Hopes are high for Portland’s new form of government, including its 12 new city councilors. The housing crisis is among the most pressing challenges the new City Council will face, and Portland renters may expect stronger protections designed to keep them in their residences — thanks to the Renters’ Bill of Rights.
The Renters’ Bill of Rights is a pledge designed by the Portland Democratic Socialists of America, or DSA, and Renters Action Network. Key Portland officials, including five of the city’s new councilors, signed on.
The pledge urges elected officials to follow through on the following items:
- Require six months’ notice before all rent increases.
- Mandate relocation assistance when rent increases by more than 5%.
- Protect children and education workers from evictions for late rent during the school year.
- Protect renters from evictions for late rent during extreme weather events.
- Cap fees such as pet rent, late fees, laundry fees and other excessive charges and deposits.
- Require that code violations be resolved before rent can be increased.
- Establish a right to counsel in eviction court — no tenant should go to court without legal defense provided.
- Demand that local rent control be allowed throughout Oregon.
- Link rent to the minimum wage so that all full-time workers can afford a one-bedroom apartment with no more than 30% of their income.
The five councilors who signed the pledge are Jamie Dunphy (District 1), Sameer Kanal (District 2), Tiffany Koyama Lane and Angelita Morillo (both District 3) and Mitch Green (District 4). With seven votes needed to form a majority on the 12-member City Council, it might seem like they are short two councilors. However, two councilors who did not sign, Candace Avalos (District 1) and Elana Pirtle-Guiney (District 2), have progressive records that signal they are sympathetic to tenants’ concerns.
The Portland Renters’ Bill of Rights is modeled after a measure passed in Tacoma, Washington, last year, according to TJ Noddings, co-chair of the Portland DSA housing working group. That measure, the Tacoma Citizens Initiative No. 1, also known as the Landlord Fairness Code Initiative, passed by a narrow margin of 50.43% of the general election vote, according to Northwest Public Broadcasting. On paper, the two initiatives look very similar. The Portland Renters’ Bill of Rights is more comprehensive, adding additional protections to cover tenants’ right to counsel, rent control and linking minimum wage to rent.
These additions reflect a measure that failed to pass in Portland during the May 2023 election: Measure 26-238, campaigned by Eviction Representation for All, or ERA. The measure would have funded free legal representation for renters facing eviction in court. The funding would have been generated by a 0.75% tax on capital gains, making it very unpopular with property owners, who are a key beneficiary of capital gains.
On the heels of Measure 26-238’s failure, Noddings joined Portland DSA in October 2023 when they put out a call for help canvassing renters to participate in a survey. The survey was based on the measure passed in Tacoma and asked renters if its protections seemed meaningful and valuable, Noddings said.
“And we got like, overwhelmingly positive support from renters that were sometimes surprised that we didn’t have certain things,” Noddings said.
It is not that Portland doesn’t have tenant protections. They exist, but what the Renters’ Bill of Rights proposes is more ambitious than current stipulations. Currently, Portland requires a 90-day notice before all monthly rent increases. The new initiative would double that time period to six months. Portland landlords are required to offer relocation assistance to tenants when rent increases by 10% or more over a 12-month period, and the bill lowers that threshold to 5%.
There is no official cap on pet rent, but other restrictions exist. There is no specific rule preventing late fees during extreme weather events or protections for children and education workers from eviction during the school year. The provisions focused on the right to counsel and rental pricing will be more complicated.
Multnomah County has the highest eviction filing rate per household in Oregon. Of those, 92% are for nonpayment of rent. Currently, only 16% of tenants in eviction court in Multnomah County have legal representation. By contrast, 91% of landlords have representation by a lawyer or agent, underscoring the disparity in resources between renters and landlords.
Actionable steps
Some of Portland’s newly elected city councilors have indicated that increasing renter representation is key to getting the proposals outlined in the Renters’ Bill of Rights into city code.
That’s what Dunphy, one of three District 1 councilors, believes.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that we are going to have higher representation of renters, or at least recent renters, on the new city council,” Dunphy said.
Dunphy has been a renter for most of his life and is now a landlord. He has been in public service for 20 years and says getting anything done requires cooperation.
“The only way you are able to do anything in this community is through coalition,” Dunphy said. “And you are only as strong as the people standing around you. So I have already begun building those relationships.”
Additionally, the majority of voters in District 1 are renters, according to Dunphy. He has heard that their most significant concerns are affordability and what they describe as scary behavior in their neighborhoods. He thinks that what the Renters’ Bill of Rights proposes is doable and can make Portland a better place to live.
“I’m a little bit surprised that more candidates have not signed onto this,” he sad. “As a person who’s actually worked in City Hall and in housing for over a decade, these things feel reasonable to me. They feel achievable. They feel as though they’re not going to disrupt an already vastly disrupted housing market.”
Kanal, from District 2, said banning evictions during severe weather events is one of the most achievable immediate implementations.
“We’re going to be sworn in in January, and there is likely to be an extreme weather event going on sometime in the first couple months of the year,” Kanal said. “I think that may help to showcase why additional renter protections are necessary, how they can be helpful and show a path forward for the other items.”
Green, from District 4, said pet rent is the number one complaint he hears about. After that, it’s affordability — rent goes up, but wages don’t.
For something like pet rent, it’s a matter of cooperation in city government, according to Green.
When it comes to linking rent to minimum wage, Green said he has heard a lot of opposition and criticism from urbanists and policy people, who say that a stipulation like that can make a building project unviable.
Green, who has a PhD in economics, disagrees. He said that can be accomplished in two parts: raising the minimum wage and what he deems wiser spending of inclusionary zoning dollars.
Kanal, also an economist, said the last two items of the pledge would require working at the state level.
“We would need to be instructing our lobbying office to advocate at the state level for local rent control, as well as linking the minimum wage to the price of a one-bedroom apartment, the average rate, so that full-time workers can afford a one-bedroom apartment,” Kanal said.
What’s new
Part of what is different from the failed ERA ballot measure is Portland DSA getting key candidates to sign a pledge to collaborate on the bill’s proposals after getting elected rather than directly writing policy.
Another key difference is the makeup of the city council itself.
“We have a brand-new districting system,” Noddings said. “So finally, the city council will not just be mostly folks elected from downtown, but representative of the entire city. We’re moving from four seats to 12 seats and guaranteed 11 of those seats will be new,.”
Lastly, Noddings believes that developing renters as a voting class has been vital to creating a push for the pledge. For starters, it makes renters feel noticed, Noddings said.
“They’ll tell us like, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve like never been canvassed before. No one ever, no one knocks on doors here at this apartment complex,’” Noddings said.
Homeowners tend to vote more, Noddings said. The Renters’ Bill of Rights is different from other attempts to enhance tenants’ protections: It focuses on renters first.
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This article appears in January 8, 2025.