Update: Go ahead and sleep in. Portland Tenants United announced this evening that the property management company has decided to allow the (still unnamed) tenant to stay. PTU is declaring victory. I’m talking to organizers from PTU in the morning and will update the blog further.
Activists from Portland Tenants United (PTU) are preparing for a Friday morning rally that will hopefully keep a 73-year-old man from being evicted from his home of 30-plus years.
The group has started a Facebook events page to gather support for the 9 am rally. According to the page, the man—whose identity PTU is keeping secret for now—must be out of his one-bedroom apartment by Sunday night. He was served with a no-cause termination to his lease and given the proper notice. But PTU and the tenant suspect the termination is in retaliation for repeatedly asking for repairs to a leaky roof and other maintenance issues. The page also says the man feels he might be being discriminated against because he’s Muslim.
Margot Black, an activist with PTU, says their group has been working with the tenant to understand the circumstances leading to his no-cause lease termination.
“We’ve met with his neighbors, called former tenants, and have gone through all of his extensive paperwork,” Black says. “We feel very sure that this is the direct result of an argument over repairs in February. But ultimately, when it’s completely legal to kick someone out with out cause, it’s very hard to show that there was one.”
In Oregon, a landlord can terminate a tenant’s lease for no reason provided that landlord provides proper notice to the tenant. In order to terminate a lease for cause, the landlord must take the tenant to court. For-cause evictions are lengthy and complicated processes that have more risk involved for the landlord.
“We will show the property management company that the community does not support the legal displacement of senior citizens from their long time homes and communities. We will demand that this man’s lease be renewed,” according to the Facebook page. “We will demand that landlords recognize that their financial decisions have life-threatening consequences for our elderly and vulnerable neighbors.”
Vahid Brown, a local housing activist who’s working with PTU to organize this rally, says their threats have brought the property management company to the negotiating table.
“Our pressure has brought the company to the table,” Brown says. “But without an agreement in writing by the end of the day, we will go ahead with the demonstration at the property.”
The group has agreed not to announce the exact location of the apartment complex (but will say it’s in Southwest Portland) until the end of the Thursday business day to see if the property management company and the possibly-soon-to-be displaced tenant can reach an agreement to keep the man in his home. But Brown says if an agreement isn’t reached this afternoon, they’ll rally.
In early October, Portland City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance officially declaring a citywide housing state of emergency. The following week, they approved new rules requiring landlords to give more notice for no-cause terminations and rent increases of more than a certain amount. Nevertheless, a statewide ban on rent control prohibits Portland lawmakers from enacting rules that could really protect tenants from being evicted for no reason.
It’s just after 2 pm now, so these unnamed property managers in SW Portland have about three hours to decide whether they want to let their long-term tenant stay, or whether they’d rather have a mob of angry housing rights activists in at their complex. The Mercury will update you at 5 pm.
Oh, awesome – thank you for finally referring to it as a no-cause termination, not an eviction. Either party can terminate the lease. This is great.
If this landlord was doing it in retaliation, I hope he gets busted. I’m surprised by the quotes that say it’s hard to prove, though. If the repair requests were in writing, isn’t the timing enough? That’s what I’ve always been told.
Public event page? I’m sure landlords will be looking over the names of all those going and making sure not to rent to those people or to evict them.
This is not the man’s house, it is his rented apartment and the rental term legally came to an end with proper notice from the property owner. If you want long term security either sign a long term lease or buy a condo. Seriously this guy lived in the place for 30 years he could own his own home now, instead he chose to have the flexibility of living in a rented apartment, but that flexibility goes both ways and the landlord has decided he wants to do something different with the apartment. There is nothing wrong with that, time for the guy to find a different place to live.
@Reymont, my understanding is that once 6 months passes after a complaint the landlord regains the right to ask someone to move. So if there was a leaky roof that was complained about and I assume fixed last February, (almost a year ago) then the landlord should have the right to ask a tenant to move now. Just because there was a problem with the roof doesn’t mean that the landlord loses all rights to regain possession of their property.
Portland Tenant’s Union’s facebook page says that the negotiations were successful and the termination was cancelled.
The relationship between landlords and renters is not symmetric, which is why renters need extra protections. Housing is a human right and our laws and practices need to reflect that.