A handful of new laws addressing Oregon’s housing and addiction crises will take effect Jan. 1

PORTLAND, Ore. — This year homelessness, drug addiction and mental health were among the top priorities for Oregon lawmakers. Come Jan. 1, a handful of new laws addressing those issues will go into effect.

“It is not a surprise to me at all that voters are asking the legislature to do something to address housing and homelessness, to do something more about addiction,” said Democratic state Representative Rob Nosse, who’s behind a bill that makes changes to parts of Measure 110, the controversial 2020 law that decriminalized certain amounts of hard drugs.

Rep. Nosse said there won’t be any immediate changes around enforcement on drugs. Instead, House Bill 2513 creates a group to oversee the money that’s being put toward new addiction services.

“What voters are going to hopefully see starting right now is more treatment, more housing, more opportunity for detox,” Nosse said.

Another law that starts next week makes it so those types of addiction services are available to inmates at the Oregon Department of Corrections.   

“The only time that adults in custody can get access to drug therapy is just before they’re released and that is really kind of crazy,” said Democratic state Senator Michael Dembrow, one of the chief sponsors of Senate Bill 529.

RELATED: Starting Jan. 1, which new Oregon laws are going into effect?

The bill makes it so treatment is an option starting the first day of an inmate's sentence.

“Substance use disorder is a chronic illness that needs to be treated as soon as possible,” Sen. Dembrow added.

Perhaps the most anticipated bill to go into effect next year is House Bill 2984. It allows local governments to convert commercial buildings into affordable housing without requiring a zone change or conditional use permit.

“What we’re trying to do with these commercial conversions is prompt all of us to think differently about how we do housing and how we can do it more quickly,” said the bill’s chief sponsor, Democratic state Representative Pam Marsh. 

There are many other bills taking effect next week, including one that requires hospitals, long-term care facilities, and drug treatment centers to hand out Narcan to discharged patients who were there for opioid use disorder. 

Come the February legislative session, a focus for lawmakers will be on whether or not to make public drug use a misdemeanor crime again — essentially reversing the most controversial part of Measure 110. The first day of that session is Monday, Feb. 5.