Legislative session ends with a mixed bag on housing issues as human toll continues
The 2023 Oregon Legislature convened Jan. 17. Melisa Blake died from hypothermia four days later in a downtown Salem parking lot.
Legislators came to Salem with an energetic agenda to help the homeless. It was practically the theme of the session.
When the session adjourned June 25, many lawmakers claimed victory with the $200 million spending package they passed to address the housing crisis.
Yet a bill intended to spare others from suffering Blake's fate died in committee. So did another bill that would have recognized unhoused people's right to exist in public spaces.
For people living without shelter and for their allies, the 2023 Legislature proved to be five months of peaks and valleys. And it all started with an emergency declaration by the governor and the death of a 34-year-old woman.
'We can simply sit around a table and talk'
Blake was only wearing a shirt and pants the night of Jan. 21 as temperatures dropped to 34 degrees. She died 11 hours after she was discharged from Salem Health's emergency department.
She was found in the parking lot of the ARCHES Project Day Center on Commercial Street.
ARCHES is operated by the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency. The agency's director, Jimmy Jones, beseeched members of the Senate Committee on Health Care March 27 to prevent similar tragedies.
Senate Bill 1076 would have required hospitals to find resources for patients experiencing unsheltered homelessness after they are released from care.
"The most direct chain of events that led to her death was a medical transport decision that left Melisa lying on the ground in freezing weather with an open warming center a mile away," Jones told committee members.
The bill died in committee.
It made it as far as a work session before the Senate Committee on Health Care April 3. Then Chair Deb Patterson, D-Salem, pulled the plug.
Oregon Hospital Association officials and others in the medical community promised to work in "good faith" with service providers, Patterson said.
"Without legislation, we can simply sit around a table and talk," she said.
'I expect the Oregon homeless population to increase'
Jones told Street Roots the session was a mixed bag at best.
While lawmakers approved an unprecedented $81 million for housing assistance and homelessness prevention, he said he is disappointed lawmakers failed to ante up an additional $19 million for greater protections.
However, he added he doesn't want to sound ungrateful.
"I am very appreciative of this governor, who pushed and pushed to expand housing funding to heights unseen and focused in particular on folks who are currently outside," Jones said. "The $81 million sum is significant, but it's unlikely to meet the demand as economic conditions have conspired with the end of pandemic protections and benefits to make a much more challenging situation for the poor."
Emergency food stamp benefits have expired — slashing the federal benefits by approximately a third. Expanded Oregon Health Plan coverage has also expired. Some 300,000 Oregonians no longer have health-care coverage, Jones said.
"Inflationary forces from the pandemic have not receded, and housing costs in particular remain very high," he said. "Unlike the price of eggs, butter, milk and even gasoline, rental increases become baked in and are immune largely to any deflationary forces.
"I expect the Oregon homeless population to increase largely just for these economic reasons.”
'Those costs just won't be covered this winter'
Gov. Tina Kotek set the tone for the session Jan. 10 when she issued three executive orders to address homelessness.
Kotek declared homelessness a statewide emergency and asked lawmakers to approve $130 million to help thousands of Oregon residents secure basic shelter.
The Oregon Senate passed legislation March 21 to provide $200 million to confront homelessness in the state.
House Bill 2001 outlined policies for creating more housing and helping people experiencing homelessness. Companion legislation, House Bill 5019, provided the money.
Jones reiterated he is grateful for the funds, which will target a large number of unsheltered people across Oregon.
"Many of the new funds, however, are for new work and critical funding for rural communities," he said.
Meanwhile, State Homeless Assistance Program funds have remained stable and have not been adjusted for inflation since 2019. Jones further noted that Out of the Cold funds (a $10 million investment) were not renewed. That money funded small community shelter projects.
"That's a significant loss," he said. "Those funds allow us to maintain current work, which could decline significantly this winter at the most important moment."
Many people drafting policy don't quite grasp how things work on the street level with the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency, churches and other street-level nonprofits, Jones said.
"Most folks do not fully understand that the all-volunteer force that manned the emergency warming centers at churches were largely driven from that work by COVID in favor of much more expensive paid staff," he said. "Those costs just won’t be covered this winter."
