Admin Order 53-22-08-F -- Amended Rental Housing Code Fee

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Exhibit B to Administrative Order No. 53-22-08-F Findings -- Page 3 of 5 landlord/tenant relationship best practices, and other subjects as needed. These materials will support the work already being done by community housing agencies working with individuals more susceptible to housing insecurity. The Housing Navigator position would manage data collection and outreach for local rental housing data metrics and reporting. Some of the revenues generated by the annual fee could be used to provide additional support to landlords through a risk mitigation fund and/or an eviction prevention fund. Risk mitigation funds provide added protections for landlords willing to rent to tenants with limited income, poor rental history or a criminal background. Funds cover excessive damages, lost rent, and legal fees. Eviction prevention funds provide tenant and landlord mediation support, tenant education, and support for service agencies that build relationships between tenants and landlords. Over half of all Eugene households rent housing and over half of all renters in Eugene are considered “housing cost burdened” (a household that pays 30% or more of their income for housing). The Housing Implementation Pipeline (HIP) is the City of Eugene’s 5-year internal work plan to coordinate current and future resources, goals, and priorities with a systems-thinking approach to housing across the full spectrum from people experiencing homelessness to overall housing supply. The HIP has goals and metrics for increasing the supply of income qualified housing and overall market rate housing. Enforcement staff will be focused on raising awareness of the new requirements, to minimize the need for enforcement. Enforcement for the protections will utilize the existing Rental Housing Code enforcement process. By adding the Phase I protections to the Rental Housing Code and using the existing enforcement process, tenants will be able to file complaints with code enforcement staff without pursuing litigation, as litigation can result in long delays and can be costly. The focus of Eugene’s Rental Housing Code is to ensure rental properties in the City are safe for tenants by creating minimum habitability standards. The program is designed to encourage written communication between the tenant and owner and ideally resolve issues without the need for City enforcement. If a tenant and owner are unable to resolve the issues on their own, the City works with both parties to reach compliance. No changes are being made to the fee order as a result of this comment. ● Six commenters requested that an audit be done on how the current funding is being spent and requested that the existing fee be used to pay for the expanded services related to renter protections. One of these commenters suggested a bond could help fund increased low-income housing. Another of these commenters noted that this is a fee on tenants, as 90% of landlords will pass this extra cost of doing business on to their tenants. Response: The FY23 budget was reviewed through public process and approved by Council in June 2022, which was prior to Council’s direction to amend the Rental Housing Code and, as such, only contained allocation for the program costs in place prior to Council’s approval of Ordinance 20670 on July 11, 2022. There is insufficient funding or revenue at the current fee level to support the expanded services related to renter protections, necessitating a fee change. As stated in the response above, the City has a separate process to and involvement with increasing the supply of housing in Eugene which