A tenant protections bill – a chief priority for House Speaker Tina Kotek and several other Portland-area lawmakers – has died in the Senate.
Sen. Lew Frederick, D-Portland, gave an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday, July 6, saying the failure of the bill was his “greatest disappointment” of the more than five-month session, which ends this month.
The legislation began in the House as an effort to try to deter mass evictions and retaliation and discrimination against tenants. The House narrowly passed the bill 31-to-27 in early April. The bill would have banned no-cause evictions and required landlords to pay relocation expenses to tenants when they ask a tenant to leave for certain allowable business or personal reasons.
Rep. Carla Piluso, D-Gresham, who volunteers as president of Human Services, a nonprofit organization that operates a family shelter in Gresham, has said the primary reason families come to the shelter is “they lost their home to no-cause eviction.”
Read more at the Portland Tribune.