Oregon faces eviction crisis
Tenants on the brink are losing safety nets that kept them housed during the pandemic.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Inside Musonda Mwango’s Portland apartment are details of his life that have transformed the property into a home.
His guitars hang in the corner where he composes music, Christmas decorations adorn the walls, and pictures of his three children — who live with him — are proudly displayed.
But as days tick by and bills stack up, Mwango is part of the growing number of households at risk of eviction in Oregon, even as he awaits aid from the state.
“We are going into winter, and in a period of celebration,” the 36-year-old father said in late November. “And yet, you also have this thing at the back of your mind that this place, that we call home, might not actually be our home much longer.”
In Oregon, where a longstanding housing crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, tenants on the brink of eviction are losing the safety nets that kept them housed. Despite an overwhelming need, the statewide rental assistance program stopped taking new applications after all federal funds had been requested and committed to renters.
Oregon has a higher rate of people experiencing homelessness than nearly every other state. A 2020 federal review found that 35 people per 10,000 in Oregon are experiencing homelessness. Only three states had a higher rate: New York (47 people per 10,000), Hawaii (46 people per 10,000) and California (41 people per 10,000).
An estimated 8,355 households are at risk of eviction, as protections keeping them housed have expired after they waited for rental assistance for more than two months. More than 22,000 households are still waiting to be considered for help. The need continues to grow, especially as many tenants struggle to pay months of back rent and more than 67,000 Oregon households report that they feel “not at all confident” they can cover next month’s bills, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau survey.
Lawmakers will scramble for solutions during a special session that begins Monday.
Due to the immense backlog of rental assistance applications, Gov. Kate Brown in June signed a law that grants renters a 60-day period in which they cannot be evicted due to lack of payment, as long as they provide proof that they applied for aid.
After the expiration of the federal eviction moratorium, other states implemented similar eviction limitations.
In Connecticut and Virginia, a landlord must file for federal rental assistance before removing a tenant. In Michigan, the eviction process is paused while an application for aid is pending. In New Jersey and New York, most renters can’t be evicted until January.
Mwango applied for rental aid in July and was approved in August. As of the end of November, he had yet to receive help from the state. He is now past the protection period and, under state law, can be evicted.
“We get calls from people every day who are in this situation,” said Sybil Hebb, director of legislative advocacy for the Oregon Law Center. “The overwhelming word I would use to describe those calls is just pervasive desperation and fear.”
Since July, Hebb said, more than 2,200 eviction proceedings have been filed in Oregon for nonpayment. Each week, 1,000 to 3,000 new applications for rental assistance are submitted.
“If we let families down, we are going to be pushing people into the real threat of homelessness. It’s unconscionable not to take steps to prevent that,” Hebb said.
Officials say a significant number of people are applying for state aid to pay back rent that has accumulated since the pandemic, as well as growing late fees.
“Even if someone has started a new job and they’re now employed ... they may still have thousands of dollars of back rent that are owed,” said Margaret Salazar, the director of Oregon Housing and Community Services.
Of the $289 million of federal rental assistance funds in Oregon, $119 million has yet to reach renters. Despite this, Oregon Housing and Community Services in November announced that nearly all the federal funds allocated to the state had been requested; as a result, the state agency stopped accepting applications in December.
Halting applications eliminates the protection period for people who apply for the Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program after Dec. 1, though they can still apply through local community programs. However, not every Oregon county or city has rental aid available.
“It is clear from the ongoing intake of applications and the demand that’s been demonstrated that Oregon needs additional rental assistance,” Salazar said.
Texas and New York have also committed all of their money or indicated that the funds will be exhausted soon.
Officials in Oregon have asked for an additional $198 million from the U.S. Treasury, but it’s unclear whether the state will get it. The Treasury is expected to begin reallocating money from places that have not spent it.
After mounting calls from advocates and lawmakers, Brown announced that the Legislature will return for a special session to address eviction protections.
State Sen. Kayse Jama, who is leading a legislative housing committee, says there are three solutions that “need to happen at the same time” to keep Oregonians housed: additional funding for the rental assistance program, an extension of the 60-day eviction safe harbor and faster processing of rental assistance.
On Friday, Brown announced a package of bills for Monday’s special session that includes $215 million to prevent winter evictions and transition to long-term, locally delivered eviction prevention services. Out of the proposed funds, $100 million would be allocated for emergency rental assistance. There is a proposal to extend the 60-day eviction protection period — allowing protections to remain in place for tenants until their applications have been processed.
“This is not a crisis of numbers; it is a crisis of people,” Mwango said. “People that are actually trying to get ahead and who have been derailed by the pandemic — not by fault of their own and not because they are lazy.”