How to Support ending Tenant Harassment

• Send Commissioner Rubio and City Council a letter about the Tenant Protection Ordinance
• Sign the petition: Stop Harassment Prevent Houselessness
• Join the Tenant Protection Ordinance Coalition
• Share your story about harassment you have experienced (can be anonymous)

On this page

• What is the Tenant Protection Ordinance?
• Rental Services Commission recommendation in favor of the TPO
• Organizations endorsing the Tenant Protection Ordinance
• Draft ordinance and other details

What is the Tenant Protection Ordinance, and why do we need it?

PTU joins tenant activists across the country in demanding a remedy for landlord harassment and habitability issues. The proposed Tenant Protection Ordinance (TPO) addresses this growing crisis of harassment and constructive evictions, by targeting landlords who act in bad faith. 

There are two reasons we need this legislation to be enacted immediately. Over the last few years tenants in Portland and in Oregon have won a number of price and stability protections, including Portland’s relocation ordinance and state legislation that banned most no-cause evictions, put a cap on rent increases, and also instituted some relocation assistance provisions. While these protections are crucial for supporting stability and livability for tenants, they also create an incentive for landlords to push tenants to 'self-evict' and leave their rentals so the landlords can raise the rent more. 

Many cities with strong renter protections (ex. Santa Monica, West Hollywood, Berkeley) recognized escalating harassment and constructive eviction behavior from landlords early on, and adopted policy to address it. The TPO is modeled off of the work of these cities. It creates an explicit list of landlord actions that count as harassment, and demands a robust Rental Services Office that can support tenants in addressing their housing issues (see below).

Rental Services Commission Recommendation

On June 24th the Rental Services Commission sent Portland City Council a letter urging them to pass an anti-harassment policy. While the RSC's recommendation lacks some key components, it is a huge step towards getting the Tenant Protection Ordinance passed in City Council. Read the RSC's letter and recommendations

Endorsements

• Community Alliance of Tenants
• Oregon Renters in Action
• NAACP Portland Chapter
• SEIU Local 49
• Self Enhancement, Inc.
• Portland Metro People's Coalition
• Portland: Neighbors Welcome
• Jobs with Justice
• Lents Strong Housing Team
• Sisters of the Road
• 350 PDX
• BerniePDX
• Defense Fund PDX
• Economic Justice Action Group of the 1st Unitarian Church
• Grey Panthers
• Hunger Free Oregon
• Impact NW
• Oregon Progressive Party
• Party for Socialism and Liberation (Portland)
• PDX Alliance for Self Care
• SFGPD + Stop Zenith Energy - Cedar Action Network
• SURJ PDX
• Uptown Renters Association
• Vivien Lyon, Lyon Legal Services LLC

If you support the Tenant Protection Ordinance, please sign your support here. You can sign on as an organization or as an individual.

You can read the draft ordinance at this link.

Below is an rundown of what is included in the ordinance.

Defining Harassment

The Tenant Protection Ordinance will define harassment, especially harassment used to force tenants out of their housing. The elements include actions that are currently legal but that are used on their own or in conjunction with other actions to harass tenants. They also include actions that are already illegal, allowing them to also be considered in an allegation of harassment.

Quality of Housing and Services

• Getting rid of housing services in the lease or contract
• Not making timely, complete, and necessary repairs and maintenance, or providing adequate notification about non-functioning essential services.
• Failing to follow industry health standards.
• Deliberately failing to uphold covenant of peaceful and quiet enjoyment.
• Threatening or engaging in acts that interfere with a tenant’s right to use and enjoy the rental unit.
• Threatening or engaging in an act that makes the rental unit unfit for human habitation.

Invasion of Privacy

• Abusing the right of access.
• Asking about the immigration status of a tenant or anyone else living in or planning on living in the rental unit.
• Disclosing or threatening to disclose the immigration status of a tenant to immigration authorities or otherwise.

Bullying

• Verbal abuse, including name-calling and profanity directed at tenants or guests.
• Physically harming a resident.
• Damaging a resident’s property.
• Harming or endangering residents’ pets or companion/service animals.
• Actions that create a reasonable fear that a tenant, their property, or their pets will be harmed.

Misinformation

• Communications that suggest a tenant is required to leave the unit when they are not legally required to do so.
• Slandering, libel, or otherwise sharing false information or maligning a tenant.
• Threatening eviction when there are no legal grounds for the eviction.
• Issuing an eviction or 72 hour notice on false charges.
• Not accepting payment required to be paid by the tenant that is made lawfully and using a method previously agreed upon by both parties.

Rules and Treatment

• Discriminating, as defined in federal, state, or local housing law.
• Making new rules for which the landlord cannot establish a legitimate, non-discriminatory business case.
• Pre-textual evictions: suddenly enforcing many rules that were not enforced before, or enforcing only for certain tenants. This provision covers but is not limited to:
  • Items placed on porches or balconies
  • Noise or odor complaints, especially if it cannot be proven that they originated from another tenant or neighbor
  • House guests
  • Pets
• Not providing reasonable documentation of a violation warning, or any violation that goes on a tenant’s record.

Construction Projects

• Not notifying tenants of anticipated scope of work and timelines for large projects.
• Failing to provide a mitigation plan to deal with the impacts of construction that involves tenants directly in the creation of the mitigation plan.
• Failing to offer reasonable accommodation and compensation to account for construction impacts.
• Not offering contingency accommodations and compensation if the timeline of a construction project changes

Rental Service Office Expansion

The Tenant Protection Ordinance will only be effective in protecting tenants if the Rental Services Office is expanded to provide sufficient services to support tenants when they are experiencing harassment. The Rental Services Office would need to perform the following functions.

• Offer multiple ways for tenants to report harassment to the Rental Services Office, including in person, on the phone, or online, and at a variety of hours.
• Inform tenants about the ordinance and explain what kinds of behavior count as harassment.
• Offer to call landlords to tell them that a complaint has been lodged against them and inform them of the portions of the law that they may be violating.
• Provide mediation programs for landlords and tenants to resolve outstanding issues.
• Inform tenants of opportunities to get legal support.
• Maintain a rent escrow program.
• Produce documents that explain basic tenant rights and require landlords to provide these documents upon lease signing and at least once a year.

Consequences

• A landlord or property manager that violates this ordinance will be assessed a fine of no more than $10,000
• If the harassment in violation of this ordinance was directed at a vulnerable tenant, that is a tenant with a disability, an elderly tenant, or a tenant receiving any government rental subsidies, the assessed fine will be no more than $15,000
• An individual tenant, a group of tenants, and the City Attorney all have grounds to pursue legal action to address a violation of this ordinance.
• A tenant or a group of tenants may also seek punitive damages in response to a violation of this ordinance.