In the distant past, 12 months ago to be precise, Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D-Portland) called for declaring a state of emergency on homelessness and beseeched legislators to approve $100 million to expand the state’s shelter capacity.
She wanted to create navigation centers, or low-barrier shelters that offer social services, in Eugene and Salem.
Within a month, COVID-19 struck, and many lawmakers promptly forgot about the previous crisis.
Alison McIntosh of the Oregon Housing Alliance wants to refresh their memories as they kick their odd-year regular session into gear this month.
“We had a housing crisis to begin with,” said McIntosh, the deputy director for policy and communications at Neighborhood Partnerships, which convenes the Oregon Housing Alliance. “We just can’t pause our work to just deal with COVID.”
Housing issues top many Oregonians’ agendas this session, which technically began Tuesday, Jan. 19, even though most in-person business was delayed as law enforcement braced for potential violence leading up to the presidential inauguration. Right-wing extremists had already attacked the Oregon Capitol on Dec. 21, but lawmakers still managed to hold a special session that day to extend the state’s eviction moratorium to June 30. They also set aside $150 million in state money to compensate landlords for up to 80% of unpaid rent and another $50 million for direct assistance to renters.
DEC. 21 SPECIAL SESSION: Oregon lawmakers extend eviction moratorium; landlords sue
However, McIntosh pointed out the special session left many problems hanging.
“First and foremost, the Legislature didn’t extend the foreclosure moratorium,” she said, adding that 30% of Oregon’s homeowners could be unprotected when the moratorium ends in June. Legislators need to talk about providing grace periods and other stopgaps, McIntosh said.
“If that moratorium expires in June, will people be in immediate risk of eviction?” she said. “What are some of the problems we’re going to anticipate in July?”
Kim McCarty, the executive director of Community Alliance of Tenants, said her organization hasn’t made decisions regarding specific bills this session.
However, Coya Crespin, the Portland organizer for the tenants’ alliance, echoed McIntosh.
“By waiting until the last second to renew important measures like the foreclosure moratorium or the eviction moratorium, legislators are not protecting renters and landlords alike,” Crespin said.
Alliance leaders also propose what they call their Cancel the Rent campaign with legislators. They ask lawmakers to:
- Cancel all rent, late fees and rent debt for the duration of the pandemic.
- Freeze all rent and extend the eviction moratorium for the duration of the pandemic, while protecting tenants against retaliation and harassment.
- Suspend mortgage payments for vulnerable homeowners and for small landlords, and extend the foreclosure moratorium for the duration of the pandemic.
- Increase safe, high-quality emergency housing with access to food, support services and health care for anyone who is or becomes houseless.
- Invest in community-owned housing by stopping private equity takeovers, creating Community Land Trusts and supporting safety, health and accessibility improvements.
McIntosh said other states have provided good examples for how to respond to immediate housing crises.
“North Carolina and Vermont did a really good job of getting people into hotels and then into permanent housing,” she said. “However, Oregon has a much more higher rate of homelessness.”
Leaders of the Oregon Housing Alliance drafted some of their priorities for the session in a memo, in which they applauded lawmakers for extending the eviction moratorium but wished legislators had held another special session Dec. 31 to extend the moratorium through the end of the school year.
“People need a place to shelter in, and stay safe with their families,” the memo stated.
The memo also raised concern about housing injustice experienced by Black, Indigenous and other communities of color.
“People of color disproportionately experience homelessness and housing instability due to historic and systemic discrimination in housing and employment and many other factors,” the memo said. “In the current COVID crisis, people of color have been more likely to experience the loss of their job or income as well as disproportionately likely to become sick.”
If action is not taken, Oregon Housing Alliance leaders said, homeowners of color may be more at risk of foreclosure due to the COVID-19 crisis. “Creating additional temporary assistance or protections such as mediation or legal assistance could prevent people from losing their homes as the eviction moratorium ends on July 1,” they said.
The dozen lawmakers who form the Legislature’s Black, Indigenous and People of Color Caucus have some thoughts on that, as well. They released their legislative priorities for the session last week.
“The broad agenda reflects a shared commitment by members of the Caucus, state leaders and community advocates to redress inequities impacting Oregon’s communities of color,” they said in a press release.
Specific bills they’re following include:
- Legislative Concept 2830, ridding Oregon of no-cause evictions.
- House Bill 2096, providing house tax credit for farmworkers.
- Senate Bill 79, addressing racial disparities in homeownership.
- Legislative Concept 2303, providing down-payment assistance for BIPOC families.
(Legislative concepts are drafts of bills that have not yet been formally introduced.)
“Members of the BIPOC caucus and increasingly the general public are aware of the legacies of racial inequality in Oregon,” said Senate President Pro Tempore James Manning Jr. (D-Eugene) in the caucus’s press release.
“We are excited by the prospect of using 2021 to write a new chapter in that history, demonstrating a model of lawmaking with an intentional eye towards equity,” he said. “We welcome the support of our legislative colleagues, allies and stakeholders as we chart this new path for our communities.”
The caucus’s agenda also focuses on police accountability, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity, education, health care, government transparency, social services and revenue reform.
“The past year has brought new attention to the racial inequities in our criminal justice system and exposed the ways in which structural inequities have made BIPOC communities particularly vulnerable to dangers like the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires across the state,” said House Majority Whip Andrea Salinas (D-Portland) in the press release.
“Intentional policymaking can address those inequities and build the resilience of these communities to support a better future for all Oregonians,” she said. “We look forward to carrying forward this work in 2021 and beyond.”