Legally landlords are required to make repairs and maintain our units in good condition (ORS 90.320). Renters within the city of Portland are also protected a Property Maintenance Code and can report housing code violation to the city. But members from the Community Alliance of Tenant's have still identified repair issues as one of the top challenges facing renters in the state of Oregon. Unfortunately many low-income renters are not receiving essential repairs they need: inadequate heating, leaking plumbing, bugs/rodents, mold, and chipping or peeling lead paint. When landlords don't make repairs to our rental units, we pay for it with poor conditions, damaged belongings, and illness.


Even though you have the right to demand for repairs and safe housing, the Community Alliance of Tenants always encourages tenants to work together with their neighbors in their building. If you are experiencing problems getting repairs in your apartment, it is very likely that your neighbors may be experiencing the same thing. Working with your neighbors is the most effective way to get repairs made and to protect against retaliation- harassment, illegal eviction, or illegal rent increases. Through collective action, tenants gain strength and reduce their chances of being retaliated against by their landlord for demanding improvements that are required under the law.


The Safe Housing Project provides direct assistance to tenants wishing to build tenant power by using grassroots organizing techniques. Tenants that use the Safe Housing Project develop skills in leadership, public speaking, meeting facilitation, and grassroots organizing. Tenants also receive educational brochures and workshops on renters' rights and in-door health hazards. The Safe Housing Project shows renters in apartment complexes in the Portland area how to organize around essential repair issues by demanding for safe, stable and affordable housing. The Safe Housing Project provides renters experiencing repair problems with renters' education, expertise around city code, and support to fight for better quality housing.


Because some repairs problem left ignored lead to illness and respiratory diseases, the Safe Housing Project has developed a collaborative partnership with the American Lung Association of Oregon to provide tenants with unique trainings and education that are useful to renters. Renters attend workshops that explain the law in simple to understand language that explain effective ways to gain repairs and how identify health hazard in the home. The workshops emphasize the causes, affects, and remedies for lead exposure, mold, and bugs/rodent infestations.


The goal of the project is to improve housing conditions and build tenant power through education, training and building-based organizing.

• Do door-to-door outreach to get other tenants in your building involved.
  
• Organize and facilitate tenants' meeting to discuss repair needs throughout the complex.
  
• Provide education about renters' right and tools to identify hazards within the home through workshops.
  
• Refer tenants to the American Lung Association of Oregon for HEALs (indoor air quality health hazard assessments).
  
• Support tenants' action to get repairs.
  
• Provide legal referrals and technical support.
  
• Train and provide advocacy opportunities for tenants to repair and habitability issues to the city and media on a larger scale.