'Housing construction at scale will take decades'
One of the biggest disappointments of the session, Jones said, was the 11th-hour defeat of House Bill 3414. The bill would have adjusted Oregon's land-use laws to allow local governments more flexibility with their urban growth boundaries.
Jones and other advocates of the bill argued the bill would have enabled the construction of more low-income housing.
However, the bill was shot down by the Senate just as the Legislature adjourned its 2023 session June 25.
Easing Oregon's land-use laws would have been a significant game changer. When Gov. Tom McCall signed Senate Bill 100 in 1973, it gave the state authority over many previously local land-use decisions.
The bill created the Land Conservation and Development Commission to protect Oregon’s farm and forest lands from development so that agricultural soil could be preserved for growing crops and timber.
For the past 50 years, many Oregonians have argued the law strangles economic development. Many of those arguments have come from conservative business interests and funneled through the Republican party.
This session, many of the voices speaking out against Oregon's land-use laws have belonged to liberal Democrats who fear the laws keep local governments from creative projects to increase affordable housing.
In the end, more traditional Democrats kept Oregon's existing land-use system intact.
"I understand that there are important environmental concerns, and that none of us want Oregon to become California, but housing construction at scale will take decades," Jones said. "Delays now could create geometric affordability crises down the road. We have to decide what kind of Oregon we want our children to live in.
"If we don't create good jobs and affordable housing and a pathway to reasonable first-time home ownership, our children and grandchildren will be forced to move out of state to afford to start their families."
That scenario is already playing out, Jones said.
"We need the Legislature to come together, work with cities and get something done that will begin to address a gathering and growing crisis around affordability," he said. "We can't freeze Oregon in time. And we cannot ignore the poverty, homelessness and general scarcity of reasonable housing options."
'We didn't get strong enough protections passed'
State Rep. Farrah Chaichi, D-Beaverton, was sworn in Jan. 9 with high hopes for her freshman session.
A major plank of her campaign was fighting for a Right to Rest Act, acknowledging the right of people experiencing homelessness to be in public spaces without being harassed.
Chaichi promptly lost that fight.
Right to Rest suffered the same fate as it did in the 2019 and 2021 sessions. It died in committee. After Chaichi introduced the bill Jan. 28, it languished in the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness until sine die.
It never received so much as a public hearing.
"We didn’t get strong enough protections passed," she told Street Roots. "We couldn’t even have a conversation about basic human rights for people who are forced to live outside after the decades of failures to adequately protect people from becoming homeless."
Senate Bill 611 was another disappointment, she added. It sought to cap annual rent increases, and while it passed, landlords successfully lobbied for a higher cap.
State Sen. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Aloha, introduced the bill in January with an annual rent cap of no more than 8% — or 3% plus inflation, whichever was lower.
When the bill emerged from the Senate Rules Committee in May, the annual cap was 10% — or 7% plus inflation. And the cap doesn't apply at all to buildings less than 15 years old.
"Many of the most egregious rent hikes are happening in those newer buildings in my district," Chaichi said. "So we will continue to see outrageous rent increases contributing to our growing homeless population."
Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, D-Portland, was more upbeat about Senate Bill 611 — telling Street Roots the bill "will help keep more Oregonians housed by stabilizing rents when families are struggling with high inflation."
Despite her frustrations, Chaichi told Street Roots she thought it was a good legislative session overall with all the money invested in housing.
"I think the successes have been highly publicized — wins for the environment, bodily autonomy and medical freedom, safe staffing for nurses, ranked-choice voting heading to the ballot, and historic investments in housing and education," she said.
'Concerns and questions that don't often get voiced out loud'
Republicans grabbed most of the headlines in the second half of the session by walking out May 3 and staying out for the next six weeks in a political chess move designed to thwart Democrats' agenda.
The walkout was the longest in Oregon political history and ended with compromises from Democrats.
Democratic lawmakers agreed to keep a law requiring parents' permission for children under 15 to obtain abortions. That requirement can be suspended if two health care providers in separate medical practices conclude that informing parents would be harmful to the child.
