State lawmakers meet to discuss issues caused by COVID-19, police reforms

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    SALEM, OR (KPTV) — State lawmakers on Wednesday kicked off a special session in an effort to tackle some of the issues caused by COVID-19 and to consider a variety of police reforms.

One of the bigger items up for consideration Wednesday was a bill that would extend the state’s moratorium on evictions for people who can’t pay their rent.

Members of the special session’s Joint Committee took public comments on the HB-4213 via teleconference.

The bill would extend protections against evictions until the governor’s emergency declaration ends. It also adds a 90-day grace period after that for tenants to pay the back rent they owe. In addition, tenants are protected from late fees.

“This is going to help keep people in their homes,” said Leeor Schweitzer, an organizer with Portland Tenants United. “It’s going to help people, give people more time to be able to get those government or find work in order to be able to make ends meet.”

The economic impacts of COVID-19 have hit refugee communities especially hard, with many new or recent arrivals unable to pay rent.

“For a lot of people it’s anxiety producing and a lot of people are uncertain as to what’s going to happen and what their future in this new place where they’re arrived as refugees looks like,” said George Ananchev, a caseworker with Lutheran Community Services NW. “There are in certain cases households that everybody who lives in the house lost their job.”

But according to advocates for property mangers, without rent coming in, many landlords are also struggling to pay their mortgages.

“Some of the older properties, we’ve noticed there’s as much as an 18% inability to pay rent,” said Michael Havlik, Deputy Director of Multifamily NW.

In written and public testimony, some property mangers said the protections are one-sided, and put too much of a burden on landlords.

“The issues are really important, that landlords are going to run out of money, that properties are going to be foreclosed on, and that banks are not motivated to allow landlords to not pay the mortgage,” said Cliff Hockley, Executive Director of Bluestone and Hockley Real Estate Services.

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