Legislation to address homelessness heating up after sluggish start to session
Looking at committee schedules, bills affecting housing and homelessness seemed to take baby steps through the Capitol during the first days of Oregon's 2023 legislative session.
There was a hearing here, a hearing there, but none of the bills seemed to move with any particular haste.
All that changed Wednesday, Feb. 22.
Housing and homelessness issues took a giant leap forward when three committee chairs outlined a $200 million funding package that would more than pay for Gov. Tina Kotek's call for confronting homelessness.
The proposal includes $130 million for the governor's plan as well as $27 million in additional funding to address homelessness in 25 rural counties.
Kotek declared homelessness an emergency Jan. 11 and called upon lawmakers for the financial resources to confront it.
More than a month later, housing advocates tell Street Roots they remain pleased with the governor and lawmakers' response. It has not been sluggish, said Brooke Goldberg, public policy director for Central City Concern in Portland.
"We appreciate the urgency, scale and speed of the executive orders around housing and support for behavioral health," Goldberg said. "Central City Concern supports these important first steps to address the severity of the housing shortage crisis and its role in contributing to homelessness and health outcomes."
Goldberg said her organization appreciates how the variety of bills "reflect the many layers involved in the challenges ahead."
Jimmy Jones, executive director of the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Salem, said the session is proceeding apace even though he expected some actions a little earlier.
"The housing goals, statewide, will be the most difficult," Jones, who also serves on the Mid-Willamette Valley Homelessness Alliance, said.
"The governor's executive order will need to be extended for there to be time to spend it all down," he said. "The housing will be challenging in terms of finding available units and landlords and targeting a need-specific population that can benefit from 12 months of assistance with individuals who can sustain themselves after 12 months without ongoing case management."
Once the bills are signed into law, local groups will create multi-agency committees to design plans on how to use the funds for specific community needs.
"Based on my experience with the homeless population in Oregon, I think that may be more difficult than anyone imagines, given how many complex issues we face every day," Jones said.
The committee chairs outlining the proposal last week were state Reps. Maxine Dexter and David Gomberg, and state Sen. Kayse Jama.
Dexter, D-Portland, chairs the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness. Jama, D-Portland, chairs the Senate Committee on Housing and Development. Gomberg, D-Lincoln County, co-chairs the Joint Committee on Ways and Means as well as its subcommittee on transportation and economic development.
The lawmakers promised the package, combining House Bills 2001 and House Bill 5019:
- Prevents more Oregonians, including unhoused youth, from becoming homeless and helps shelter unhoused communities.
- Invests in modular home production to rapidly deploy high-quality, Oregon-made
affordable housing.
- Provides incentives for housing development with predevelopment loans to house more working Oregonians.
- Grants farmers the funds to improve the health and safety conditions of on-site housing for farmworkers.
- Makes building affordable housing the top priority for the state through structural
changes to Oregon’s land use system and partnerships with local governments.
"Every Oregonian deserves to have access to safe and affordable housing in the community of their choice," Dexter said in a joint statement to the press. "Each of my colleagues, no matter their party affiliation or elected office, understands our communities need to see change and that we must work together to make it happen. We have answered this moment of intense need with a swift and collaborative response."
Jama said Oregon residents need relief now as well as in the long term.
"This bill accomplishes both," he said in the same joint statement. "This bipartisan legislation is a great start to this session’s work on the homelessness and affordable housing crises."
The proposal includes Republican and Democratic initiatives and is supported by a broad coalition of local governments and community leaders, said Gomberg.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree that Oregon faces a crisis.
"Oregon's homeless population, as we all well know, is at a crisis level — ranking seventh in the country with the most individuals experiencing homelessness on any given night," state Sen. Deb Patterson, D-Salem, said during the hearing on Senate Bill 496.
According to estimates by the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department, the state falls 140,000 housing units short of its needs because of housing costs pricing individuals and families out of their homes.
Lawmakers said the Affordable Housing and Emergency Homeless Response Package helps the state meet Kotek's goal of building 36,000 affordable housing units annually by speeding up production, breaking through barriers, financing the development of affordable homes using Oregon materials and creating jobs in Oregon.
The proposed housing package also makes structural changes to Oregon’s land use system — making affordable housing the first priority for local governments, special districts and state agencies. Responding to the Oregon Housing Needs Analysis, state officials will work with and enable local governments to:
- Create and start housing production strategies.
- Streamline urbanization processes.
- Clarify responsibilities for metro areas across the state.
