Oregon’s Rental Housing System Needs Practical Solutions
Oregon’s rental housing communities are facing real challenges around safety, emergency rent assistance delays, and court backlogs.
Renters deserve to feel safe where they live. On-site housing staff should feel safe where they work. Housing providers need workable tools to respond when serious behavior threatens the safety and stability of a rental community.
At the same time, when rent goes unpaid, the current process can leave everyone—both renters and housing providers—in limbo. Renters can wait months to find out if they qualify for emergency rental assistance. The current administrative process and system is broken, leading to an inflated rate of nonpayment evictions to be filed, causing delays in the courts, and resulting in perpetual uncertainty and stress on whether they will receive the support that they need.
Oregon needs balanced policies that protect housing stability, support safer communities, and keep the rental housing system working for everyone.
What Safety Issues Housing Providers Are Seeing
Housing providers across Oregon have seen growing challenges related to staff safety. Under the current law, it can be difficult to remove individuals whose unsafe or harmful conduct fails to meet the threshold for a 24-hour notice to vacate. This can leave our staff in a situation where they’re forced to continue living and working alongside people who have threatened, have nonviolently stalked, harassed, or attacked them. These individuals engaging in harmful conduct can remain housed while their victims are left fearful of when they’ll see their abuser or aggressor again.
This can drive renters from their homes and create workforce challenges as once-dedicated staff become scared about working in unsafe environments.
The Current Tools Do Not Always Fit the Situation
Oregon housing providers’ two remaining options are the 24-hour notice to vacate and the 30/14 Notice, which is a formal warning to renters to fix a violation. These warnings are placed on the same level as noise violations or parking citations.
The 24-Hour Notice to Vacate
This is only for extreme, dangerous, or illegal acts. While the 24-hour notice has been used to apply to some of the dangerous situations mentioned, many judges do not rule in housing providers’ favor.
Because of this, most attorneys don’t advise members to pursue the 24-hour notice unless serious harm can be proven.
The 30/14 Notice
This is used for all cases that are not on the level of the 24-hour notice. That means that the state is putting a simple noise or parking violation on the same level as this threat.
These can be threats like harassment, verbal threats, or even stalking in the community. This also means renters may stop for a period of time, but end up committing similar offenses down the road.
These current laws do not allow for housing providers to protect property management staff effectively.
Practical Solutions on the Table
Oregon can address these challenges with practical, balanced solutions that protect renters and support housing providers. Some options include:
Police Report Access: Match WA statute that dictates police need to make a good faith effort to communicate incidents on property with owners. Unlike the Washington policy, we would recommend that the owner/agent of the property is to contact law enforcement and provide proof to receive the incident reports.
New 10-day notice: New 10-day notice for any renter or guest who is stalking, threatening, assaulting, etc. owner/agent of the property.
Nonpayment Delays Leave Everyone in Limbo
Oregon’s nonpayment process is also creating uncertainty for renters, housing providers, and the courts. The common practice for those who administer rent assistance is to give to those renters who they deem to be most at risk of losing their housing, which is typically those who are already at the end of an eviction process, facing a trial that can be months after the filing. To get the process moving forward, renters often ask housing providers to evict them for nonpayment, even earlier than current law allows.
This period of uncertainty can present hardship to both renters and housing providers. Renters don’t know what will come next, if they’ll qualify for emergency rent assistance and often times accrue months of missed rent payments, further compromising their housing stability.
Rental Assistance Should Work Effectively Before the Crisis Deepens
Because many rent assistance programs require proof of financial hardship, renters may not be able to access help until an eviction has been filed. That means the court process can become the entry point for assistance, instead of a last resort. And, when assistance is delayed, denied, or doesn’t cover the full amount owed, the problem doesn’t just disappear. It can leave renters facing the burden of unpaid fees, rent, and accruing costs, and will lead to the stress of potentially losing their housing.
Practical Solutions on the Table
Oregon can address these challenges with practical solutions that can reduce uncertainty for renters and ease the unnecessary strain on the courts. Some options include:
Expedite the timeline for when rent assistance is administrated
Cover all associated costs incurred between the FED filing and the trial
Safe, Stable Housing Benefits Everyone
This conversation is about safety, stability, and workable policy.
When onsite staff face unsafe conditions, they deserve to know their concerns are being taken seriously. When housing providers are responsible for maintaining safe rental communities, they need policies that allow them to respond before situations escalate further.