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A bid to end Oregon rules prohibiting local rent control programs is dead after a Senate committee stripped the provision from a broader renters’ protections bill.

House Bill 2004 is expected to come to the Senate floor soon with a number of protections for renters, but rent stabilization, or rent control to its critics, will not be part of it.

鈥淚 could not find the votes to do that,鈥� said Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, who sponsored the bill in the Senate. 鈥淚 would have personally liked to keep that in, but I want to get something for tenants now, and these are robust protections.鈥�

Landlords have opposed any move to allow local governments to cap rent increases. A lobbyist hailed the changes to the bill.

鈥淚t’s an acknowledgment that rent control or rent stabilization, whatever you want to call it, is not an answer to the lack of affordable housing,鈥� said John Di Lorenzo, a lobbyist and attorney with Davis Wright Tremaine in Portland.

鈥淚f we’re really going to address this issue, we need supply-side strategies, not demand-side strategies,鈥� Di Lorenzo said.

The bill does include some new protections for renters that were created in the Senate Committee on Human Services:

• Landlords would be limited to making one rent increase per year.
• Tenants would be protected from a no-cause eviction within 60 days of notifying their landlord in writing of repairs needed for the habitability of the apartment.

The bill also requires 30 days’ notice before eviction during the first nine months of tenancy.

Gelser acknowledged that tenant advocates are disappointed by the lack of rent stabilization, but said she’d rather have a bill with some renter protections that could be passed this session.

鈥淚t’s better to have some protections, and these really are very meaningful protections,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s a pretty robust start and something we can be proud of.鈥�

Multifamily NW, an industry trade group for landlords, opposes the bill but is open to finding a solution to the housing crisis that works for both sides, spokesman John McIsaac said.

鈥淚 don’t believe it’s reached its final form yet, but we’re working to make it work for both sides, and ultimately, it’s going to, I believe,鈥� he said.

Gelser said she expects the bill to move forward without rent stabilization.

鈥淚t is my full expectation that we will have a vote on (House Bill) 2004 on the Senate floor, and I expect it to pass,鈥� she said.