Because each jurisdiction has a unique set of needs, the lawmakers said each local government will create its own housing production strategy with the support of the Department of Land Conservation and Development to increase affordable housing production.
If production goals aren’t met, department officials will be able to hold local governments accountable.
Delia Hernández, public information officer for Oregon Housing & Community Services, said officials at her department met with representatives from all the regions affected by the emergency.
"The state is working with local communities to develop their plans, which combine emergency management with best practices for housing our neighbors in need," Hernández told Street Roots. "This work demands a whole-community approach. Coordination and support of multiple state agencies are necessary to ensure a successful response to a crisis of this scale. Local governments, community-based organizations, culturally specific organizations, business communities, landlords, people with lived experience, and others are critical partners in ensuring cohesive and swift action.”
The package would invest $20 million in the production of affordable modular homes using Oregon mass timber and other conventional materials to support Oregon industries and create family-wage jobs.
"The bill ensures a focus on youth homelessness prevention, provides innovative approaches to addressing housing supply barriers and contains critical measures to help prevent eviction caused homelessness due to eviction statutes designed for displacement instead of stability," Kim McCarty, executive director of the Community Alliance of Tenants, said during a Feb. 14 public hearing before the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness.
Because modular housing is built in factories, lawmakers said facilities can avoid barriers typically found in traditional construction — allowing the state to dramatically increase housing supply and have consistent production in key areas, including rural regions.
Off-site construction can help reduce construction time by 20% to 30% and help reduce total development costs by 5% to 20%, they said.
Facilities receiving state investments will be required to make state or local need for housing a top priority following a wildfire or other disaster.
The proposal also creates a $3 million revolving loan fund to support local governments and developers in building affordable housing. The loan fund will help with predevelopment costs to help developers get projects started and improve the timelines between projects by paying for building permits, system development charges and other related costs up front.
Farmworker housing is also addressed. The proposal provides $5 million in grants for farmers to improve the health and safety conditions in farmworker housing. To qualify, the housing must be registered as a farm labor camp with the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
The housing must be for farmworkers, including workers who are retired or disabled and their immediate families, as well as comply with Oregon Occupational Safety and Health guidelines.
The proposal invests $25 million in services for vulnerable youth and families, connecting them with rental assistance, shelter facilities, outreach, culturally specific services, mental health or substance abuse services. It provides Oregon Housing and the Oregon Department of Human Services to provide wrap-around support services for homeless youth and families through emergency rental assistance and the expansion of the Host Homes program.
Specifically, House Bill 5019 would fully fund Kotek's $130 million request and allow the governor's office to work with local governments and services providers. It also provides $27 million to help fund responses to homelessness in 25 rural counties. Along with House Bill 2001, it provides additional rental assistance and other services to prevent evictions for nonpayment.
The revised House Bill 2001-8 (previously Senate Bill 799) would require landlords to give evicted tenants 10 days to pay rent or find other places to live. The bill received a public hearing before the Senate Committee on Housing and Development Jan. 30.
McCarty told Street Roots that folding Senate Bill 799 into House Bill 2001 was a compromise. It meant having to jettison the original bill's "safe harbor" and guest provisions.
The safe harbor provision would have provided a 60-day cooling-off period that would prevent evictions from moving forward while a tenant sought rental assistance. It would have required the tenant to produce evidence that they had applied, then the 60-day clock would have started ticking.
Guest provisions would have made it easier for people without leases to piggyback on existing leases and help share rent between parties. Landlords expressed skepticism about the provision, saying they feel they have a legal obligation to approve all parties in the units and have private property interests that would be undermined by the state’s intervention.
McCarty told Street Roots her alliance still fully supports House Bill 2001 "so urgent eviction reforms can move forward."
Moving forward is essential, Dexter said.
"You all are very clearly aware of the housing crisis before us and the call to action we are hearing at every level of government — from our governor to our city councilors," she said during a hearing before the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness Feb. 7.
McCarty was addressing House Bill 2889, which establishes Oregon Housing Needs Analysis within the Housing and Community Services Department.
"We are also hearing it from our constituents, the people who rely on us to take action when their health and safety is at risk," she said. "Our lack of housing, let alone affordable housing, has led us to a humanitarian crisis that has evolved over decades and must be met with urgency, collaborative leadership and determination. We must take bold, courageous action to meet this crisis with the response our state deserves.”
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
© 2023 Street Roots. All rights reserved. | To request permission to reuse content, email editor@streetroots.org or call 503-228-5657, ext. 404
