Friday, May 4, 2018

They Haven't Even Tried

If you're running for office in Benton County, or if you're already holding elected office in Benton County, you've undoubtedly heard A LOT about the housing crunch, the housing crisis, slumlords, homelessness, homeless students in our schools, etc. What with Benton County having some of the worst income inequality in the country, and with OSU deciding to pour thousands more students in here to feed their billion dollar endowment, both of which make making your monthly rent a difficult task for so many people here, it's impossible to miss the growing housing and homelessness crisis here.

Now, obviously, as mentioned above, making ends meet month-to-month is a struggle for a lot of people. Which is to say, income inequality enables a wide foundation of financial insecurity for many members of our community. Becoming homeless is essentially the ultimate expression of that financial insecurity. And, when your expenses are stretched to the breaking point, and you experience some sort of precipitating event...You can end up on the streets.

Of course, such a precipitating event could be something huge and dramatic, like a medical crisis, or a death in the family. But, for those on a fixed income or tight budget, it can also be as simple as being subject to a no cause eviction, or perhaps a sudden rent increase that is beyond your means.

What have our local elected officials done in response to all this? Well, there's been a lot of lip service given, and oodles of "concern" have been expressed. But what concrete steps have been taken to actually try and address these issues?

Well, Portland has done something to address those issues. It used to be you could be subject to a no cause eviction or a rent increase with just 30 days notice. As you can imagine, that's not much time to deal with all that a move can involve - especially in a tight, expensive rental market like Portland (or ours). Now the minimum notice in Portland is 90 days. Portland has also passed a law requiring landlords in some of these types of situations to provide relocation assistance to their (soon-to-be-former) renters. That's cash money, folks. So, Portland has taken some very real steps to give renters both more time, and more money - both of which help keep families solvent and housed.

All that is great, and important, but in a real sense, the key detail in this story is that Portland was also sued over these policies - and won. In other words, their policies have been tested in the courts, and found to be legal. Right here in Oregon. Oh yeah, there's one more thing that's pretty great about these new rules: They don't cost the city government anything. So, they do the right thing, but don't cost a thing, and I like to think we can all agree that's a good thing, yes?

Which brings us back home...And right to the question: WHY HAVEN'T WE COPIED THOSE ORDINANCES HERE??? This isn't rocket science. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. Insert your own cliché expression of shock and surprise here. But really, we have a crisis here. Right here. Why aren't our elected leaders simply keeping up with good things that are being done elsewhere and then shamelessly copying them? To do any less isn't just lazy, it's a dereliction of duty. It's cruel.

All we have to do is look a little further north. There we would find measures that do not solve the problem of homelessness and exploitative landlords, but do very much address those issues. These are great first steps. WE SHOULD TAKE THEM. These are rule changes that could be done very simply, and very quickly. (Again, they have been upheld by the courts already.)

I urge you to urge your local representatives to adopt these measures as soon as possible. When I am elected, these will be the first things I bring up - but I hope that these have already been passed by then. Please, please, take this issue away from me. Do the right thing, and pass such ordinances here. No more talking - let's see some direct action. We've all heard how "concerned" you all are, now let's see some concrete steps being taken to make things a little better here in Benton County.

Because until they've done that, they haven't even tried.

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