This one's a little dark, but since I don't have the selfie Chloe took herself... Here's a photo of Commissioner Eudaly responding to Leaven Community's request for a stay on tiny house evictions.
Yesterday Portland City Commissioner Chloe Eudaly declared a stay on evicting people from tiny houses and RVs on private property!
It's hard to know where to start with this story so I'll start in the middle and work my way to the ends as time goes along and I have more updates.
It has been illegal for people to occupy tiny homes in Portland, OR according to 29.50.050 Illegal Residential Occupancy, a snippet of code in the Portland Maintenance Code, which states:
"When a property has an illegal residential occupancy, including but not limited to occupancy of tents, campers, motor homes, recreational vehicles, or other structures or spaces not intended for permanent residential use or occupancy of spaces constructed or converted without permit, the use shall be abated or the structure brought into compliance with the present regulations for a building of the same occupancy."
Enforcement of this code has been on a by-complaint basis. Most of the city officials we'd talked to in our efforts to legalize tiny homes in 2012-2013 were on-board with tiny houses, but didn't have a good way to support it. Tiny houses weren't really A Thing yet. Rental prices were going up quickly and stock was low, but it wasn't yet at a crisis level. We were ahead of our time and the city had bigger fish to fry.
So many of us went ahead and built our own affordable housing in the form of tiny houses and we managed to skirt under the radar by being really good neighbors. But occasionally Portlanders were asked to "move out or move on." These stories were always nerve-wracking for those of us for whom a tiny house was the best way to create affordable, flexible, community-oriented, family-supporting housing, especially since it's a tiny world after all and many of us knew each other. (I'd done a on-site consultation for a relative of Claire and Bennett who wanted to create a tiny house community. And I was flabbergasted when neighbor complaints prevented a shared household from incorporating, The Ark, one of the most incredible tiny houses I've ever seen from being part of their community!)
Portland declared a state of emergency for housing two years ago and there was a recognition that it was backwards to be kicking people out of the affordable housing options they'd created for themselves. So yesterday Commissioner Eudaly agreed to Leaven Community's request that we be supported as we step out of the shadows. She announced they'll work with us to figure out a long-term regulatory solution and meanwhile they're going to stop enforcing Title 29. Yesterdays' announcement means that the hundreds of us living in tiny houses and RVs in the city of Portland can't be kicked out.
So how did this happen?
Yesterday, Leaven Community hosted a Sanctuary Assembly where they declared sanctuary for immigrants as well as other people facing pressures in these troubled times (the list of oppressions included everything from the traumas of institutionalized racism to the horribly high cost of childcare). This interfaith group has been working for a long time to listen to the stories of people in its communities and find practical, positive ways to make change. Several of their congregants, neighbors, partners, and friends had been sharing stories of housing instability, including people who had been evicted from tiny homes. A couple of my dearest friends have been part of Leaven Community for about a year now and Jake, who sublet The Lucky Penny and is a member of Simply Home Community shared the good news about what Leaven was working on.
In the early afternoon we Going Placers joined up with our across the street neighbors (who love our tiny houses and have become friends of ours) and we bike brigaded down to Salt & Light Church for the Sanctuary Assembly. Our neighbor's kids have been a great joy in our lives and it was so awesome to hear their four year old making plans for our neighborhood parties and painting the street as we biked along! Talk about a community-oriented kiddo!
Among many amazing stories shared yesterday, an incredible woman named Luz shared her story of immigrating from Nicaragua under political persecution and then raising her six children in Portland, amidst many forced moves due to gentrification pressures and landlords not keeping up with maintenance. Luz now has the opportunity to live in a tiny house on the property of some fellow congregants so she was asking for support in doing so.
Amidst the declarations, Chloe Eudaly also shared her housing story, which was quite powerful. She had to pause to collect herself as she described the tough decision to keep the heat on or keep a roof over her son's head. It's so heartening to see and hear politicians like her who not only can relate to other people's stories but take the time to listen and respond!
This article, Portland Will Allow Overnight RV Camping and Tiny Homes on Private Property, by Rachel Monahan of the Willamette Week, caught the exact words of Commissioner Chloe Eudaly's declaration:
"Housing is a basic need and a human right... We have failed to keep up with demand for decades….As commissioner of the Bureau of Development Services, who enforces these codes, I am happy to announce with the support of the mayor we will be suspending enforcement of tiny homes and RVs parked on private property effective immediately."
There are so many people who truly need this stay on tiny house evictions. I'm fortunate to not be one of them. But even though I know I'd have other housing options, none of them would be quite like the tiny cohousing communities I've helped to create over the past few years. So when Chloe Eudaly declared the stay on tiny house evictions I breathed a big sigh of relief which sent me into a fit of happy tears. I had been feeling pretty comfortable at Going Places because we have awesome neighbors, but there was always the lingering worry that someone else might call us in. I've invested so much of my heart, soul, energy, time, finances, blood, sweat, and tears into tiny homes over the past several years that it was an enormous relief!
Since moving to Portland six years years ago the only dwelling that was truly legal for me to occupy was the ADU, My Summer Garden Cottage. The others - a 112 round foot yurt and four tiny houses on wheels (including the one I currently occupy at Going Places) - are still technically non-habitable dwellings here in Portland. We've been calling them "pre-legal" because we're hoping they will someday be legal. As of yesterday, that's a legitimate claim.
Chloe Eudaly's request in return for her commitment to the stay on tiny house evictions was that we step out of the shadows and show up to help write the regulation to make tiny houses a legal housing option. So I have plans to meet up with my mentor, hero, neighbor, and friend Eli Spevak to work on tiny house regulations (again!) If you want to join those conversations, please let me know!I'm going to be showing up. Will you be there, too?!