SALEM — Oregon tenants who are continuing to struggle to pay their rent due to the coronavirus pandemic may soon be protected from eviction if they apply for rent assistance.

The Oregon Senate voted 26-3 Tuesday, June 22, to approve legislation that would protect residential renters from eviction for 60 days if they apply for rent assistance and notify their landlords. The vote came less than a week after the Oregon House unanimously approved the legislation.

The bill will now head to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk for final approval.

“None of us want to go back home when this session ends and see families and children being evicted because they are unable to come up with the money,” said Sen. Kayse Jama, D-Portland, who carried the bill.

Democratic lawmakers introduced the new legislation last week in an attempt to prevent an onslaught of evictions after the state’s moratorium on evictions expires at the end of June.

Lawmakers gave Oregon renters until Feb. 28, 2022, to repay overdue rent accumulated between April 2020 and this month, averting massive bills for past-due rent July 1.

But the new bill is the first legislation that would offer eviction protections to Oregon renters who can’t pay their rent on time on July 1 and beyond.

The state is in the process of distributing $204 million in federal rent assistance through the new Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program, but Oregon Housing and Community Services officials and community organizations that provide rent assistance warned lawmakers earlier this month that they wouldn’t be able to get much of that money out before the eviction moratorium expired at the end of June.

The state agency said it couldn’t roll out the new rent assistance program until it received guidance from the federal government on how the funds could be spent. That delayed the launch until mid-May. Community organizations distributing rent assistance said technical issues with the state’s application system have further slowed down the process.

After learning about the rent assistance delays, Democratic lawmakers rushed to introduce the new legislation last week to protect struggling renters from eviction if they are caught up in the rent assistance backlog. Under the legislation, renters who apply for assistance will be protected from eviction for 60 days after they’ve informed their landlords that they’ve applied. The provision will remain in effect until March 1, 2022.

The initial version of the bill received significant pushback from Republicans and landlord groups, who said that housing providers had already been pushed to the limit and contended that the new legislation amounted to yet another extension of the eviction moratorium.

But lawmakers worked last week to add new provisions to the legislation to provide more support for landlords.

Under the legislation passed June 17, landlords who apply or have applied for compensation through the state’s Landlord Compensation Fund will receive assistance for 100% of unpaid rent they are owed by tenants. Previously, landlords who received assistance were required to forgive 20% of unpaid rent.

Landlords could apply for assistance through the Landlord Compensation Fund through June 23. Those that have already received aid through the fund will be compensated for the 20% in back rent that they were required to forgive.

The legislation also includes a provision allowing landlords to apply for relief if their tenants’ rent assistance applications are rejected or they don’t receive payment within 60 days after their tenants submit documentation proving they’ve applied for rent assistance. That relief would cover any missed rent their tenants accumulated while their rent assistance applications were being processed, with landlords receiving up to $5,000 per tenant.

The U.S. Census Bureau surveyed more than 940,000 Oregon renters in their most recent Household Pulse Survey in May. More than 51,000 of the Oregon households surveyed said they were behind on rent payments. And nearly 17% of Oregon renters surveyed said they had no confidence or only slight confidence that they could pay next month’s rent.

The new legislation could help many of those renters, if they apply for assistance. However, the bill will not help tenants who may not qualify for rent assistance or may be unaware of the aid available to them.

The Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program is available to renters who have incomes less than 80% of the area median income, have experienced financial hardship due to the pandemic and are in danger of experiencing homelessness or housing instability. For a family of four in the Portland metro area, 80% of area median income is $77,350.

Delays in distributing the funds could also free landlords to move ahead with eviction proceedings after 60 days.

Nearly 11,000 Oregon households had applied for more than $73 million in rent and utility assistance through the Oregon Emergency Rental Assistance Program as of June 15. Applications for the program have been open since May 19.

But Oregon Housing and Community Services has yet to publicly provide data on the amount of rent assistance that has actually gone out to renters through the program to date, or the average amount of time it is taking for community agencies who are distributing the rent assistance to process applications. A spokesperson for Oregon Housing and Community Services did not respond to a request for comment from The Oregonian/OregonLive on Monday.

“This bill won’t fix the problems with accessing rental assistance, and we share the skepticism of legislators that OHCS will be able to effectively stand up a third fund to distribute assistance in only a matter of weeks,” said Deborah Imse, executive director of Multifamily NW, an industry group that represents landlords, in a statement. “But we are truly hopeful that this proposal will provide some certainty to both renters and housing providers.”