PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregonians who fell behind on their rent during the pandemic will have eight more months to pay it off.
On Tuesday, the Oregon House of Representatives passed Senate Bill 282, which was designed to help renters. The bill is now headed to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk for final approval.
The current grace period for back rent accrued from since April 2020 is set to expire at the end of June. Under SB 282, that grace period is extended through February 2022 for rent missed from April 2020 through June 2021. In addition, the bill keeps landlords from using COVID-era evictions to deny future rental applications and bars them from reporting rent missed during the pandemic to credit agencies.
“This past year has been a struggle,” said Erin Meechan, who rents a home in east Multnomah County. She owes a little more than $4,000 in back rent. “I had roommates, they moved out owing back rent; my kids are home, I'm not able to work right now.”
Meechan testified in support of the SB 282 and said the extended grace period would help her pay what she owes.
“It's a very small victory,” said Meechan. “I must say, six months isn't very much time if you were in the restaurant industry or in some other situation where you did not have a housing voucher or affordable housing.”
For property managers and landlords, the bill presents concerns amidst their own financial challenges.
“It's all going to come to a head at some point,” said Phillip Owen, who manages several rental properties in Southeast Portland. He believes SB 282 should have required tenants to pay a little of their back rent off, each month.
“If you get somebody that's several thousand dollars behind, all you're doing is moving the evictions down the road by a few months rather than solving the problem,” said Owen.
Owen considers himself fortunate in that most of his renters who’ve struggled have found assistance and are no longer behind on payments. Owen also applied for grant money from Oregon's $150 million Landlord Compensation Fund; the program is designed to return 80% of qualified back rent while landlords absorb 20%. Owen said he should have received $40,000 through the program, but like many others who applied, is still waiting for it.
“Not a dime,” said Owen. “We've been promised money from there, but we haven't seen any of it.”
Owen said despite what critics may believe, the last thing he wants to do is evict anyone. He said he’s worked with his tenants who have struggled.
“You’ve got to remember in the first place, we're in the business to have tenants,” said Owen. “We're not in the business to get rid of people.”
Meechan said she’s grateful that her landlord has also been willing to work with her. She hopes SB 282 will help those tenants who aren't as fortunate.
“People are scared and they're struggling and they don't know what the next thing's going to be,” said Meechan. “They believe that they have help on the way and I just want to make sure that that happens.”