House Bill 2639 and You

House Bill 2639 or the “Housing Choice Act of 2013” was narrowly passed at the Oregon Senate with a 16-13 vote and goes into effect
July 1, 2014. 

What this bill does is it redefines “source of income” for purposes of prohibiting discrimination in selling, renting, or leasing real property.   It essentially requires landlords to accept Section 8 from qualified applicants as these vouchers would be added to the types of sources of income that are protected in Oregon.

What this means to you is that beginning July 1, 2014 it will be illegal to disqualify renters based on their use of the federal Section 8 voucher program.

Landlords will have the right to deny tenants for financial or other disqualifying criteria, but they cannot have general “No Section 8” policies.