The Oregon House approved a bill Friday that would give businesses until the end of September to repay missed rent accumulated during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill still needs approval in the Senate but received bipartisan support in the House in a 44-10 vote.
“This bill is coming a little bit late, but we need to protect our small businesses in this state,” said Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, who sponsored the legislation.
Oregon lawmakers allowed the state’s moratorium on commercial evictions to expire last September but gave business owners until the end of March to repay their outstanding rent, potentially preventing an onslaught of commercial evictions over the last six months.
But that missed rent is now coming due for struggling businesses, who urged lawmakers to act quickly to extend the grace period for them to repay their outstanding rent.
House Bill 2966A wouldn’t help commercial tenants who are still struggling to pay their rent now.
Instead, it would apply to tenants who missed rent payments between April and September of last year, when businesses were forced to close due to pandemic restrictions. It would give them until Sept. 30 to make up those missed payments.
The bill would be retroactive to March 31 and any eviction process for nonpayment of rent that was initiated before the bill went into effect but has not yet been resolved will be stayed until Oct. 1 or dismissed.
Nosse said the extension would give the state time to get business owners and landlords relief through its $100 million commercial rent relief program.
Business Oregon, the state’s economic development agency, announced earlier this month that it will distribute nearly $50 million to cover the missed rent of a combined 2,609 commercial tenants across the state through the first round of the relief program before opening applications for another $50 million round of relief later this month.
Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond, voted in favor of the bill Friday but suggested it wouldn’t have been necessary if Business Oregon had delivered that aid more quickly. Lawmakers voted in January to allocate the $100 million to seed the program.
“I think we should be putting some real pressure on them to get those funds out,” Zika said.
-- Jamie Goldberg | jgoldberg@oregonian.com | @jamiebgoldberg
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