© 2024 KLCC

KLCC
136 W 8th Ave
Eugene OR 97401
541-463-6000
klcc@klcc.org

Contact Us

FCC Applications
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lawmakers Hear Arguments For, Against No Cause Evictions

A view of the west side of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.
OregonDOT
/
Flickr
A view of the west side of the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.

With Oregon’s biggest cities in a housing crunch, lawmakers are considering a measure that would require landlords to give specific reasons for evicting a tenant.

Right now property owners don't have to give a reason when they tell renters to leave. That leaves low-income people with little recourse, Democratic House Speaker Tina Kotek told a House panel considering the measure.

"It's a crisis,” she said. “It's immediate, it's upon us, and people are losing their housing every day."

But Ron Garcia of the Rental Housing Alliance of Oregon, which represents landlords, said no cause termination is a tool "for certain instances that if, simply put, taken away really limits our ability to manage the safe and stable environment of tenants."

The bill would also allow cities and counties to pass local ordinances to regulate rent increases.

The Oregon House Committee on Human Services will hear another round of testimony on the bill Thursday evening at 5 p.m. in the Oregon Capitol.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Chris Lehman graduated from Temple University with a journalism degree in 1997. He landed his first job less than a month later, producing arts stories for Red River Public Radio in Shreveport, Louisiana. Three years later he headed north to DeKalb, Illinois, where he worked as a reporter and announcer for NPR–affiliate WNIJ–FM. In 2006 he headed west to become the Salem Correspondent for the Northwest News Network.