April 2019 Newsletter

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Rent Was Raised Too High

Kevin’s rent steadily increased, reached the breaking point, and priced him and his son out of their apartment. A new property owner was covering the cost of facility improvements. To avoid any issue with an actual rent increase, the landlord charged a separate grounds care fee that quadrupled. Kevin filed a complaint. However, tenant law has been more about notification of vacating property. Landlords could generally increase rent to match market rates, pay for maintenance or improvements, cover tax increases, or just increase profits. The landlord had not broken any tenant laws in place at that time. On 3/1/19 Oregon passed the nation’s first statewide rent control, limiting increases to once per year that cannot exceed 7% plus the change in the consumer price index. Kevin lost the case, his apartment, was left with a bad rental history, was homeless, and separated from his son. Without a good rental history, you are homeless or couch surfing. Availability of rental units had nothing to do with his being homeless.

Because of other turmoil in his life, his employment position was an anchor of stability and provision. He kept his $18 per hour job and sent his son, who had just graduated from high school, to live with grandparents. No one at work knew his situation. He showered at work after everyone left. Neither his parents nor his son knew that he slept in his car. He did not have a good or bad concept of a mission; it just never occurred to him. The issue was being close to work. He looked for different places to park near his job, so he would not be recognized as a vagrant. He was trying to save money, but still had a high storage unit bill, car payment, insurance, and gas money to visit his son.

Kevin’s story really started about five years earlier. His wife was hospitalized. When the doctors told him that his wife was terminal and he had to decide to take her off life support, he collapsed, only being caught by his brother-in-law. He had his son brought from school to say goodbye to his mother. His son was in therapy for two years after that traumatic event. Kevin’s relationship with his son was closer, but he struggled as a single parent. Then after 15 years of renting the same house, they had to leave all those family memories behind. The owner wanted to upgrade the house. That is when they moved into the apartment they were eventually priced out of, sending father and son many miles apart.

They needed to reunite as a family. It was time for his son to go to college, which brought back all the reasons Kevin never graduated. Now he was determined to be there for his son, even follow him to the college of his choice. He let go of the employment safeguard, that had given him the confidence to carry on after losing his wife, and stepped out in support of his son. He was already without a home, when he changed jobs to a local mill paying $19 per hour.

At the Mission, Kevin received the opposite of what he was dealt before. Here instead of losing a rental dispute, he received justice, compassion, living quarters, a good occupancy reference, and a place closer to his son. Unlike the uncertainty of living in his car, he had stability, safety, meals, restroom, shower, laundry, a warm bed and dayroom. Rather than isolation, he had companionship, a plan, and hope. He works the graveyard shift and sleeps here during the day. It is important to him that his son sees him doing what he has to for family. Part of his paycheck pays for his son’s school books. Still, he saved money and has already moved out of the Mission.

Yet on the inside, he was wrestling with whether all the bad things happening to him were the consequence of some past sin. Healing from loss, rejection, and isolation was needed. Counseling from a biblical perspective was given. He connected with Robert (our case worker) over a chapel message he gave on suffering. Kevin revealed parts of his life that he had never shared with anyone before. He said, “Its been a humbling, safe, challenging, teaching experience.” It has been uplifting to his already strong faith.