Renter relief and more money to keep people in housing -- or to quickly help them regain it -- are high among Multnomah County commissioners’ list of priorities for the Oregon Legislature’s 2017 session.
The Board of Commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved a legislative agenda that government relations director Claudia Black made clear is extremely vital for the lives of vulnerable residents across the region.
Beyond help for renters and affordable housing, the board also endorsed a list that includes:
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Promised funding for the county’s new courthouse
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New funding for mental health and addiction programs
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Policies to reduce opioid addiction
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Legislation requiring employers to set regular schedules for shift employees
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Money for lead testing and fixes in schools
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Tobacco licensing and regulation
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Legislation to reduce air toxics such as diesel emissions
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Continued investment in criminal justice reforms
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Gun legislation including court-approved protective orders removing guns from dangerous individuals
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Job training support, for youth but also other county residents
But that legislative list could face some serious challenges, Black warned.
Lawmakers, who convene Feb. 1 for a roughly six-month session, already are grappling with a $1.7 billion deficit that they’d have to plug with cuts if they can’t raise new revenue. They’re also working on a plan to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for transportation investments statewide.
“That’s one of the big issues that’s coming up,” Black said of the deficit.
Oregon’s revenues are up 6 percent for the 2017-19 budget cycle. But spending to preserve current service levels -- including rising public employee pension costs, Medicaid expenses and social services caseloads -- would need to rise 8 percent.
Gov. Kate Brown proposed a spending plan last year that would fill half of that gap with new revenue. But earlier on Thursday, Black noted, the Legislature’s top budget-writers submitted a plan that would rely entirely on cuts.
That plan is meant to show “the stark impact on Oregon’s vulnerable people if no new revenue is raised,” Black said. Black said her team will push back hard against plans to cut services for seniors, people with disabilities, behavioral health clients and others.
Despite those challenges, the county is holding out hope lawmakers will continue helping vulnerable residents.
Rosa Klein, the county’s deputy director of government relations, said officials are hoping to grow programs that pay for new affordable units and also fund shelters -- which increasingly have been serving children, veterans, domestic violence victims and seniors.
State funding helps run year-round, no-turn-away shelters for families enduring the region’s ongoing housing crisis. And a one-time investment from the state allowed the county to add a 90-bed shelter last year. Officials hope to keep that shelter open while not giving up any ground.
The county also wants more investments in programs that save anguish, trauma and money by keeping residents from ever experiencing homelessness in the first place.
With more state funding for affordable units, residents would have more choices and may not be priced out as easily. Short-term rent assistance helps people stay in homes instead of losing them because of a rough patch. And “rapid rehousing” programs can quickly put someone back into a home.
“Both of those programs are already underfunded,” Klein said of the rent and rehousing programs.
Because of rapidly increasing rent and housing prices, Klein said, “the money is going less and less far…. We just can’t stretch it as far as we want to.”
Part of the county’s housing request includes support for legislation that would empower tenants, by restricting landlords’ use of no-cause evictions and lifting a state ban on letting local governments stabilize rents by limiting increases.
Rhys Scholes, policy manager for the government relations office, explained the difference between no-cause and for-cause evictions when asked by Commissioner Lori Stegmann of District 4.
“I want to make sure we don’t exacerbate our current housing shortage,” Stegmann said.
“For-cause means the tenant has done something wrong,” Scholes answered, adding that could mean a failure to pay rent, damaging a unit or committing a crime. “Everything else is a no-cause eviction. It’s some reason the landlord has. There’s a whole variety of reasons why a landlord would do that.”
Black’s team also emphasized a call to add funding for behavioral health, mental health and addiction treatment programs, with the goal of keeping patients and clients out of jails, prisons and the state hospital. That would include funding to add behavioral health workers, an occupation that’s beset by high turnover and low training.
“We want to treat mental health patients in the community rather than in an institutional setting,” Black said.
The county also is hoping lawmakers live up to a years-old promise to share the cost of constructing a seismically safe, state-of-the-art courthouse near the foot of the Hawthorne Bridge in downtown Portland. Money for the courthouse has topped the county’s legislative wish list in recent years and was given special attention at the top of this year’s list, too.
After receiving $32.4 million in state bond revenue since 2013-15, county officials are asking for an additional $92.6 million in 2017-19 to complete the $300 million courthouse project. The project is expected to finish in 2020.
“Things seem to be on track,” Black said, but “that’s going to be a heavy lift, given the budget circumstances.”
Commissioners spoke out in support of some proposals and offered to help as they can.
Commissioner Loretta Smith of District 2 talked about closing loopholes that allow people who might be deemed dangerous to keep their guns. She said she was “mortified” to hear authorities lacked a legal mechanism, like the one Oregon lawmakers are proposing, to preemptively seize guns from the man arrested in this month’s mass shooting in Fort Lauderdale.
“That’s the reason we want to do this,” she said.
Commissioner Jessica Vega Pederson of District 3, a former two-term state lawmaker, offered to help support the county’s push to tighten rules on air pollution. Commissioner Sharon Meieran of District 1, an emergency room physician, offered to help on issues related to opioids and mental health care.
Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury ended the discussion with praise for the county’s legislative liaisons.
“We have a great team in Salem,” she said, “and we expect to have all of our issues passed.”