What We Lost: 1287 Rescinded
On January 14th Multnomah County Commissioners rescinded the county-wide Eviction Moratorium (SO 1287).
SO 1287 was specifically created because the statewide moratorium of 2020 (HB 4213) did not provide enough protections for Portland’s high density of low income renters.
The commissioners received 100% negative public testimony against rescinding the moratorium. So if not the public, whose testimony did the Mult Co commissioners actually listen to? They were won over by the words of Attorney Jenny Madkour who just happens to also be a landlord herself. Jenny’s concern was that “two moratoriums is too confusing” and that the new statewide moratorium will take care of everything.
The Commissioners did not worry it confusing to have 2 moratoriums for 9 months during 2020. All of a sudden it's “confusing”? It is worth noting that the arrival of this confusion coincide with landlords filing a lawsuit against Multnomah County.
NOTHING has changed for tenants in Multnomah county, they are suffering just as much as they were in 2020. COVID-19 has only worsened conditions for renters since the moratorium started and now tenants have extreme rent debt. By rescinding the eviction moratorium, Multnomah Commissioners are openly collaborating with landlords to kill tenants.
So what does losing extra protections mean for renters in Multnomah County ?
Tenants can now be evicted for the following reasons that HB 4401 will allow:
Landlord plans demolition or conversion of unit
Landlord plans to occupy property as their primary residence
Landlord sells property to someone who will use it as their primary residence
Repairs and renovations due to, or causing unsafe living conditions
Portland is Oregon’s biggest real estate market and landlords here will be able to better exploit these loopholes than anywhere else in Oregon. Many tenants already live in unsafe conditions that landlords create knowingly and will now be able to use for eviction.
Renters must now sign a Declaration of Financial Hardship to be protected under the new state moratorium HB 4401. Any tenant who signs the declaration does so at risk of perjury.
Financial Hardship is defined in HB4401 and on the declaration as any of the following:
Loss of household income
Medical expenses
Loss of work or wages
Increased childcare responsibilities or responsibilities to care for a person with a disability or a person who is elderly, injured, or sick
Increased costs for childcare, caring for a person with a disability or who is elderly, injured, or sick
Other circumstances that have reduced income or increased expenses
Under Multnomah’s moratorium tenants only had to inform their landlord intent to withhold rent. The perjury risk involved with signing the new declaration may be used to scare BIPOC and undocumented tenants away from exercising their rights. Portland has the largest concentrations of vulnerable communities in Oregon so extra protections make sense to us.
Don’t Evict PDX recommends that any tenant who is worried about their ability to maintain their housing fill out a “Declaration of Financial Hardship for Eviction Protection” form right now and give it to their landlord by mail, email, or text.
Multnomah County provides copies of this form here in many languages online. You can also pick up a Declaration form at any Multnomah County Public Library.
IMPORTANT: Tenants can present this Declaration as late as their first appearance in court even if they fail to present it to the landlord before the landlord files for an eviction.
Multnomah tenants lost the critical the grace period from July 1 2021 - Dec. 31st 2021 to pay back rent. Now all tenants must pay ALL back rent by July 1st, 2021.
Deborah Kafoury, Chair of the Multnomah Co. Board of Commissioners claims that “if the State legislature doesn't act to extend either the moratorium or the grace period beyond June 30, 2021, (Mult. Co.) will take action to make sure that renters in Multnomah County remain protected...” in a twitter thread from January 20th 2021:
But since she totally ignored public testimony that was 100% against rescinding the moratorium and instead paid heed to the county’s landlord lawyer, we sincerely have doubts that Kafoury will keep this promise.
So we will be watching.
