"Evicted and Unrepresented: Portland’s Growing Housing Crisis"

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    The housing epidemic is no stranger to Portland. One of the biggest factors is the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing in the area. The living costs have kept rising coupled with the same average salaries throughout the years with no signs of salaries rising to match rent costs. So with that, eviction rates in Portland have been on the rise and are exponentially growing. From June 2025 to June 2026 the total evictions filed in Multnomah County alone equated to over 11,800 cases. For each month, 90% or more of the evictions were filed due to rent non-payment. 

    Unfortunately, if these tenants are being evicted due to nonpayment, they are unable to afford any representation by a lawyer for their case. In the past 12 months, only 15% of all the eviction cases had tenants that had legal representation. The Oregon Law Center made an analysis of The Oregon Judicial Department’s eviction data and found that the tenants outrightly won about .2% of the 2021-2023 eviction cases. So imagine if the tenant is not represented, the probability that the tenant would would is so close to zero. 

     The Oregon Law Center is a non-profit organization that provides free legal help for the low income communities. They have 11 offices scattered across the state. The closest offices to Portland are their Portland and Hillsboro Regional Offices. They also have an Oregon Public Benefits Phone Hotline. This is a legal aid program designed for easy access to legal services to those who do not have resources readily available. If you have any questions about things such as Oregon Health Plan (OHP), Unemployment, SNAP, Social Security, or any other services you may call (800) 520-5292 Monday-Thursday. 


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