At a signing ceremony Friday July 27th at 2:30 PM Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski is scheduled to sign into law SB 725, approved this legislative session and designed to bring Oregon law into substantial equivalency with federal fair housing law. Signing of the bill is the culmination of a four year effort in two legislative sessions to update Oregon's fair housing laws. The bill was sponsored by Portland area Senator Margaret Carter and the Fair Housing Council of Oregon and the legislation will be administered by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries [BOLI]. Commissioner Dan Gardner and Senator Carter are expected to attend Friday’s bill signing event. (A weekly BOLI web update alerted me to this signing ceremony).
Following the bill signing, BOLI will need to submit the approved legislation and other referenced Oregon statutes to HUD in Washington D. C. for their determination of whether the bill as passed is actually substantially equivalent to federal fair housing law. If HUD’s review confirms equivalency, the next step will be negotiation and signing of an operating agreement with HUD (which will include funding for training and complaint processing reimbursement rates).
Because of these additional steps, BOLI likely will not actually assume processing for fair housing complaints for many months (My personal guess is that state complaint processing would not begin until sometime during mid to late 2008).
Nonetheless, if and when these additional steps are successfully completed, for the first time in 20 years (since 1988) Oregonians will have state laws legally equivalent to federal fair housing law, and state BOLI staff will be investigating fair housing complaints.
My congratulations to the Governor, the Legislature, Senator Carter, Commissioner Gardner, the Fair Housing Council of Oregon, HUD, and other supportive individuals and organizations for moving forward on this long overdue legislative update.
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