Date: 03/08/2022
Housing in Oregon is a matter of survival of the fittest. Almost 50% of renters are paying over 30% of their hard-earned wages on it. This could deeply affect the younger people of Oregon and Senate Bill 608 may not be effective within a Capitalist system due to landlord greed.
Shelter is something we all need, and most of us have atleast some type of shelter. It would make sense why people would take it for granted. But it actually isn't that easy to get a house in Oregon. And in fact, I'd even say it's difficult to get housing in Oregon. Oregon has been in a poverty crisis for a while, especially in the Willamette Valley area. Due to housing being so remarkably expensive and the jobs often not paying enough people have not been able to get a basic need such as shelter. Rent costs on average $1,600 in Portland which is an astronomical rate considering minimum wage in Portland Metro area is $14.00 and hour. Hopefully you aren't one of them, because with this new bill being passed it's unlikely to change for the better.
Nearly 50% of people in Oregon are overburdened by their rent. Even if you look at owning, it still doesn't look so good, as over 20% of homeowners are overburdened by the cost of owning a home. Someone is overburdened by housing when over 30% of their income is used on their housing. Why are they going through with Senate Bill 60 and not putting restrictions on house pricing if it's so out of control. Or how about living wages? While it's great that they raised minimum wage slightly, it's still nowhere near a livable wage.
Senate Bill 608 is a bill recently passed that makes it so landlords have a harder time raising rent and kicking out the renters to manage renting prices. Mr. Straub (Owner of Acorn Property Management here in Springfield) says, “On the positive side, it will potentially create some stability in rent prices.”. So this sounds great, but the only issue is, it gives landlords more of a reason to be more selective with who they rent from. Mr. Straub continues to go on and say, “On the negative side potentially will increase the scrutiny that landlords will look at the potential applicant. Meaning they want longer rental history, higher-income too cause it's going to be more difficult for a landlord to remove the renter. So there may be higher security deposits."
Essentially due to housing being capitalized, landlords who want to make money will intentionally make things harder on people who aren't experienced renters. Making it not only more difficult for someone who is impoverished to rent a home, but also making it significantly more difficult for students to find rentals during college and even after college. Further making college graduates lives even more difficult as if having "Entry-level jobs* with 3+ years of experience needed wasn't bad enough for recent highschool graduates.
Senate Bill 608 is probably going to react very badly with younger people as Mr. Straub said “-younger people typically don't have experience renting a property which is what landlords look for in potential candidates. Cause for us the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.” Overall when you look at Senate Bill 608, it makes you think. Is this bill really for the people who can't get housing? The people that need it the most? Or simply for the already privileged enough people who can already receive housing. The people paying the government more taxes and often give more money to finance campaigns? Is it actually to support those that actually need the government's help to give them a platform to jump off of? To me, this seems to be just another way to push the poor and younger people away from the middle and upper classes creating further segregation and to ensure politicians stay in office.
According to Mr. Straub “Any letter of explanation that explains who they are and why they should take a chance on them, stands a good chance of being looked at favorably.” A letter of explanation is like a cover letter but for renting a place. As if the basic life of shelter, a basic human need, should be placed on your background which is heavily influenced by economic and social factors. Making this not only racist, but also classist pushing systemic oppression. In other words, it's increasing the bar on the means testing that landlords use.
In summary, young people and the impoverished are going to have difficulties getting housing. This even more so affects people of more diverse backgrounds who may not have the same privilege as others. Senate Bill 608 might be great for the older generations, but they also have steady wages oftentimes through retirement and much more rental experience than youth and the impoverished. What is Oregon doing for younger people in terms of preparing them? Nothing. Hopefully, you will take this all to heart and feel sympathy for the 13,900 people who don't have a home or even spending ALL of your money on affording your shelter. Remember this isn't due to the bill inherently being incorrect but because Capitalist pushed greed which is the real enemy. We need to think about what we will do next.
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