The governor’s decision not to call a special session leaves housing policy recommendations in the balance
Morgan Florea doesn’t have to worry for three months about being evicted from her Portland apartment because she can’t pay the rent.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a three-month moratorium March 22 on such evictions. However, it’s not the next three months Florea worries about.
“Having to still pay back that accruing rent money when all this is over will be nearly impossible with my current income system, and I am terrified of slipping into deep debt because of it,” said Florea, who was laid off from her job as a waitress March 16.
Florea is among many Oregonians still waiting for action by the state Legislature. But that call has been delayed while Gov. Kate Brown and legislators wait to see how federal aid packages, state revenue forecasts and the pandemic itself play out — possibly into May.
Florea told members of the Legislature’s Special Committee on Coronavirus Response on March 18 that she needs help now.
“My medical expenses are not able to be put off or reduced as my survival depends on it,” she said.
“I know many, many people live paycheck to paycheck as I do, having to owe a huge sum of money when all this is over due to back-paid rent is going to be another financial disaster and simply not possible,” she told lawmakers.
Members of the bipartisan special committee met four times between March 18 and 24 and accepted testimony from some 1,500 Oregon residents. They came up with a list of recommendations they thought lawmakers would consider when Brown called a special session.
“We fully expect Gov. Brown to call the legislative assembly into special session within the next week,” said the committee co-chairs, Sen. Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay) and Rep. Paul Holvey (D-Eugene), in a statement March 25.
Brown, however, surprised lawmakers by declining to call a special session.
“We want to make sure our scarce state dollars are focused on filling in gaps left by the federal stimulus package, not duplicating efforts,” Brown said in a statement April 2. “Once we have sufficient clarity about the federal stimulus, I will call a special session and ask lawmakers to take further action.”
In addition to unemployment and business assistance, the state is expected to receive about $1 billion in aid to address needs bought on by the pandemic.
Brown’s decision not to call a special session leaves hanging a wide range of recommendations regarding housing during the pandemic.
Committee members recommended providing funds for shelters and other services for people experiencing homelessness. Much of such funding was initially proposed in House Bill 4001 during the Legislature’s odd-year short session in February and March.
However, the session ended abruptly when partisan gridlock broke out over limitations on carbon emissions. Lawmakers left Salem without taking action on House Bill 4001 and a slew of other bills.
Committee members asked that lawmakers take a fresh look at the bill to help city governments fast-track efforts to address homelessness without facing regulatory obstacles at the state level.
The bill initially promised $60 million to Oregon Housing and Community Services to fund grants and technical assistance. Other funds were specifically earmarked for Salem, Eugene, Medford, Bend and McMinnville to provide an array of services through local navigation centers.
Committee members also recommended:
• Requiring payment plans for those who can still pay rent and prohibiting late fees for payment plans or back rent.
• Providing rental assistance through Oregon Housing & Community Services. They also recommended similar assistance with mortgage payments through the Oregon Homeowner Stabilization Initiative.
The committee also recommended measures to help people experiencing poverty in general during the pandemic, including:
• Pausing recertifications for food benefits and waiving in-person interviews to establish food benefits when possible.
• Increasing financial support for food banks.
• Allowing parents to use sick-child leave to be home with their children during school and day-care closures.
Brown could deal with these proposals by calling a special session or issuing further executive orders.
State Rep. Ron Noble (R-McMinnville) told Street Roots he appreciates the logic of waiting to see what happens at the end of May regarding federal relief efforts and Oregon’s own revenue forecast.
“Then when we do get into session, we can fill in those gaps,” he said.
Alison McIntosh, the deputy director of policy and communications at Neighborhood Partnerships in Portland, said she doesn’t envy the decision Brown had to make regarding a special session.
The governor has the legal authority to call only one special emergency session per emergency, McIntosh told Street Roots.
“That puts her in a fairly tough bind,” she said. “Not knowing what’s ahead, its difficult. I hope we see additional executive orders from the governor in the coming weeks.”
McIntosh said much remains to be accomplished to protect financially vulnerable people during the pandemic. Representing the Oregon Housing Alliance, she outlined recommendations for the joint special committee March 17.
The coronavirus crisis compounds an already existing crisis in Oregon, McIntosh told lawmakers.
“Prior to the coronavirus hitting Oregon, we knew that three out of four households with extremely low incomes were paying over half of their income toward rent,” she testified.
“When people pay a significant portion of their income toward rent, they have too little money left over for food, medicine, utilities, and an emergency may mean they end up experiencing homelessness.”
In addition to the recommendations adopted by the special committee, McIntosh urged the Legislature to take urgent action to increase access to hotels and motels to provide shelter for people experiencing homelessness. She also recommended direct assistance to regulated affordable-housing providers.
Patty Caldwell of Newport also offered some recommendations. She told lawmakers they should also do more to address lost wages among the most vulnerable workers. She worries what will happen to her daughter, she said — a single mother who was just laid off indefinitely because of the pandemic.
