Oregon lawmakers are considering a bill to force landlords to provide renters options to apply or pay rent by paper. (Photo by Barbara Barrett/Stateline)
A clerical error on an online rent payment portal nearly led to one Milwaukie renter losing her home — and that’s just one example of housing advocates’ increasing concerns as online portals become more standard for finding housing and paying rent.
Mistyping one piece of personal information on her apartment’s online portal meant Beth Walker didn’t realize her rent payment hadn’t gone through until after her landlord applied a late fee and prepared to start an eviction filing.
“It ultimately took hours of frantic communication and a forced day off work just to ensure the process wasn’t initiated the following morning,” Walker wrote in legislative testimony. “The digital divide isn’t just about internet access — it’s about making sure that people who lack access to or familiarity with technology like smartphones and electronic portals can still meet their fundamental needs, including housing.”
Walker is one of dozens of Oregon tenants, landlords and housing advocates who urged lawmakers to pass Senate Bill 1523, which would require landlords to accommodate renters by giving the option to use a paper application, pay by check or other non-digital methods and have non-digital keys to access rental spaces. The Senate Housing Committee advanced the bill Tuesday.
Advocates say it’s a way to stop technological advancements from limiting housing access for older adults, low-income renters, renters with disabilities and those otherwise technology adverse.
While smartphone ownership has drastically increased over the past decade, data from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center shows roughly 1 in 10 adults — and approximately 1 in 4 for seniors 65 and older — don’t own one.
Sybil Hebb, director of legislative advocacy at the Oregon Law Center, told lawmakers that some of her clients have nearly lost their housing because of technological mishaps from tenant portals that made rent payments appear late or even missing.
These concerns are exacerbated among low-income seniors, especially those at risk of homelessness, according to advocates at the Northwest Pilot Project. Often rental applications require multiple devices, like a computer and a phone, which some low-income residents cannot afford.
“The client is basically stuck with moving forward with an application, and these are not minor inconveniences. They directly prevent people from applying for housing, and some of these clients simply give up and they don’t apply at all,” said Jason Colthurst, housing access manager at Northwest Pilot Project. “Access to housing should not depend on a person’s ability to afford or use technology.”
Most opposition to the bill came from landlords and housing providers, who noted that the lack of standardization of where applications come from could make the process less efficient, delaying housing approvals. Others mentioned that they felt many accommodation requests for renters were already covered through the Oregon Fair Housing Act.
“We are concerned about risk in not having equal opportunity for those needing housing due to delays in delivering paper applications and having too many paper applications that need to be processed,” wrote Jonathan Clay, government and public affairs manager with Multifamily NW. “You would simply be moving the workload from one group to another. Either the housing advocate inputs the information into the portal or the housing provider has to do it.”
Existing protections under the Fair Housing Act require legal accommodations for those with disabilities. However, the act does not cover accommodations for age or income status, which housing advocates contend creates a dangerous loophole.
Judy Annon, a board member at the Oregon State Tenants Association, said that many members paid dues by check and rely on neighbors for technological support.
“And so we’re going to ask you to please take into consideration the human element here of seniors who don’t have disabilities that need you to support this bill,” she said to the committee.
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