Authorizes the Housing and Community Services Department to provide grants to support tenants of publicly supported housing when the housing's affordability restrictions are terminated.

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83rd OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2025 Regular Session
A-Engrossed
Senate Bill 31
Ordered by the Senate March 31
Including Senate Amendments dated March 31
Sponsored by Senator PATTERSON (Presession filed.)
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject
to consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor’s brief statement of the essential features of the
measure. The statement includes a measure digest written in compliance with applicable readability standards.
Digest: This Act lets OHCS give grants to tenants whose public housing is terminated.
(Flesch Readability Score: 69.9).
[Digest: The Act tells OHCS to study housing. (Flesch Readability Score: 90.9). ]
[Requires the Housing and Community Services Department to study housing. Directs the depart-
ment to submit findings to the interim committees of the Legislative Assembly related to housing not
later than September 15, 2026. ]
Authorizes the Housing and Community Services Department to provide grants to sup-
port tenants of publicly supported housing when the housing’s affordability restrictions are
terminated. Establishes the Expiring Affordable Housing Tenant Support Fund. Appropri-
ates moneys for deposit into the fund.
Declares an emergency, effective on July 1, 2025.
A BILL FOR AN ACT
Relating to housing; and declaring an emergency.
Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:
SECTION 1.
Sections 2 and 3 of this 2025 Act are added to and made a part of ORS 456.255
to 456.267.
SECTION 2. (1) The Housing and Community Services Department may award grants to
housing authorities, community action agencies, culturally specific or culturally responsive
organizations and other nonprofit organizations as the department may deem eligible, to
provide assistance to tenants and their households whose housing is withdrawn from publicly
supported housing.
(2) The department shall establish a process and criteria for soliciting, awarding and
disbursing grants under this section, which must include that:
(a) Applications may not be accepted or reviewed until the department has received a
first notice for the publicly supported housing under ORS 456.260 (1);
(b) An application must include the publicly supported housing’s address, number of units
and owner’s name;
(c) The department may not award more than one grant to any applicant per publicly
supported housing; and
(d) The grant award may not exceed three times the total monthly rent charged by the
formerly publicly supported housing when subject to the affordability restrictions, plus the
grant recipient’s reasonable overhead and costs of grant administration.
(3) Moneys may not be distributed to grant award recipients before the publicly supported
housing’s termination date.
NOTE:Matter in boldfaced type in an amended section is new; matter [ italic and bracketed] is existing law to be omitted.
New sections are in boldfaced type.
LC 757
A-Eng. SB 31
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(4)(a) Grant award recipients may use grant moneys received under this section to pro-
vide direct financial assistance to tenants and their households who, on the termination date,
were living in the publicly supported housing.
(b) The financial assistance provided by the grantee to a household may not exceed three
times the total monthly rent last charged to the tenant by the formerly publicly supported
housing when subject to the affordability restrictions.
(c) A tenant and their household may use the financial assistance for:
(A) If remaining in the housing, increased rent following the termination of the
affordability restrictions, including during and after the period described in ORS 456.267 (1);
or
(B) If moving, the costs of moving, the first month’s rent, security or rent deposits, costs
for utility transfer or connections, housing navigation services or other uses as established
by the department in order to maintain or secure housing for the tenant and their household.
(5) No later than five years following the award of grant moneys received under this
section, grant award recipients shall:
(a) Provide a report to the department accounting for how the moneys were spent and
the outcomes obtained; and
(b) Return any unspent moneys to the department for deposit into the Expiring Afford-
able Housing Tenant Support Fund established by section 3 of this 2025 Act.
SECTION 3.
(1) The Expiring Affordable Housing Tenant Support Fund is established in
the State Treasury, separate and distinct from the General Fund.
(2) The Expiring Affordable Housing Tenant Support Fund consists of moneys received
by the Housing and Community Services Department under section 2 (5) of this 2025 Act and
moneys appropriated, allocated, deposited or transferred to the fund by the Legislative As-
sembly or otherwise. Interest earned by the fund shall be credited to the fund.
(3) Moneys in the fund are continuously appropriated to the department for the grant
program under section 2 of this 2025 Act.
SECTION 4. In addition to and not in lieu of any other appropriation, there is appropri-
ated to the Housing and Community Services Department, for the biennium beginning July
1, 2025, out of the General Fund, the amount of $6,000,000, for deposit into the Expiring Af-
fordable Housing Tenant Support Fund established by section 3 of this 2025 Act.
SECTION 5. This 2025 Act being necessary for the immediate preservation of the public
peace, health and safety, an emergency is declared to exist, and this 2025 Act takes effect
July 1, 2025.
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