House takes up revised rent cap passed by Senate

By PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau

The Oregon House is fast-tracking a revised rent cap that finally cleared the Oregon Senate as the 2023 session winds down.

The House Rules Committee was set to hear Senate Bill 611 on Wednesday, June 21, a day after the Senate passed it on a 17-8 vote. The original bill was voted by the Senate Housing and Development Committee on April 3. It was revised again by the Senate Rules Committee on May 4, the day after minority Republicans began their 42-day walkout that deprived majority Democrats of the 20 senators required for the Senate to conduct business and take votes.

The original cap, which lawmakers approved in 2019, limited annual rent increases to the Consumer Price Index change plus 7%. But tenant advocates pushed for change after inflation drove the 2022 cap up to 14.6%, as calculated by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

As passed by the Senate, the annual cap would still be the Consumer Price Index change plus 7% — but there would be an overall cap of 10%. The cap applies only to buildings older than 15 years, as in the original 2019 law.

Sen. Wlnsvey Campos, a Democrat from Aloha, was a chief sponsor and floor manager for the bill. She acknowledged that it would not resolve Oregon’s housing shortage.

“It takes time to build housing, and people are losing their housing now. We have to do everything in our power to keep Oregonians in their homes,” she said.

“Rent stabilization can immediately address rising costs of living and provide relief for families choosing between prescription medications and keeping a roof over their heads. This cannot be an either-or approach. We can protect Oregonians from unreasonable rent increases and fix our housing supply crisis.”

The vote fell along party lines, and Senate Republican Leader Tim Knopp of Bend — also executive vice president of the Central Oregon Builders Association — tagged it as the “San Francisco solution,” though the Oregon law does not freeze rents.

“It is nothing more than a case of misplaced compassion and a talking point that lacks all logic and reality,” he said in a statement. “It will force landlords to increase rent to the maximum cap while limiting new production, hurting the very people proponents say the bill will help. SB 611 will assuredly drive investors out of Oregon’s housing market to other states where their money is at less risk.”

Four Republicans and an independent originally elected as a Republican were listed as absent from the vote and not excused.

Stable Homes for Oregon Families, a coalition of groups advocating for the bill, said this in a statement after the vote:

“We urge fast passage of this important protection to reduce high-rent homelessness so that it can protect tenants as soon as possible. Across the state, tenants continue to receive the legally allowed rent increases of 14.6%…Senate Bill 611 provides reasonable and necessary rent stabilizations for tenants suffering from rent spikes and it is essential that it pass this session. It also maintains the ability of landlords and developers to maintain a reasonable profit.”