New Year, new laws?
With a new year upon us, the long legislative session of 2025 will begin February 4th. Stay alert for messages from the ORHA legislative team and provide support where you can. Despite the increase in support for a more conservative agenda across the nation and Oregon, the West Coast remains solidly Democratic.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean we will be faced with a likely barrage of new laws extending what are euphemistically called “tenant protections.” These new laws may reshape our industry significantly and we need to use whatever tools at our disposal to push back on some of the more extreme concepts so please act when called upon.
Change in office hours continues
Remember that office hours continue to be 12-4 Monday through Thursday and closed on Fridays. With only one staff person on duty currently, it’s essential that we allow Loretta the time she needs to transition and keep Lane ROA on track. Even though she is in the office at other times, please respect the posted office hours. We hope to expand office hours again once we have hired a new office support person.
The board is working on a job description for an additional staff member and plans to begin advertising for the position this month. We will advertise in the usual places but also want to spread the word through you, our members, in case you know someone who would like to apply. Expect an email with the details later this month.
Programming and Speakers
We have a great line-up of speakers for 2025. This month our featured speaker is Melisa Andrion
Community Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator for Senior and Disability Services. As we baby boomers age, landlords are encountering concerning situations with older renters who are struggling to live independently and who may require services to successfully continue their tenancies or transition to assisted living. We hope to gain insight into those resources from Melisa to help you navigate these sometimes-challenging issues.
This meeting will be held online. If you haven’t yet attended an online meeting, please give it a try! Just like overcoming hesitancy about attending online classes, I know a lot of members who did and found that it was great; so great, in fact, that we had to stop doing in-person classes due to a lack of participation.
We hold five in-person general meetings per year (March, May, June, September and October) and five online (January, February, April, July and November), so if you don’t attend, you’re going to miss some great info. Hope you’ll give it a try .
