Tenant Representative Aaron Berger Proposed the Legislation to Eliminate the Application Fee.

By a  6 – 2 margin, the Rental Housing Advisory Committee voted last night to recommend to the “Anti-Housing Committee Housing Committee,” chaired by Jill Duson, a proposal to outlaw landlords from charging for background checks on potential tenants.  In other words, according to the proposal, landlords could charge rent for the first full month of occupancy and a security deposit.  But not for background checks.

The two not supporting the proposal were Wendy Harmon, a realtor, at Keller Williams Realty and Regan Sweeney, an independent landlord.  The proposal is expected to go before Duson’s committee on Wednesday, January 8, 2020.

Katherine McGovern, Staff Attorney, for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, said that the city needs an ordinance that prohibits discrimination against voucher holders.  McGovern was referring to the recent news that a Massachusetts company, the Irene & George A. Davis Foundation, purchased The Woodlands on Harvard Street earlier this fall.  There are many living there with the assistance of Section 8 housing vouchers – perhaps 16 units subsidized by federal funds.  The occupants of those units were told they’d have to leave by the end of December.  Although the notices were rescinded, it remains to be seen if the voucher holders will get new leases McGovern said.

“There is discrimination because voucher holders were the only ones that got notices to vacate,” said McGovern.  She is currently working with voucher tenants at The Woodlands.

The rental housing industry has been unregulated by city officials far too long, so there is much catch-up work to be done by this Committee.  Because of the lack of regulation of the rental industry, landlords have found very fertile territory to play havoc with the lives of renters in Portland.