“Unemployment doesn’t take into consideration for tips lost, which is 90% of her earnings,” Caldwell said. “That’s not enough to pay mortgage or utilities.”
Farrah Chaichi urged lawmakers to protect people experiencing homelessness.
“The first thing we need to do is stop sweeping campsites,” Chaichi said in written testimony. “Unless and until a permanent shelter is found with adequate room for the human beings being ‘swept’ (as if they were trash) we should not be disrupting lives further in the middle of a pandemic to disperse people to god-knows-where.”
House Speaker Tina Kotek still wants to see a special session, her spokesman Danny Moran told Street Roots.
“The speaker’s target for a special session had been before the end of March, given the challenges many are having paying bills,” he said.
Kotek particularly wanted to revisit the funding for services for people experiencing homelessness under House Bill 4001, he added, as well as more funding for rental and mortgage assistance.
“If a special session is not imminent, she will work to convene the legislative Emergency Board soon to allocate funding for immediate needs like food and shelter assistance,” Moran said.
However, while the emergency board has some spending power, it exists primarily to provide economic stability for state government.
“It has no authority to make policy decisions,” Noble said.
McMinnville City Manager Jeff Towery said he would like to see lawmakers temporarily ease requirements on House Bill 2001.
Passed by legislators during the regular session last year, the bill bars cities with more than 25,000 residents from excluding so-called middle housing — such as duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, townhouses, cottage clusters and tiny homes — from being built in neighborhoods previously limited to detached single-family homes.
The bill requires city planners to do extensive background work to make sure local infrastructures can accommodate more diverse housing. Easing those restrictions would cut cities considerable slack in trying times, Towery said.
That’s not likely to happen, Moran said.
“I haven’t heard anything about cities or counties or any local governments asking for delayed implementation on 2001,” he said. “The speaker wants those to be implemented on the timelines that were asked.”
House Bill 2001 hasn’t even come up for discussion, he said.
“Around housing, the main things that were discussed were the moratoriums on commercial and residential evictions,” he said.
Similarly, many business owners have advocated suspending the $1 billion annual Corporate Activities Tax passed by the Legislature last year to fund schools. That idea is also a non-starter, Moran said.
“The speaker supports providing more help for small businesses financially impacted by this crisis,” he said. “She does not support delayed payments for the CAT, as she believes students need this additional funding after decades of disinvestment in our public school system.”
Members of the special committee wrestled with the idea of delaying the tax, but they ultimately made no firm recommendation, suggesting only that their fellow lawmakers provide greater clarity on the issue.
House Minority Leader Christine Drazan (R-Canby) sent a letter to Brown on April 6 saying she was “shocked” that the governor has no plans to halt April corporate activity tax payments.
CAT applies to companies that have “taxable commercial activity” in excess of $1 million. And even then, the tax is $250 plus 0.57% on gross receipts greater than $1 million after deductions.
Noble said he would also like to see some relief provided to businesses facing the tax.
“There’s been a lot of push to do that,” Noble said. “Last I heard, there’s no agreement to do anything on the CAT. That’s a little bit disappointing from my perspective because that has taxes due that are based on income, and a lot of businesses are hurting.”
Dozens of landlords provided testimony to the special committee, concerned about how Brown’s executive orders banning residential evictions March 22 and commercial evictions April 1 will affect their livelihoods.
Aaron Carpenter told legislators that barring him from evicting tenants “opens the doors for tenants to take full advantage of the landlord and refuse to pay their rent knowing the landlord has no recourse.”
He’s not unfeeling, Carpenter said, but the ban is unfair.
“This puts the entire burden on the landlord and basically says, ‘It sucks to be you,’” he said. “I am for helping my tenants out during this difficult time, but I also have bills to pay and a family to support as well.”
Sal Peralta, the secretary of the Oregon Independent Party, told Street Roots that Brown might have called a special session if lawmakers proved they could achieve bipartisanship.
“She wanted to use the COVID hearings to see if she could get people into a room and get some basic points of agreement,” Peralta said. “She wouldn’t have delayed a special session if they had reached some kind of consensus.”
People experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable individuals are going to suffer, he said.
“Everything’s moved to the back burner, but legislators are going to have to deal with homelessness,” he said.
“The homeless population is going to do nothing but grow as a result of what’s happening with COVID-19,” said Peralta, who also serves on the McMinnville City Council. “Even with the moratoriums that money is going to come due, and it’s going to cause a lot of stress. We’re not anywhere near seeing the bulk of those effects.”
McIntosh, of Neighborhood Partnerships in Portland, said she’s still hoping for a special session.
“A special session would give us the opportunity to ask for rental assistance and other resources to keep people from becoming homeless in this particularly horrible time,” she said.
Meanwhile, Morgan Florea just hopes to survive.
She has had chronic health conditions for the past four years, she said, forcing her to live paycheck to paycheck.
“These past four months have been especially hard as I have been sicker than normal and spending even more money than usual,” she testified. “So when this coronavirus started to affect our everyday lives here in Portland, it has proven completely disastrous for me.”
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