Portland can’t legally institute a policy that would ban rent increases for residential tenants amid the coronavirus outbreak, Mayor Ted Wheeler said Wednesday.

During the city’s first remote-access council meeting, Wheeler said a rent freeze would violate Oregon law.

His remarks came a day after Multnomah County and city officials announced they are temporarily barring residential evictions for virus-impacted tenants who can prove the pandemic has left them unable to immediately pay rent.

During a Tuesday news conference held to announce that new policy, several housing advocates interrupted the proceedings to call for a rent freeze, saying the eviction moratorium wasn’t an adequate long-term solution for financially-impacted renters.

According to Oregon law, “A city or county shall not enact any ordinance or resolution which controls the rent that may be charged for the rental of any dwelling unit.”

An exemption does grant city, county and state agencies the ability to impose temporary rent control in the event of a natural or person-made disaster that “materially eliminates a significant portion of the rental housing supply.” Public governments are able to implement rent freezes on housing properties they run.

Wheeler last week declared a state of emergency, and the Portland City Charter lists establishing rent controls as a decision the mayor can make before such a declaration expires.

City Attorney Tracy Reeve said listing that power in the city’s charter as available in a declared emergency doesn’t make it so, however.

“If there is an express conflict between state law and a city law, state law controls,” she said in an email.

The City Council formally adopted Multnomah County’s eviction moratorium Wednesday.

County and city officials initially announced separate eviction suspension emergency orders Tuesday before later moving forward with a joint policy.

Officials in Beaverton also announced their own temporary residential eviction moratorium Wednesday.

The moratorium in Multnomah County applies to people whose jobs are shut down, whose work hours are reduced, who miss work to provide child care due to school closures or who are unable to work because they or a relative are sick from coronavirus.

Tenants will have to provide letters of proof from their employer, school, doctor or other sources to verify their hardship. The moratorium requires affected tenants to notify landlords on or before the day rent is due that they won’t be able to afford it. It also prohibits landlords from assessing late fees and gives tenants up to six months after the city and county state of emergencies end to pay all accrued unpaid rent.

The Portland state of emergency declaration ends March 26 and the county’s end April 10. Both could be extended.

Landlords who don’t comply with the order could be sued and liable for civil damages as well as other sanctions.

During the Portland council meeting, Commissioner Chloe Eudaly said she was concerned that certain loopholes could be used to evict impacted tenants anyway. She noted some renters pay certain utilities directly to their landlord and could be forced out for not being able to pay that as well.

Robert Taylor, Portland’s chief deputy city attorney, said the city will work with the county to address that in the county’s formal ordinance. He also said it would more specifically address landlord penalties and how the moratorium would work and be enforced.

Eudaly said city officials are trying to work with lending institutions and the state to provide more housing stability amid the coronavirus outbreak. She said she didn’t want people to believe “already cost-burdened renters are going to be stuck with massive rent arrears that they won’t be able to pay and just be evicted at the end of this.”

“This is a first step,” Eudaly said.

-- Everton Bailey Jr; ebailey@oregonian.com | 503-221-8343 | @EvertonBailey

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