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Short legislative session yields housing preservation fund and tenant-privacy protections; county staff outline implications
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Summary
Washington County government relations staff summarized 2026 short-session outcomes important to housing: House Bill 4036 creates a housing-preservation fund with $25 million in initial funding, House Bill 4123 adds tenant privacy protections, and Senate Bill 1523 extends nondigital access requirements for landlords.
Carly Silva Gabrielson, a Washington County government relations manager, briefed council members on key outcomes from Oregon's short legislative session and what they mean for local housing work.
Carly said the session, limited to 35 days, resulted in about 304 introduced bills this year and highlighted policy and funding actions that affect local housing preservation. "The policy bill, House Bill 4036, created, for the first time, a fund for the specific focus for affordable housing preservation," she said, adding that legislative leadership allocated $25,000,000 to that account in the funding bill.
She also called out House Bill 4123, which strengthens tenant privacy by requiring landlord written consent before disclosing personally identifying tenant information, and Senate Bill 1523, which ensures landlords provide nondigital payment options and access to building documents to reduce digital exclusion.
Carly and members discussed several tax and budget items, including a proposed mortgage-interest-deduction change (House Bill 4136) that did not pass this session but could be revisited; staff noted that if enacted it could have generated revenue for down-payment assistance but that the proposal remains politically contested.
Members asked how to translate these outcomes into local action. Carly recommended combining data and storytelling in advocacy work and preparing narratives and materials now for the next long session.
The council received the update without formal vote; staff and members flagged eviction-prevention funding gaps and ongoing follow-up work to quantify and argue the local impacts of state budget decisions.
