By: Tia Politi, ORHA President
January 1st, 2022

Hope everyone had a Happy Holiday season!

Our legislative team has been hard at work fighting for your rights. Our new Legislative Director, Jason Miller, really stepped in it when he was voted into this position. He came on just as COVID was in full swing and along with Lobbyist Shawn Miller has been drinking from the fire hose so to speak. For those of us on the Legislative and Rapid Response committees, his commitment has been outstanding. Shawn has also been working for us harder than ever, meeting with legislators and negotiating the best outcomes within the framework of a triple Democrat majority in Salem. They are on the front lines and need your support, both in terms of donations to the ORH Key PAC and in terms of your time. If you want to see what happens behind the scenes, get involved in this committee. There are opportunities to participate in work groups and hearings beyond just sending in messages to your legislators (which we very much appreciate). Contact Jason if you would like to join in or volunteer – orhalegislative@gmail.com

We are heading into one of the most exciting races for Governor this year and we will continue to advocate for candidates who support our efforts to provide housing to citizens of our great state, with the minimum level of restriction and interference. Fortunately, with COVID at the front of legislators’ concerns, we had few permanent changes in landlord-tenant law in the 2021 long session. Read my article "Tenant Screening – Senate Bill 282, Senate Bill 291, and Best Practices in Screening" for a full run down on how the changes impact our business, and how to use proper (and legal) applicant screening to keep your business profitable.

Due to these changes, we have revamped our forms, and unfortunately, have had to discontinue offering our Application to Rent for free on the Forms Store site. We are always working to help our base of private housing providers stay out of trouble and with the changes to screening law, we felt that an application by itself would not be enough to keep folks compliant with the new laws. Thank you to Technology Chair Cloud Miller, who took our Application and combined it with our updated Application Screening Guidelines form and created a new Information Release form to create a 4-page packet that ensures our members stay in line with the updates to screening law. The new packets are available now.

And of course, thank you to all of you who continue to do your part to support us and our members throughout the state. Let’s keep it that way - stay involved, let your voices be heard, and let’s hope this New Year is happier than the last two have been!