Page 4
October 14, 2015
to
No Place
Call Home
C ontinued from p age 3
crisis,” she said. “Section 8 hous-
ing is very important but we need
to start making sure the majority
of rentals are reasonable. Unrea-
sonable, exorbitant rent cannot be
the standard.”
Holland also explained that
unregulated evictions were dis-
proportionately affecting Afri-
can-Americans and Latinos.
“They can evict you based on
however they feel without giving
you a reason. It might be illegal
to evict you because of the color
of your skin but it’s not illegal to
give you no reason. So you have
black families turned on to the
street. The black homeless rate
has gone up 48 percent in the past
year or so and there is no way to
evaluate whether any eviction is
reasonable or racist if no-cause
evictions are perfectly legal,” she
said.
The City Council voted to de-
clare a housing emergency after
the long meeting, citing an es-
timated 1,800 homeless people
sleeping on Portland’s streets
on a daily basis. But for renters
worried about rent hikes that put
them on the edge of homeless-
ness, there seemed to be no clear
answers.
Commissioner Dan Saltz-
man, who oversees the Portland
Housing Bureau, stated he would
propose new fees on developers
to help pay for more subsidized
housing, and offer incentives for
construction projects that include
such housing.
Saltzman also wants to extend
the required 30 day no-cause
eviction to 90 days, which is still
less than the one-year notice pro-
posed by affordable housing ad-
vocates.
“Tenants are tired and in dis-
tress,” said Justin Buri, executive
director for the Community Alli-
ance of Tenants. “They’re tired of
moving, tired of homes making
them sick, tired of paying over
half of their income on rent.”
Commissioner Nick Fish
pointed out that although city of-
ficials might have their own ideas
photo by o livia o livia /t he p ortland o bserver
Zev Nicholson, organizing director at the Urban League of Portland, calls for housing solutions for
renters as high prices and no-cause evictions are taking a toll on the community. The protest came
during a rally outside City Hall before an Oct. 7 council hearing on the housing crisis.
of how to help renters in crisis,
policies at the state and federal
levels impact local housing is-
sues in ways that are beyond their
control.
“It should come as no surprise
to people in the room that people
want to live in our community or
that people from the around the
country are pouring into Port-
land or that our national and local
economy is changing so dramati-
cally and leaving so many people
behind,” Fish said.
“All of these threads are part
of a larger reality in Portland,”
Fish added. “When the city be-
comes denser, when land becomes
scarcer and more valuable, it’s not
those at the top that get squeezed.
It’s those at the bottom.”
Fish went on to say that city
must work for change with its
state and federal partners.
Josh Alpert, the Mayor’s chief
of staff, explained that there was
no clear path for local leaders to
follow which probably accurate-
ly summarized the city’s unsure
direction. “There is no model to
follow, no playbook,” he said.
At the end of the day, Mullen
and other residents returned to
their shelters, overpriced apart-
ments, or street corners, and not
much was immediately different
on a day that seemed to have
started with a lot of hope.
“Maybe
something
will
change,” said Mullen, “Maybe
they can go to Salem and advo-
cate ending that ban on rent con-
trol or stopping these evictions.”
But short of new regulations,
Mullen’s focus would be on find-
ing a safe, reasonable place to
live before his four month stay in
transitional housing was over.