November was housing month for the Eugene City Council.  At a recent work session, the city decided to move forward implementing their housing plan for missing middle housing. This Middle Housing code will bring the city into compliance with HB 2001 and SB 458. Architect Stan Honn wrote an editorial in support of the plan on 11/11/2021: http://eugeneweekly.com/2021/11/11/we-are-changing/ 

Eugene City Council held a work session on new tenant protections Nov 22, 2021. The new tenant protections come as a recommendation from the Eugene Intergovernmental Housing Policy Board after nearly a two year long process with input from landlords, tenant advocates, and housing service providers. Some, all, or none of these reforms could be adopted. The reforms are modeled after Portland’s fair ordinances:

Application reform:

  • Banning Application Fees & Screening fees
  • Processing Applications in order they received
  • Prohibits landlords from including medical or education debt when evaluating an applicants income vs expense ratio or using a mandatory credit score of above 500
  • Loosens minimum monthly gross income screening standards
  • Requires landlords who have units designed for mobility access to give priority for a 3-day period to applicants who who have a mobility need

Changes to regulations at unit turn:

  • Requires landlords to distribute educational materials about SB 608 at lease up
  • Limits total deposit amount to a maximum of 2x the monthly rent
  • Landlord to prepare property condition report at move-in that contains photos and age or condition of major items that are known to landlord
  • Requires the landlord at written request of the tenant, to provide rental history (payment of rent) for a tenant who has not yet given notice. One free rental history per tenant per year.
  • Requires landlord to itemize and photo document withholdings from security deposit

Additional City Services

  • Maintain or increase financial support of tenant hotline and other tenant support
  • Funds a rental housing navigator staff position with the city of Eugene using rental housing code door tax
  • Increase rental housing code annual door tax above the current $10/unit/year. *Funds to be used for tenant hotline, rental housing navigator, and tenant support services in the HPB recommendations

In addition to these history protections, Tenant, Labor and Faith advocates are urging the City Council to adopt displacement prevention assistance (DPA). DPA is similar to Portland’s relocation assistance following a no-cause termination notice. Eugene’s rental market has experienced an explosion of no-cause notices (around 45 per month). Displacement prevention assistance will require landlords to pay three times the median area rent to the tenant following a no-cause eviction for one of the four reasons outlined in SB 608.

If you’d like to support the increased tenant protections, fire off an email to mayorcouncilandcitymanager@eugene-or.gov. It’s important that the city council hear from a wide swath of the affordable housing community.