This page was last updated on July 9, 2025.
The following is a list of four new bills that will enhance tenant rights in the state.
Senate Bill 690
One of two so-called “Momnibus” bills that passed during the session, Senate Bill 690 aimed to enhance maternity health care by keeping infants and their families housed.
Sen. Lisa Reynolds, D-West Portland, was the chief sponsor of the bill package. In a conversation with Street Roots, she said this was the most difficult bill to land and determine how it could work. In the end, the bill requires courts to delay residential evictions on the basis of nonpayment for families with babies under the age of one year old. Reynolds and other supporters of the bill wanted to keep babies housed during an important phase of human brain development.
Senate Bill 973
Oregon Housing and Community Services administers over 35 federal and state-sponsored housing programs. Various programs provide rental support, access to services and housing for families, seniors and people with disabilities.
SB 973 expands the rights of people living in publicly sponsored housing by requiring landlords of these programs to provide all applicants and tenants with a minimum of 30 months’ notice before ending affordability programs on the dwelling end.
House Bill 3054
Residents in manufactured homes experience a unique tenant/landlord relationship. Many people living in manufactured home parks own their homes but rent the land they stand on.
Lawmakers passed HB 3054 to ensure manufactured home parks remain an affordable option. The bill fixes rent increases for larger facilities — more than 30 spots — at 6% annually. It also prohibits landlords from mandating aesthetic improvements to manufactured homes as a condition of sale.
Rent caps will take effect beginning in 2026.
House Bill 3521
Residential landlords often charge deposits from prospective tenants during the application process to secure their spot. HB 3521 amends housing law to enhance tenant protections when a landlord is collecting such deposits.
The bill outlines that a landlord may only charge a deposit after approving an application, but prior to entering the rental agreement. Prior to receiving the deposit, landlords must now give prospective tenants a written statement detailing rent, conditions for refunding the deposit and the terms of the rental agreement. Current law allows landlords to keep the deposit if the rental agreement does not go through. But this amendment carves out an exception if the applicant rejects the rental agreement after discovering uninhabitable conditions. In that case, the landlord has five business days to return the deposit in full.
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This article appears in February 26, 2025.