We all need a place to live. It’s foundational in meeting the rest of our needs: water, food, medicine, community – to say nothing of self-actualization.
For as long as housing is a commodity, owned by some to be sold or rented to others, it cannot be guaranteed. When payment stops, so does housing. For that reason, all landlord-tenant relationships are inherently exploitive.
While decommodification is ultimately the only solution to provide stable housing for all, regardless of ability to pay, there are many ways we must protect tenants until then.
In November 2023, voters in Tacoma, WA passed Measure 1, a progressive Tenant Bill of Rights adding six critical protections for renters:
- Require six months notice before any rent increase.
- Ban school year evictions of children and education workers for late rent.
- Ban deadly extreme weather evictions for late rent.
- Ban rent increases when code violations exist.
- Cap excessive and unfair fees and deposits (Pet rent, late fees, admin fees).
- Mandatory relocation assistance (paid by the landlord) for any rent increase of 5% or more if the tenant decides to move. Depending on the increase, households would be eligible for payment equal to 2-3 months of rent.
Reading these, it may be self-evident why they are so necessary.
Students, teachers, and school workers should not have their lives and learning environments upended for their landlords’ profit margins. The most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics already showed over 1.3M homeless students in US public schools (2.7% of all students). Teachers and school workers increasingly have trouble finding and maintaining affordable housing in reasonable proximity to the schools that they serve.
The National Coalition for the Homeless’ Winter Services report in 2010 found that 700 people experiencing or at-risk of homelessness are killed from hypothermia annually in the United States. Portlanders, lucky as we are, can be subject to both extreme colds in the winter and deadly heat in the summer. In 2021, 96 people died during an extended heat wave across Oregon, the majority of which were in Multnomah County.
In most places, additional fees on top of normal rent – like admin fees, fees for late payment, pet rent, laundry access, and any other charge your landlord may dream up – are completely unregulated. Once, after a failed attempt to evict one of my friends for late payment of rent (they received rent assistance and paid off the debt, dismissing the court case), their landlord charged them a $300 “court fee” they had no choice but to pay. In surveying renters in outer east Portland, a tenant recently told one of our canvassers that they were being charged an additional $300 a month(!) in pet rent.
Putting an end to these injustices is within reach – Tacoma has taken the first, leaping step forward, and cities elsewhere should do the same. That said, enshrining these protections in law won’t be the end all be all.
Exercising your rights
When have you usually found out about your landlord’s decision to increase your rent? In my experience, it has always been at the last possible minute when the time comes to renew my lease, the moment in which I am most easily exploited – with no time to search for new housing.
In Portland, a written notice of rent increase must be delivered 90 days before the change takes effect if the increase is 5% or more. That notice must also include a description of Portland’s own relocation assistance program, along with the amount you’re eligible to receive should you choose to move. A similar notice must be provided 90 days before a lease terminates for any reason. Under the relocation program, you can qualify for payment from your landlord for a number of reasons:
- Rent increase of 10% or more over a 12-month period
- No-cause eviction
- Notice of non-renewal of a fixed term lease (not becoming month-to-month)
- Substantial change of lease terms
- Other qualified landlord reasons for termination
Currently, Oregon has state-wide rent control capping annual increases at 10%. So to avoid having to pay tenants, landlords need only increase rent at a rate slightly less than what the maximum allows in the first place.
While the Oregon State Legislature bans cities and other municipalities from implementing their own rent control laws (that might better favor tenants), courts have agreed that mandatory relocation assistance does not qualify as rent control, leaving Portland free to adopt Tacoma’s lower threshold of a 5% rent increase to trigger payment – or perhaps one even lower still.
All that said, while my rent has increased every single year without fail, I have never received the written notice and it is rare among my friends. This reveals an unfortunate truth: many of renters’ legal rights are ignored by landlords for their convenience and profit, with the hope that they won’t be caught. The onus always falls on tenants to know their rights, to push back against infringements, and to demand the bare minimum that is guaranteed to them by law.
Many tenants never do, however. They either aren’t aware of their full rights (can be especially common among immigrant and non-English speaking communities), or they fear retaliation for exercising them. Retaliation is, of course, illegal in most states – but only so far as it can be proven in court (a costly, time-consuming endeavor that many renters cannot afford). When you’re standing alone against the owner and arbiter of your housing, any risk can feel too great.
Tenants United
All around the country, tenant unions – much like labor unions – are forming; Not just at a building-by-building level, but city-wide. You can see a number of them registered as members of the Autonomous Tenants Union Network. Among their ranks you’ll find two organizations here in Portland: Portland Tenants United and Don’t Evict PDX. Both are working to build collective tenant power among renters in the city regardless of who their landlords or property managers are.
Why is this important? As the labor movement knows, collective action is more powerful and more protected when more voices are represented. It is a simple fact that renters outnumber landlords in every city. In terms of overall population, nearly 47% of all portlanders are renters vs. 53% of homeowners – so we make up about half of the city alone. As a unified block demanding cheaper rent and better conditions, that power can be extremely formidable.
What can you do today?
As mentioned, Portland already has two similar (though weaker) protections as those included in the Tacoma Renters’ Bill of Rights: mandatory 90-day written notice before lease termination or any rent increase of 5% or more, with an explanation of the relocation assistance program and what payment amounts a tenant might qualify for.
If you’ve qualified, but have never received that notice, well… your landlord has made a major blunder. It’s likely true that other tenants in your building, or in other properties owned by the same landlord, never received the required notice either. And the consequence for their failure to comply can be extreme:
A Landlord that fails to comply with any of the requirements set forth in Section 30.01.085 shall be liable to the Tenant for an amount up to 3 times the monthly rent as well as actual damages, Relocation Assistance, reasonable attorney fees and costs.
Mandatory Renter Relocation Assistance
If you’re interested in pursuing restitution, talk to your tenant neighbors and organize. You can learn more about your rights from resources compiled by tenant groups like the Community Alliance of Tenants. Get involved with tenant unionization efforts through Portland Tenants United and Don’t Evict PDX.
And when the time comes to demand further protections, like those in Tacoma, I hope your voice will be among the calls.
Decommodify Housing Now 