In another compromise, Democrats agreed to limit abortion access on college campuses and in rural areas of the state.
However, House Bill 2002 still requires some forms of gender-affirming care to be covered by insurance plans and affirms legal protections for abortion providers with patients from other states.
Democrats also gave ground on same-sex marriage protections, agreeing to nix Senate Joint Resolution 33, which would have asked voters to protect same-sex marriage as well as abortion rights and transgender care in the Oregon Constitution.
Republicans also won concessions on firearms legislation so cities cannot ban concealed weapons in public meetings, and 18-year-olds can still buy guns.
Despite all this, Chaichi insisted lawmakers still received good marks this year for working and playing well with others.
"Aside from legislation, our chamber was able to, as the speaker has said, 'disagree without being disagreeable,'" Chaichi said. "Our chamber benefited from fresh relationships and bipartisan new member training that brought many of us together prior to getting into big disagreements."
Although her attempt at a Right to Rest Act failed, Chaichi said it was still a good first session for her.
"My personal win was being able to speak to concerns and questions that don’t often get voiced out loud," she said.
Chaichi said the GOP walkout was frustrating, especially when Oregon voters thought they solved the problems of political truancy by passing Ballot Measure 113 last year.
The measure amended the Oregon Constitution so legislators with 10 unexcused absences from floor sessions would be disqualified from running for re-election. The measure passed with an almost 70% majority.
However, Senate Minority Leader Tom Knopp and other GOP lawmakers think the ballot measure contains a loophole that they can take to court and outsmart the measure’s provisions.
The walkout was even more frustrating when concerns about Republican wrangling over Measure 113 came to fruition, Chaici said.
"Voters had been assured that the measure was the answer, and yet with it, we still had to worry about losing hundreds of bills," she said. "It’s challenging to operate as if the session could simultaneously restart at any moment and in preparation for a special session."
Lieber told Street Roots Democrats in the Legislature rose to the challenge.
"We delivered results that Oregonians are going to see and feel every day, despite Republican obstruction," she said.
This being her first session, Chaichi said she's not sure how to judge it.
"I don’t know that I can give the session a grade with nothing to really compare it to," she said. "My experience of the session is probably a C-plus — room for improvement but still decent outcomes."
'We showed up and did our jobs'
Lieber gave the session higher marks.
“I am incredibly proud of the impactful, bipartisan solutions Senate Democrats led on this session — especially our Housing Committee Chair Sen. Kayse Jama," she told Street Roots. "We showed up and did our jobs so that Oregon could be on a better path to housing all of our residents than we have been in years."
She counted among the major wins of the session the Affordable Housing & Emergency Homelessness Response Package, the $200 million investment in sheltering more Oregonians, preventing homelessness and ramping up affordable housing production.
"We also cut red tape and empowered local governments to find creative solutions with House Bill 3395, which reduces barriers to siting emergency shelters, and House Bill 2984, which allows local governments to convert commercial buildings into residential housing," Lieber said.
Looking ahead, she said lawmakers will continue to look for ways to boost housing production, increase access to homeownership and expand housing solutions like modular units.
"We will be monitoring how the legislation we passed this session is making an impact in our communities, so we can continue to improve our response during the 2024 (interim) legislative session," she said.
'How do we help people grow some sprouts of hope?'
The 2023 Legislature started off with someone dying at the ARCHES Project Day Center. It ended the same way.
Chris Satti, known on the street as "One-Eye Chris," was found dead on a grass strip next to the center last month.
Lynelle Wilcox, who runs the Salem shelter SafeSleep UNITED, told Street Roots little is known about Satti's death. She once tried to track the deaths of Salem's unsheltered residents, she said, but there are too many.
"What can save people?" Wilcox said. “How do we help people to grow some sprouts of hope?"
She doesn't have the answers, she said — only the questions.
Jones told Street Roots he sees some hope emerging from this year's legislative session, but hope can also die when temperatures drop.
"All in all, this is the most comprehensive and largest housing and homeless investment in Oregon history, but there are holes and inefficiencies that won't fully be understood until this coming winter," he said.
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.
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