As the leader of Oregon’s housing finance agency, Andrea Bell is responsible for managing a significant amount of public funds. Under her supervision, Oregon Housing and Community Services has provided developers with over $1.4 billion in state funding for the construction of affordable apartments in the past five years, an amount that rises considerably when federal tax credits allocated by the agency are taken into account. Notably, Bell’s husband, Joshua Crites, works as a director for JH Brawner, a consulting firm that assists local housing authorities in designing subsidized apartment projects, many of which receive considerable financial support from Bell’s agency. The company maintains offices in Oregon, Washington, and Arizona and claims to have contributed to the creation of 20,000 low-income housing units, costing $3 billion to develop. In Oregon, JH Brawner collaborated on two housing authority projects, which collectively received or were granted numerous millions of dollars from Bell’s organization, beginning when her spouse began working there. (JH Brawner is compensated by the housing authority instead of the state). In Oregon, leaders such as Bell are obligated to reveal their sources of income for their household on a yearly basis through ethics disclosures. This includes identifying the income sources of their spouses, particularly if there could be any potential conflicts of interest involved. The legislation mandates that if a government official has a conflict of interest, they must inform the individual who appointed them in writing. However, Bell failed to do so until ProPublica inquired about it. A spokesperson for the Governor provided the information. Tina Kotek, a Democrat whose predecessor designated Bell in 17.53, informed ProPublica that the governor’s office was “not informed of any possible or existing conflict of interest.” The nearest Bell approached a revelation was in 2025 through an ambiguous remark containing a spelling error: “Spouse participates as a consultant for a development.” The text doesn’t mention a specific company; instead, it displays an incorrectly spelled street address without a suite number for JH Brawner’s office located in Issaquah, Washington, which is a commercial building occupied by various tenants. Bell submitted revised economic disclosures for the past three years in September.
