Overlook residents gathered at the Luck Labrador Tap Room this week to socialize and hear from housing experts. Groups attending included the Community Alliance of Tenants, Portland Tenants United and City Club of Portland.
CAT is a tenant membership organization. Low-income tenants – predominately low-wage workers, families with children, people living with disabilities, seniors and people of color – are CAT’s primary membership base. CAT is building a strong housing justice movement that is led and directed by those who are most impacted by Oregon’s affordable housing crisis – low-income renters. It provides a three-pronged approach: Education, Advocacy, and Organizing. CAT’s current top campaign is to end no-cause evictions.
Way’s that CAT can help:
- Meeting to help access services
- Court Counseling
- Assistance with letter writing
- Leadership Curriculum
- Renter’s Rights workshops
CAT also operates a renters’ rights hotline at 503-288-0130. (The hotline does not provide legal advice.)
The mission of Portland Tenants United is to empower and organize tenants through direct action to challenge oppressive housing policies and practices and to demand housing stability, security, and dignity for all tenants in the Portland Metro area.
PTU works to end and mitigate the impacts of displacement caused by no-cause evictions and unjustified rent increases, and to ensure fair and equitable access to safe and secure housing in livable communities for all. They believe that stable housing is essential to providing the opportunities and security people need to live healthy and successful lives in healthy communities.
PTU has three primary goals: create a Metro-wide tenant union, end no-cause evictions and rent stabilization.
The PTU presenter noted that the typical monthly rent for a studio apartment in Portland as of June 2016 was $1,100 to $1,600 with move-in costs of $6,000 to $10,000.
PTU will host a Tenants and Allies Free BBQ July 10 at 1 p.m. in North Portland at the Columbia Park Picnic Site C.
City Club of Portland created the Housing Affordability Research Committee to investigate and develop attainable recommendations to address housing affordability. Specifically, to identify a set of policies and programs necessary to increase the supply of and access to affordable housing for low-income and middle-income households.
The 11 committee members met for nearly a year and produced a 69-page report titled “Housing Affordability in Portland.”
Report recommendations adopted by City Club members were:
1. Portland City Council should dedicate funding to build subsidized affordable housing units.
Council should follow existing research and recommendations on revenue streams from Metro’s “Opportunities and Challenges for Equitable Housing” report and the Welcome Home Coalition. It should consider a variety of funding alternatives, such as a linkage fee; voter-approved housing levy for ongoing revenue; or a general obligation bond authorization for initial funding.
2. The City of Portland, the Portland Development Commission and Metro should develop a housing land bank strategy to put money away during strong economic times for use in purchasing properties during downturns.
Portland should prioritize purchase of foreclosed buildings and other available properties for the purpose of creating and preserving affordable housing.
3. The City of Portland should remove barriers and identify incentives to encourage development of more housing types.
Examples could include funding the Multiple-Unit Limited Tax Exemption Program (MULTE) to encourage developers to use voluntary inclusionary zoning, and streamlining the design review process and revising the zoning code to allow for middle housing types in residential neighborhoods.
4. The Oregon Legislature should end the ban on local rent regulation.
Ending the ban would allow Portland and other local governments to engage with all stakeholders and consider policies within a spectrum that includes rent stabilization and rent control.
5. The City of Portland should ban no-cause evictions and enact a just-cause eviction policy.
Some advocates note that there are no ‘no-cause evictions’ in Portland and Oregon, only ‘termination of tenancy.’ We trust that policymakers will understand that this is primarily a semantic issue. Whenever tenancy is terminated without documented cause it amounts to a no-cause eviction.
6. The City of Portland should implement a rental property licensing system.
Licensing would allow for data collection, increased inspections and education.