PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s eviction moratorium generally appears to be working as intended, holding off evictions that are expected with the coronavirus-related economic crisis.

But some tenant advocates have said recently the ban on no-cause evictions has fueled a rise in tenant harassment, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported. Advocates said it’s because landlords who for now can’t evict tenants formally through the courts are instead pressuring tenants until they feel they have to move out.

The Community Alliance of Tenants executive director Kim McCarty says landlords mostly are respecting the moratorium now but their phones are ringing off the hook with tenants who are confused about their future.

Hard numbers on reports of tenant harassment statewide or in Portland don’t exist, advocates said. Unlike some other cities, Portland’s Housing Bureau does not track harassment reports nor does the Community Alliance of Tenants, which works with renters across the state.

However, in a recent report on housing insecurity during the pandemic, the Community Alliance of Tenants and Portland State University captured a snapshot of the number of tenants facing harassment in July, three months after the state’s moratorium began. Out of 460 renters surveyed, 22 percent reported: “hostile, harassing, or threatening behavior from landlords or property managers.” That rate jumped to 32 percent for tenants who identified as Black, Indigenous or People of Color.

Oregon Public Broadcasting spoke with seven tenants with backlogged rent who believed their landlords were taking extrajudicial steps to push them out the door. One of them was Cheryl Davis, a housekeeper who lives in a 2-bedroom apartment, who said her landlord sent her neighbor to her doorstep four times between July and September to hassle her for rent payments, refusing to leave until she shut the door. She eventually called the police.

The post Oregon tenant advocates see uptick in landlord harassment appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Barricades blocking a part of a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, have been dismantled after a Black and Indigenous family struck a tentative deal with city officials to buy back the house they lost to foreclosure.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports activists said police had agreed not to force the family to leave the home while negotiations were ongoing — as long as the street was cleared by Monday night. People began clearing the barricades Sunday, and they were largely removed by day’s end.

Fencing, lumber and other impediments had gone up Dec. 8 after officers arrested about a dozen people in a clash over the eviction of the Kinney family from the North Portland home.

The street behind the blockade in the neighborhood of homes, coffee shops and restaurants was laced with booby traps aimed at keeping officers out — including homemade spike strips, piles of rocks and thick bands of plastic wrap stretched at neck-height across the roadway.

The scene recalled more than four months of confrontations between police and protesters decrying racial injustice and police brutality that only abated weeks ago.

Supporters of the Kinney family say the home was unjustly taken through predatory lending practices that target people of color. The property sold at auction for $260,000, the family said, while the private land next door is valued at more than $10 million.

The 124-year-old home was one of the few remaining Black-owned residences in an area that has rapidly gentrified in the past 20 years.

Police say between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, there had been 81 calls to the property for fights, gunshots, burglary, vandalism and noise complaints, among other things.

The post Portland blockades come down after eviction deal reached with family appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Protesters barricaded streets in a residential neighborhood in Portland and set booby traps for police after officers arrested about a dozen people in a clash over gentrification and the eviction of a Black and Indigenous family from a home.

Several city blocks remained closed by a series of blockades Wednesday fabricated with wood, metal and wire fencing. Protesters dressed in black and wearing ski masks stood watch from atop a nearby wall.

The street behind the blockade in the residential neighborhood of homes, coffee shops and restaurants was laced with booby traps aimed at keeping officers out — including homemade spike strips, piles of rocks and thick bands of plastic wrap stretched at neck-height across the roadway.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, who weathered a summer of civil unrest that almost cost him his re-election, said late Tuesday that the city would not tolerate an “autonomous zone.”

He added that the protesters were engaged in an “illegal occupation” that was intimidating neighbors and inflaming tensions in a city that was wracked for months by nightly protests until just a few weeks ago.

“It’s time for the encampment and occupation to end. There are many ways to protest and work toward needed reform. Illegally occupying private property, openly carrying weapons, threatening and intimidating people are not among them,” he said.

Supporters of the Kinney family, the Black and Indigenous family that was foreclosed upon in 2018, planned to speak with reporters later Wednesday.

The occupation of the property began in September after a judge rejected the family’s request for an emergency stay.

But it gained steam and national attention on Tuesday when police officers responding to the new owners’ complaints conducted a dawn sweep and arrested about a dozen people.

The 124-year-old house is known locally as the Red House on Mississippi and was one of the few remaining Black-owned homes on North Mississippi Avenue.

