is that Oregon needs more housing of all types. For people of low incomes. For people of middle incomes. Even for people of higher incomes.

Maybe your politics don’t line up with those of Gov. Tina Kotek. But she is right that Oregon needs to make it a state priority to ramp up the production of housing.