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House passes bill requiring earlier notice for tenants if affordable units could lose restrictions
Summary
Lawmakers approved Senate Bill 973 to require landlords to provide applicants written notice about the earliest date an affordability restriction could end and to lengthen minimum tenant notice from 20 to 30 months for affordability-termination notices; notices must be provided on a form in the five most common non‑English languages.
SALEM, Ore. — The House passed Senate Bill 973, a measure aimed at protecting tenants in affordability‑restricted housing by requiring advance notice to applicants and lengthening tenant notice requirements when an affordable restriction will end.
The bill’s sponsor, Representative Anderson, told the House the statute defines an "affordability restriction" as a contractual limit on rent or unit use that keeps a property affordable for qualifying low‑income tenants. Under SB 973, landlords must provide a written notice before charging a screening fee or entering a rental agreement that states the earliest date the property’s affordability restriction could be terminated.
Representative Anderson said the notice form will be developed under the oversight of the Oregon Housing and Community Services Department and “must be available in each of the five most commonly spoken non‑English languages in Oregon” — Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Russian and Korean — and posted on the department website.
The bill also raises the minimum notice to existing tenants about affordability termination from 20 months to 30 months, a change the sponsor described on the floor as giving tenants “time to make their plans.”
A clerk’s announcement declared the bill passed after no further floor debate was recorded.
SB 973 changes the timing and language access requirements for alerts to both prospective renters and existing tenants in affordable housing, seeking to reduce sudden displacement risk when affordability restrictions expire.
