NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Friday, March 1, 2019
Oregon becomes first rent-controlled state
Gov. Brown
signs bill to
limit rent hikes
HOW DOES IT WORK?
By PARIS ACHEN
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — Oregon
on Thursday enacted the
nation’s farthest-reaching law
limiting rent increases and
restricting no-fault evictions,
providing immediate protec-
tion to roughly 1 million rent-
ers across the state.
Senate Bill 608, took effect
with Gov. Kate Brown’s sig-
nature just after noon Thurs-
day, making Oregon the only
state in the nation with state-
wide rent control.
“This is a groundbreaking
piece of legislation as we are
the first state in the nation to
enact this level of protection
for our renters,” Brown said
Thursday. “The bill is a crit-
ical tool for stabilizing the
rental market throughout the
state of Oregon. It will pro-
vide immediate relief to Ore-
gonians struggling to keep
up with rising rents in a tight
rental market. But it doesn’t
work on its own. It’s going
to take much more work to
ensure every Oregonian …
has access to housing choices
that will ensure that they and
their families can thrive.”
A key component of the
AP Photo/Sarah Zimmerman
Gov. Kate Brown holds up a signed rent control bill on Thursday at the Oregon Capitol in
Salem.
new law is that landlords in
most circumstances can’t
raise rents by more than 7
percent on top of inflationary
increase tied to the Consumer
Price Index.
That’s a bigger boost than
some tenant advocates had
wanted.
“Seven percent, plus
CPI, could be too expen-
sive for some tenants, but
for a long time, some land-
lords have been giving 20
percent, 40 percent, 100 per-
cent increases, so the sooner
we can take those off the
table, the more predictability
and stability tenants have,”
said Danny Moran, spokes-
man for House Speaker Tina
Kotek, D-Portland.
The rent increase limits
protect tenants in roughly five
out of six of rental homes in
Oregon.
There are an estimated
602,178
renter-occupied
homes and 1,445,270 tenants,
according to the most recent
estimate from the American
Community Survey.
Rentals built after Feb.
28, 2004, aren’t subject to
limit. Kotek who authored
the bill, added that condition
to encourage construction of
rental units.
By legislative standards,
the legislation passed at light-
ning speed.
“I have never heard of
a bill moving this quickly
before,” said Jim Straub, leg-
islative director of the Ore-
gon Rental Housing Associ-
ation. Straub, who has been
the association’s legislative
director for 10 years, is the
grandson of Gov. Bob Straub
and a longtime observer of
state politics.
The Legislature convened
Jan.22, the Senate passed the
bill Feb. 12, and the House
followed suit on Tuesday, Feb.
26, sending it to the governor.
The law was a top priority
for Kotek this year.
“We wanted this bill to
move quickly in order to
protect those tenants, which
is why the bill has an emer-
SATURDAY
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Salem
Corvallis
44/28
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La Grande
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PRECIPITATION
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Ontario
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HERMISTON
Enterprise
29/19
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PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
48/26
Aberdeen
30/11
31/19
Tacoma
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Wenatchee
48/32
gency clause” to take effec-
tive immediately, Kotek
wrote in an email to the Ore-
gon Capital Bureau earlier
this week.
“The Legislature was
very close to passing signif-
fee if they evict a tenant for
no fault.
- Landlords who own four
or fewer rental units are
not required to pay the
relocation fee equal to one
month’s rent when they ask
a tenant to move because
they want to move into the
property, sell the property
or make major upgrades to
the property. These landlords
are restricted by the rental
increase cap.
How is the law enforced?
Tenants may sue their land-
lord in court if the landlord
violates the rent cap or evicts
them at no fault for a reason
other than those allowed
under the law. Landlords
may legally evict a tenant for
no fault if the landlord plans
to sell the property, move
into the property or their
family plans to move into the
property. Landlords also may
evict a tenant for upgrades
and renovations that cannot
be done while the tenant
occupies the property.
icant tenant protections in
2017, and I consider this bill
unfinished business. There is
also more work to be done on
housing this session, includ-
ing addressing housing
supply.”
BRIEFLY
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
How do landlords calculate
the maximum rent allowed
under the new law?
Until Sept. 30, the state will
use 3.3 percent for CPI, ac-
cording to Kotek’s office.
The law does not apply to
rent increase notices sent out
before Thursday.
How does the rent cap
pencil out?
The median rent for a
2-bedroom unit in Oregon in
2017 was $1,043 per month.
The maximum increase in a
year under the law would be
$107.42 for that two-bed-
room apartment.
