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Date ArticleType
7/13/2022 Member News

HBA Welcomes New Director of Policy and Government Affairs Preston Korst


We are excited to announce that Preston Korst has joined the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Portland as our new Director of Policy and Government Relations. Preston will lead HBA’s political and government relations work at the local level while supporting regional efforts to increase new home construction. He will join the team on July 25th after nearly 5 years at Habitat for Humanity Portland Region, most recently serving as their Director of Government Relations.

In his most recent role with Habitat for Humanity, Preston worked on various housing issues including zoning reform (and the implementation of HB 2001 and SB 458), advancing pro-housing provisions in city budgets, affordable housing tax exemption policies, and the local disbursement of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) stimulus dollars. He also led Habitat’s government grants program that drew on tens of millions of dollars from a variety of sources including Oregon’s LIFT bond, the federal SHOP program, Congressional earmarks, and ARPA grants, as well as local funding from several municipalities.

Preston has nearly a decade of experience working in local politics, concentrating closely on housing policy and supporting new home construction projects across the region. He began his career working on political campaigns and for two members of Oregon’s Congressional delegation while earning his bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Oregon State University. He subsequently earned a master’s degree in Communication Management from the University of Portland.

Dave Nielsen, HBA’s CEO said of this appointment, “Preston has strong relationships with organizations that are important in this space and he can help further HBA’s authentic role as a leader and partner to provide housing that meets our region’s goals while doing so as cost effectively as possible. Most importantly, he truly cares deeply about housing - a wide range of housing - and has worked on housing and development issues at the local level.”

Having advocated across dozens of jurisdictions has given Preston a wide-angle lens on how housing policy works and what is needed to address the region’s severe lack of housing supply. Of his new role with HBA, he says “I look forward to working with both builders and policy makers across the region to find pro-housing solutions that will have a lasting impact on housing affordability in the Portland area.”

If you would like to connect with Preston, feel free to reach out to him directly at prestonk@hbapdx.org.