PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Yesica Sanchez recently found a notice attached to the front door of her two-bedroom apartment that said her rent was almost doubling. The divorced mother held the paper in her hand in a state of shock.
“We wanted to faint. After I pay all of my bills, I don’t have anything left to pay that extra amount,” Sanchez said while visiting the apartment of her cousin, who got a similar notice. So did every other resident of the Normandy Apartments in Portland.
Oregon has become one of America’s most popular moving destinations, with tens of thousands of newcomers each year drawn by its forests and mountains, its quirky city of Portland and its job opportunities. Oregon set a historical low jobless rate in March of 3.8 percent.
But the inflow has caused a rental housing crisis across the state, with too few homes being built. Families face steep rent hikes or evictions to make way for better-heeled tenants. People have even resorted to living in tents or their vehicles. Now, lawmakers are debating remedies for what House Speaker Tina Kotek calls an “emergency that demands bold action.”
In one of the session’s most bitterly contested proposals, the Legislature is considering forcing landlords to pay tenants one month’s rent for no-cause evictions, and even three months’ rent in certain cases. The bill also reverses a 1985 ban on most rent controls in the state, allowing cities and counties to adopt their own.