City's Proposed Screening Ordinance Remains Substantively Unchanged From Prior Iteration

A close analysis of the February and May draft renter screening ordinances by HFO researchers revealed a fairly large surprise: despite Mayor Ted Wheeler's claim to "push for significant changes" and the City Attorney's office's concerns about possible legal issues with the screening requirements, the final draft remains virtually unchanged in its latest iteration.

And as commissioners and staffers are patting themselves on the back for collaborative work and building a good product, an individual working closely with the rental services commission bluntly confirmed: "It's not that different at all." 

The only change we noted aside from clearer wording was this single item cited in Willamette Week: 

Instead of requiring landlords to set the minimum income required for an apartment at two times the rent, the new policy will benchmark the requirement to apartments affordable to 80 percent of area median income: above that, landlords will be required to accept income that's twice the rent; below that the requirement will be 2.5 times the rent.

A hearing on the draft tenant screening ordinance is Thursday, May 23rd at 3 pm at Portland City Hall.

Note: this article updated May 22nd at 2:54 pm with a draft screening criteria that was updated on the City of Portland's auditor website after 7:34 am on Monday, May 20th.