It’s in a historically Black part of Portland that for decades was one of the few areas Black residents could own homes because of racist real estate and zoning laws.

Over the past two decades, the area has rapidly gentrified — with brew pubs, coffee shops, bicycle shops and upscale condominium complexes replacing Black residences.

The current clash draws on that troubled history for context and it also fits into a larger worry in Oregon — and nationally — about what will happen when pandemic-inspired eviction moratoriums enacted by Oregon and the U.S. government expire in the coming weeks.

Oregon state lawmakers are debating a proposal to extend that moratorium until July 1 and also establish a compensation fund for struggling landlords.

Housing advocates worry that if nothing is done, a tsunami of evictions in 2021 will lead to hundreds or thousands of newly homeless people in Portland and around Oregon.

One complaint of protesters is that the Kinney family should not have been evicted in the middle of a pandemic and should be protected by the eviction moratorium.

But the moratorium only applies to foreclosures that are a result of pandemic-related financial straits and the developer that now owns the former Kinney home bought it at a foreclosure auction in 2018.

According to a history posted online by the group protesting the eviction, the property belonged to the Kinney family since the 1950s and was initially purchased in full with cash.

But the Kinneys took out a new mortgage to pay defense lawyers after a 17-year-old son was arrested in 2002 after a traffic crash. He pleaded guilty to assault in a plea deal, according to court records.

The new loan was resold several times after the housing crash of 2007-2008 and the house was sold to Urban Housing Development LLC at auction in 2018 — but the Kinneys kept living there, according to court papers.

The developer sued in 2019 and the Kinneys counter-sued, arguing that illegal and predatory bank tactics cost them their home. They later filed a motion for an emergency stay that allowed them to stay in the house while the pandemic was raging.

Mark Passannante, an attorney for Urban Housing Development, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment.

In September, a judge rejected the stay and ordered the family out. Protesters began an occupation of the property shortly after that decision and have been there ever since.cPolice said in a statement Tuesday that between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30, there have been 81 calls for service to the property for fights, gunshots, burglary, vandalism and noise complaints, among other things.

Surrounding homeowners also complained that the sidewalks were blocked and they could not access their own homes, according to police.

The post Oregon eviction protest fueled by history of gentrification appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

A bill that would lift Oregon’s pre-emption on local rent control, require landlords to pay relocation expenses and limit no-cause evictions had a hearing before a Senate committee last week.

In the Senate, the legislation has attracted chief sponsors Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, and Sen. Laurie Monnes Anderson, D-Gresham.

The House passed the bill, H.B. 2004, on April 4 by a 31-27 vote.

Landlords have fiercely opposed the legislation, fearing it would limit their flexibility to get rid of disruptive tenants and raise rents to fair market value.

“Oftentimes you don’t know a tenant or their entourage until they move into your property,” Alex Ianos, a Portland-area landlord, stated in written testimony. “The no-cause notice allows flexibility to rehab a property and also protect other tenants living on the property. A for-cause eviction is an extremely difficult process.”

The legislation comes on the heels of Portland’s emergency ordinance requiring landlords to pay tenants’ relocation costs. Landlords have challenged the ordinance in court; a ruling has yet to be issued.

Portland tenants have complained of steep rent hikes forcing them to leave their neighborhoods. Advocates say tenants have little protection from sudden displacement. Groups such as the Community Alliance of Tenants have become more vocal as the housing crisis has deepened.

Landlords should use the existing for-cause eviction process, CAT Executive Director Katrina Holland said in an interview.

“We cannot understand why no-cause evictions are so near and dear to someone’s heart,” she said. “If some tenant is violating the lease and bothering other tenants, there is a very clear for-cause statute in our law that allows landlords to hold someone accountable.”

One Portland tenant, Brenna Bell, recalled how she was issued a no-cause eviction in 2004 a week after giving birth to her first child.

“The first month of my daughter’s life became a time of intense stress rather than the period of peace I long imagined,” Bell wrote to legislators.

The bill would also give municipalities the ability to cap rent increases, which are unregulated at present.

The bill appears to be headed for a work session and then a floor vote, said Alison McIntosh, deputy director for policy and communications at Neighborhood Partnerships, a Portland-based nonprofit.

“That is our hope, and we’re working really hard to make that happen,” McIntosh said.

The bill’s hearing Wednesday was before the Senate Committee on Human Services. Bill sponsors were not available for comment on Friday.

The post Tenant protection bill now before state Senate appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.