Ashland, Oregon is a city that in recent years has been discussing issues related to an expensive housing market and a potential shortage of affordable housing for its workforce. Affordable housing is seen as vital to the strength and diversity of any community and without it negative long-term consequences can exist. To further understand how a shortage of workforce housing can negatively impact a community such as Ashland's, and what local planners could do to mitigate such a problem, a review of current literature was conducted. As a result this review seeks to raise awareness of local issues associated with this type of shortage, and present possible options to increase availability of workforce housing.