AFFORDABLE HOUSING advocates in Portland were busy last week.
On Tuesday, September 15, the grassroots Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) held a press conference and rally demanding that local leaders dramatically increase protections against no-cause evictions and unreasonable rent increases.
Housing Commissioner Dan Saltzman wasted no time responding, announcing the next day that his office plans to propose similar, though far less dramatic, protections.
CAT wants a temporary moratorium on all no-cause evictions, and wants the city to require landlords to offer a year’s notice if planning to increase rent by more than five percent. CAT also wants landlords to voluntarily sign a pledge promising to only issue for-cause evictions for the next year.
Saltzman’s counter-offer didn’t directly address that last piece, but it did propose increasing the notice for both no-cause evictions and rent increases of more than 10 percent. Renters would get three months’ warning.
Saltzman says this is the best the city can do in the face of state laws that preempt stronger measures. But his proposal’s attracted a two-pronged front of anger—both from landlords, who vow to fight the proposed changes, and tenant advocates, who say Saltzman’s plan doesn’t go far enough.
Christian Bryant, president of Coldwell Banker Property Management, tells the Mercury that placing additional restrictions on landlords could backfire, causing more harm than good because investors would be less inclined to put their money into the rental market, thereby decreasing an already inadequate supply of units.
“Why not add some financial help to builders and developers of multi-family housing that rewards them for both building rental units and completing the project quickly?” Bryant wrote in an email. “This would have a much more positive long-term effect on the tenants.”
Bryant cautions he’s not an attorney, but says he questions the legality of extending the notice for rent increases, saying it might violate Oregon’s ban on rent control. He says the Portland Area Rental Owners Association and the Northwest Real Estate Investors Association, which he represents, “definitely will try to fight these proposals in any way that we can.”
On the other side, tenant advocates like Margot Black, who’s active in the fight to increase local protections and working to organize a renters’ union, doesn’t think Saltzman’s proposals do enough to protect tenants.
“I am concerned that your proposal only postpones… the impact of rent increases and evictions, rather than lessen it in any measurable way,” Black wrote in an email to members of Portland City Council. “I strongly urge you [to] consider amending your proposal.”
Black says Saltzman’s current proposals are the equivalent of hitting the “snooze button” and proposes Portland enact much bolder protections, such as forgiving the final month’s rent when tenants are evicted without cause, requiring landlords to pay stipends to tenants who have to find new digs on short notice, and better enforcing laws against retaliatory rent increases.
“Extra time does not make it easier to say goodbye to our schools, neighbors, communities, and often, our pets,” Black says. “Extra time does not make our wages increase, lower our other living expenses, or make getting a second or third job any more tenable.”
Saltzman pointed out on September 16 that his proposals are preliminary, and the language hadn’t been drafted yet. He said he plans on finalizing details and putting the proposal to a vote in an October city council session.
What this tells me is that Saltzman has made a good move towards the middle on this complicated affair.
Everyone will pile on about it, but he makes sensible change.
I wish this guy would consider running for Mayor, despite his Ivy-League schooling! (heh!)
The fact is that those landlords who are exploiting this situation for greed’s sake, and the crowd of developers/speculators who are piling on STRICTLY for greed’s sake have had EVERYTHING slanted entirely THEIR way … PERIOD. And they KNOW it or they wouldn’t be flailing back so desperately when their avarice and complete lack of ethics or concern for a larger humanity is so easily and so publicly exposed. What is being proposed could be read as plainly an empty gesture, given cynically with the intent to demonstrate concern that clearly isn’t there, as purely deflective and political. Or maybe it’s simply negatively disproportionate to the serious magnitude of this problem. No, the fact is that tenants and all those affected should NOT accept any remedies or proposals that don’t bring the balance back at LEAST to a fair halfway point. It’s time that the PEOPLE’S interests are valued and promoted against those few who disproportionately pillage the citizenry. Our politicians had better decide very soon if they will work for the people or for those who callously use laws, politicians, and systems that only benefit them and enable them to live unnecessarily extravagant, arrogant and wasteful lifestyles. … On the other hand, it isn’t fair to not appreciate Mr. Saltzman for at least showing A GLIMMER of interest in the issue. No one can do this alone, either on the part of the hired public servants or on the part of the public affected and concerned. It’s a BIG issue and will take some BIG SOLUTIONS & participants with even BIGGER character and courage to see that fairness, ethics, and humanity carry the day.
“Christian Bryant, president of Coldwell Banker Property Management… ‘Why not add some financial help to builders and developers of multi-family housing?'”
I think this is the definition of a rich person not understanding the problem and saying if the “haves” just had more it could be solved.
@Chris – The root of the problem is a lack of housing. Competition for apartments is what drives the prices up, not greed, or anything else. The greediest landlord in the world can’t raise the rent $1 more than what people are willing to pay. If we build more apartments, landlords will have more competition and will need to lower prices in order to get customers. Portland didn’t build enough new apartments for years and years, and now we don’t have enough.