DISCRIMINATORY LANDLORDS. Steep rent increases. Tenants afraid to ask for repairs for fear they’ll be evicted. Children with asthma likely caused from damp apartments riddled with black mold.
Stories like these—told in anger or through tears—emerged forcefully on Saturday, January 9, when more than 300 community members packed into an East Portland event hall to share with 15 metro-area legislators their messages about the city’s housing crisis. Among those at the forum were House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland); Senator Richard Devlin (D-Tualatin), co-chair of the powerful Joint Ways and Means Committee; and Senate President Pro Tempore Diane Rosenbaum (D-Portland).
Those heavy-hitters’ presence offers a preview of what’s ahead. Housing has become the hottest topic for lawmakers going into 2016’s short legislative session, and there are multiple bills in the works that could offer increased renter protections and dedicated money for creating and retaining affordable units.
After disappointment in 2015 following the defeat of House Bill 2564—which would have lifted Oregon’s ban on requiring developers to include affordable units in new construction, known as inclusionary zoning (IZ)—affordable housing advocates were worried that the 36-day 2016 session would prove too short to push through new legislation.
But as Saturday’s impressive turnout highlighted, and Portland Mayor Charlie Hales officially announced in September: Oregon is in a housing crisis, and tenants can’t wait for the 2017 legislature to fix it.
Kotek said after the forum that she’ll be exploring all avenues for getting renter-relief measures in place, including the idea that a state-wide housing shortage could be considered a “man-made disaster” and allow a temporary suspension of Oregon’s ban on rent control.
“We do have an emergency situation in this state,” Kotek said. “We need stability for our tenants.”
Kotek says her priorities for the 2016 session include the reinstatement of Oregon’s general assistance program—which provides a cash safety net for people waiting to get on government assistance programs so they don’t end up destitute—and finding $10 million in one-time emergency housing and shelter funds “to help [Oregon] get through one more year.”
Those proposals would add to a growing pile of housing legislation.
Senator Michael Dembrow (D-Portland) announced in December that he’s planning to introduce a new bill that would lift the statewide ban on IZ—something Portland City Council has made a central lobbying goal this year.
And state Representative Alissa Keny-Guyer (D-Portland), who co-hosted Saturday’s forum, says she’s negotiating aspects of a bill that would allocate $17.5 million more for affordable housing preservation.
Keny-Guyer’s bill would find funding by allowing municipalities to increase the amount of money they set aside for affordable housing when collecting document recording fees from real estate transactions. Right now that amount is capped at $20 of the $45 recording fee.
The bill would also offer an exemption from the capital gains tax for property owners who are willing to sell properties—possibly at less than market rate—to organizations that provide affordable housing.
“As a state, we put very, very little into affordable housing, compared to the billions we put into things like health care and education,” she says. “But we really need the private sector to step up and help solve the problem too.”
According to many of the dozens of people who testified on Saturday, it’s landlords in the private sector who are often to blame. Tenants spoke of doubling rents, blatant disregard for safety and health hazards at their properties, and merciless no-cause terminations.
Keny-Guyer said that when she was organizing the forum, she wanted a roster of speakers who would illustrate to the panel of lawmakers that people from all walks of life are feeling the effects of the housing crisis.
“It’s to the point where more and more people are becoming cost-burdened by rent, and the vacancy rates are so low that people can’t find housing,” Keny-Guyer says. “It’s not just a financial issue, it’s about the anxiety it creates in families, kids who have to change schools, businesses that are hurt when people don’t have disposable income because they’re paying so much for housing.”
Thanks for this coverage! If you aren’t satisfied with what’s going on in Salem around housing, this Friday at 4:30 at Portland’s City Hall Portland Tenants United will be hosting a rally and march “Eviction Free 2016”.
https://www.facebook.com/events/5260355242…
We are showing up to protest persistent racial discrimination in even accessing housing, which happens directly through straight up denial on account of race. We are protesting ignored cases of retaliatory or discriminatory eviction that happen under the cloak of “no cause terminations”. Lastly, Portland Tenants United is going to announce the time and location of our open house, happening on the 30th. We are committed to forming a city-wide tenants union to defend tenants where they live (and not just in court), to fight being treated like second-class citizens, to pressure landlords to enter collective bargaining agreements, and with time and numbers wield collective economic power to advance housing as a human right, which means ending no-cause terminations and ending the ban on rent control.
https://libcom.org/blog/portland-tenants-u…
> which means ending no-cause terminations and ending the ban on rent control.
No-Cause evictions are absolutely critical to landlords keeping properties and tenants safe and addressing long term issues and the large number of bad renters. A blanket ban will cause a host of issues. In my neighborhood there have been three buildings with no-cause evictions lately – all of them known by the police as “crime hubs.” The evicted are bike thieves, car thieves, drug dealers, and gang members with violent reputations causing violence on the property and in the neighborhood. A For Cause eviction of these people are impossible to get because the burden of proof in on the landlord and involves going to court with its associated legal fees. If the the police can’t get concrete proof on these people to arrest them, there is no way a landlord is going to be able to do so either.
In the case of my neighborhood, crime over all has dropped significantly after these evictions went through. All three landlords spent thousands of dollars making them happen, and are still on the hook for thousands more to clean up and rehab those properties. There are still several more properties that need tenants evicted for the same reason.
Yes, no-cause evictions are abused by a small number of landlords. But outlawing them totally AND putting in rent control is going to cause two problems. The burden on tenants is going to be even higher – much larger security deposits, stricter background checks, mandatory higher levels of renters insurance, etc. The merest hint of a red mark on a potential tenants record is going to be a denial for rent. AND, it is going to reduce the number of available units even more as landlords realize they can’t afford their buildings and take them off the rental market. Or, worse yet, they will have no incentive to fix problems because tenants are locked into below market rents that barely make the mortgage payment much less make enough extra money to pay for repairs.
You have to fix the problem by advocating for more infill, more development, and/or a general discouragement of people moving here. Oh, and don’t forget about voting to keep property taxes at their current levels because that drastically effects the landlord’s bottom line also.
Also get some financial help in for landlords to make repairs to decrepit building. Below market rate loans for major issues like roofing and new windows. Cash help for moderate repairs like replacement of plumbing issues or replacing/fixing appliances. And lastly, a way for landlords to recoup the real costs of bad tenants who cause more damage then their security deposit pays for that doesn’t involve the frequent certainty of bad tenants not paying anything anyways after they’ve been to court.
Until demand for rentals goes down, these problems are going to keep going on. While coming from a good place, your ideas of ending no-cause evictions and rent control are bad policy and will make things much worse.
“No-Cause evictions are absolutely critical to landlords keeping properties and tenants safe and addressing long term issues and the large number of bad renters. A blanket ban will cause a host of issues. In my neighborhood there have been three buildings with no-cause evictions lately – all of them known by the police as ‘crime hubs.’ The evicted are bike thieves, car thieves, drug dealers, and gang members with violent reputations causing violence on the property and in the neighborhood. A For Cause eviction of these people are impossible to get because the burden of proof in on the landlord and involves going to court with its associated legal fees. If the the police can’t get concrete proof on these people to arrest them, there is no way a landlord is going to be able to do so either. “
If landlord doesn’t have proof of wrong-doing, they have abso-fucking-lutely no business evicting people. Cry me a river of crocodile tears about the oh-so-tedious-burden-of-proof that prevent landlords from evicting people from their home FOR A LEGITIMATE REASON. Your argument (not even yours, because it sounds like astro-turf conservative talking points from City Council) is disgusting, based on a lie (that landlords can’t evict PROVEN criminals or lease violators), and is a carte blanche for discrimination and retaliation.