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It Begins! Critical Housing Relief Bill Hearing on the First Day of Legislative Session, Feb. 1
Making sure everyone has quality, affordable homes is a top issue at the Oregon Legislature this year. The omnibus bill that includes many of the critical new policies—the Housing Relief Act (HB 4001/LC 284)—will be up for hearing on the very first day of session, Monday, February 1 from 3:00 to 4:30. Mark your calendars! The short session, which happens every even-numbered year, runs for just over one month and is incredibly fast-paced.
Here’s what you can do:
- We need supporters from around the state at the Feb. 1 hearing!
- Stay tuned to these emails and follow us on Facebook and Twitter so you know how to get involved at the crucial moments. And make sure to forward this email to a friend who cares about affordable homes so they can sign up for updates.
- Tell your legislators that housing opportunity is a top priority for you! Call, write and email your legislators (find yours here), and please be sure to attend local town halls hosted by your legislators, so they hear how housing matters to you. You can get information on those meetings by subscribing to your state representative and senator’s email lists here.
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2016 Housing Opportunity Agenda
Most Oregonians believe that a stable home is the foundation for creating a healthier life for families, educational opportunities for kids and more economically vibrant communities. Yet we face greater barriers than ever to finding safe, decent housing that we can afford. The good news is we have solutions within reach.
It’s time for our state to take bold action to create housing opportunity for all Oregonians. The Housing Alliance’s 2016 legislative agenda takes on some of the biggest issues facing our state, including housing affordability, homelessness, and renter protections. We need your support to tell state representatives and senators how important the following policies and funding is to you.
Protect renters: Oregon’s tight housing market, spiking rents and no-cause evictions mean that tenants need help immediately to stay in their homes. Basic protections would help create balance for renters and keep them stably housed.
- Just cause evictions: Good tenants shouldn’t be at risk of eviction for no reason.
- Tenants need longer notice for rent increases: Longer notice for rent increases will provide renters with more time to budget increased housing costs or give them more time to find a new unit.
Produce affordable homes: Oregonians need 50,000 homes to be built in order to reach the state goals set in 2015. We need to provide both resources and tools for communities to start creating more housing now:
- Fully fund the Local Innovations and Fast Track development program to produce more affordable housing ($60 million)
- Allow cities to adopt inclusionary zoning, an important tool that frees the hands of local governments to create more affordable housing by requiring developers to build a portion of new units as affordable.
Preserve existing affordable housing: At the same time as we are developing more affordable housing, we’re at risk of losing hundreds of existing affordable homes—especially for people with very low incomes and the elderly. We must preserve what we have so that families and seniors can stay in their homes.
- Stabilize existing affordable homes to keep residents in place and rents affordable in housing with rent subsidies and manufactured home parks ($17.5 million)
- Offer counseling and legal support to homeowners in foreclosure mediation ($2.7 million)
- Provide certainty for affordable housing providers—extend property tax exemptions for non-profit owners of affordable housing
Prevent and end homelessness: No Oregonian should have to worry about having a place to sleep at night. Record numbers of children—more than 20,000—are experiencing homelessness. It’s our obligation to live up to Oregon’s values and stop this disgrace
- Increase funding to the Emergency Housing Account and State Homeless Assistance Program keep people stable in their homes, and to move people experiencing homelessness back into housing ($10 million)
We’ll be sending out information on the Housing Alliance’s support agenda as well as other housing-related bills at the legislature soon and keeping you updated throughout the session about how you can make a difference for housing opportunity. For more information, see our webpage and blog. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates and media coverage of housing issues.
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