We at the Portland Housing Bureau wanted to take this moment to reach out to our valued partners, and the community at large, to keep you apprised of the immediate actions we are taking to ensure the continuity of Bureau operations, as well as the housing stability of Portlanders during these uncertain times.

Today Mayor Wheeler announced a local moratorium on residential evictions, in partnership with Multnomah County, for the duration of the State of Emergency. Under the moratorium, no one can be evicted for failure to pay rent who has suffered substantial loss of income due to COVID-19. The moratorium is not a forgiveness of rent; rent owed will continue to accrue with a grace period for repayment following the expiration of the Emergency declaration. Learn more about the new Executive Rule here.

Also, during the Emergency, all non-essential City employees have been directed to telework. PHB’s office downtown will therefore be closed over the next two weeks. In the meantime, our staff will continue to conduct Bureau business remotely via email, phone, and skype/video conferencing.

• For our development partners, keeping to development timelines and ensuring projects are being funded in a timely fashion remain among our top priorities. Therefore, we will be prioritizing keeping all projects under development on track to the best of our abilities.
  
  
• For our contracted service partners, during the State of Emergency we understand that you may need to adjust your service delivery models to protect your staff and community. We want to support you as best we can. To that end we wanted to ensure that you are getting compensated as you too have to shift your service delivery models.
  
  
• We will be working closely with our Affordable Housing partners to make sure we can help support you in your critical work keeping Portlanders housed. 
  
  

Thank you for all you are doing to help our community during this challenging time. Please know we will do our utmost to support you. 

–Shannon Callahan & the PHB Team