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Motoya Nakamura / Multnomah County

Governor Kate Brown has signed an executive order placing a 90-day moratorium on any residential evictions for nonpayment of rent in Oregon.

“Through no fault of their own, many Oregonians have lost jobs, closed businesses, and found themselves without a source of income to pay rent and other housing costs during this coronavirus outbreak,” said Brown in a morning press release. “The last thing we need to do during this crisis is turn out more Oregonians struggling to make ends meet from their homes and onto the streets."

The announcement comes five days after Multnomah County and Portland issued a joint moratorium on residential evictions, which required tenants to "demonstrate substantial loss of income resulting from the COVID-19" through documentation to be shielded from eviction.

The statewide eviction moratorium, however, does not require tenants to prove that their inability to pay rent is related to COVID-19. Brown's executive order simply reads: "Law enforcement officers in Oregon are prohibited from serving, delivering, or acting on any notice, order or writ of termination of tenancy...for nonpayment."

The order mentioned that increase evictions could make it more challenging for Oregonians to practice the kind of social distancing needed to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"If immediate action is not taken to suspend residential evictions," the order reads, "there will be increased opportunities for the virus to spread among people displaced from their homes."

Brown's press release notes that her Coronavirus Economic Advisory Council is working with financial lenders to find relief for landlords and property owners who will be subsequently impacted by the loss of rent.

Oregon's not the first state to bar evictions during the rapidly-spreading coronavirus. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee passed a similar order on Thursday, with New York and Kentucky passing statewide moratoriums Friday.