In Portland, a 2-bedroom
unit averages $1,217. The
maximum increase would be
$125.25.
Who is exempt?
- Landlords who own rental
homes with a certificate of
occupancy dated after Feb.
28, 2004, are not restricted
by the 7 percent, plus CPI,
cap. They may raise rents as
much as they want. They still
have to pay the relocation
Today
Medford
48/28
Sat.
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Boardman
Pendleton
NE 4-8
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SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
40/21
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:34 a.m.
5:41 p.m.
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NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 86° in Homestead, Fla. Low -27° in Grayling, Mich.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Lawsuits: State ignored sexual
assaults at women’s prison
SALEM (AP) — Sexual abuse and rape
are not only “widespread” at Oregon’s only
women’s prison, but the violence is ignored
by prison staff and those who report it are
punished, according to a series of multimil-
lion-dollar lawsuits filed against the Oregon
Department of Corrections.
The Statesman Journal reports that five
current and former inmates at Coffee Creek
Correctional Facility are suing the state,
claiming they were raped, groped, assaulted
and molested by a nurse in the medical unit.
The plaintiffs accuse prison staff of
ignoring and allowing the nurse’s preda-
tory behavior to continue for years — and of
retaliating against inmates who reported the
alleged abuse.
Prison officials told the newspaper they
take all allegations of sexual assault seriously,
but declined to comment on the claims, citing
the pending litigation.
An investigation by Oregon State Police
found that 11 inmates reported some form
of sexual contact with the nurse, but prose-
cutors declined to charge him, saying some
of the accounts were unreliable and the case
was “unsupportable” as a whole.
The nurse resigned from his position on
Jan. 31, 2018.
Sex abuse cases have dogged Coffee
Creek since it opened in Wilsonville in 2001
and through seven superintendent changes.
High profile cases include a former
groundskeeper arrested in 2009 for sex-
ually abusing inmates in a “rape shed” at
the prison and a former corrections officer,
who was convicted of custodial sexual mis-
conduct in 2016 for repeatedly coercing an
inmate into sex.
Pioneering former secretary
of state Norma Paulus dies
PORTLAND (AP) — Pioneering Oregon
Republican Norma Paulus, who was the first
woman elected to statewide office, has died.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports Pau-
lus died Thursday after spending time in hos-
pice for health problems related to dementia,
according to Kerry Tymchuk, a longtime
friend of Paulus. Paulus was 85.
Paulus was a member of the Legisla-
ture, Oregon’s secretary of state from 1977
to 1985, her party’s nominee for governor in
1986 and the state’s elected superintendent of
schools for two terms in the 1990s.
A fiscal conservative, Paulus was a femi-
nist and environmentalist who crafted bipar-
tisan legislation with Democratic women in
the House in the 1970s and championed the
auditor’s role in the secretary of state’s office.
Paulus grew up in poverty in Eastern
Oregon.
She was a founding member of the Oregon
Women’s Political Caucus and helped push
the Equal Rights Amendment in Oregon.
Nine kids taken to hospital after
Hood River school bus crash
HOOD RIVER (AP) — Police say nine
children were taken to a hospital after the
driver of their Hood River County school bus
crashed into a ditch.
Oregon State Police troopers say the bus
was headed south on Highway 281 at about
10:15 a.m. Wednesday when driver David
Johnson went off the roadway and into a
ditch.
Police say the bus struck an embankment
before it ended up back on the road.
Officials said Johnson then drove to the
school.
Police say after arriving, nine children
complained of pain and were taken to a local
hospital.
Troopers are investigating the incident
with help from the Hood River County Sher-
iff’s Office and the county district attorney’s
office.
Police say the district and Johnson are
cooperating with the investigation.
Suit: School district failed to
protect student from coach
DUFUR (AP) — An 18-year-old high
school graduate east of Portland has filed a
federal civil rights lawsuit against the Dufur
School District, contending it failed to inter-
vene to stop an ex-track coach from sexu-
ally abusing her just a few years after another
coach was convicted of similar conduct.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the
student says then-track coach Ty Lee Wyman
sexually abused her at the school and in his
home in 2017.
The lawsuit says at least five school
employees including the principal witnessed
Wyman’s “inappropriate and predatory
behavior” yet took no steps to investigate or
protect the student.
Wyman was sentenced in August to over
three years in prison for sexually abusing two
students.
Superintendent Jack Henderson, of Dufur
School District #29, said he couldn’t com-
ment on the specific allegations in the suit but
said the district cooperated with an investiga-
tion and has intensified staff training.
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