Unless you've tuned out the news completely, you've likely been hearing a lot about the expiration of the moratorium on evictions at the end of this month. With the eviction moratorium ending, and no sign of the pandemic abating, thousands of Oregonians are at risk of sudden homelessness. This is a public health issue; these evictions will destabilize our economy and our social safety net.
We need to set up a landlord facing rent assistance as well as tenant facing assistance if we want to stem the tidal wave of upcoming evictions. Oregon's House Interim Committee on Housing has drafted a proposal to address these issues. Now we need our lawmakers to support and engage with this proposal.
You can help by contacting lawmakers and demanding that they extend the eviction moratorium through the school year this spring and provide protection to both renters and landlords against financial losses from back rent.