Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Todd Young (R-Ind.) reintroduced the Eviction Crisis Act of 2026, which would create a permanent $3 billion-a-year Emergency Assistance Program administered by HUD as a competitive grant to state, local, tribal and territorial governments, according to NLIHC's summary of the bill. The bill would also fund eviction data collection and add renter protections in tenant screening reports. The release cited Congressional Research Service figures that 49.4 percent of renter households were cost-burdened in 2024, and 15,953 eviction filings in Denver in 2025.
NLIHC listed the introduction date as Sept. 24, 2026; the bill was endorsed by the National Alliance to End Homelessness, NLIHC, Bipartisan Policy Center Action and the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.
Oregon Department of Administrative Services · on Oregon's 2027 statewide rent-increase cap
The Oregon Department of Administrative Services set the maximum allowable rent increase for calendar year 2027 at 10% for tenancies subject to ORS 90.324(b), up from 9.5% in 2026. The cap for manufactured-dwelling parks and marinas with more than 30 spaces is 6%. The statutory formula is the lesser of 10% or 7% plus CPI.
ORS 90.324 requires DAS to calculate and publish the following year's percentage no later than September 30 each year.
Ten state attorneys general, from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, filed a response on September 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina opposing RealPage's argument that its settlement with the Justice Department moots the states' Sherman Act claims. RealPage had told the court the settlement reached at the end of 2025 resolved the same claims. The states wrote that none of the claims against RealPage, Camden or Pinnacle "have been rendered moot by the agreed-upon Final Judgment entered as a compromise between the United States and RealPage, to which the States are not parties."
The states sued alongside the federal government in the original DOJ antitrust case; the Justice Department settled with RealPage at the end of 2025 without the states joining.
The DHS public-charge rule took effect Friday, September 18, with no publicly reported court order blocking it as of publication. Immigration officers may now weigh applicants' use of means-tested benefits — including federal housing assistance, SNAP, WIC and Medicaid — in green-card adjudications for applications filed on or after that date. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, sued in federal court in Manhattan on September 14 to block the rule.
The states' complaint says that for benefits received before September 18, 2026, officers will only consider public cash assistance for income maintenance.
Residents of Battle Ground Mobile Estates, a park of about 350 people ages 55 and up, asked the Battle Ground City Council for protections against redevelopment after a resident purchase effort stalled. Residents said 51% of the community expressed intent to buy the park after a June 25 notice of opportunity, but estimated the cost would run around $40 million. The council will discuss options Monday, September 21.
Clark County's moratorium on manufactured home park redevelopment, approved in August 2025 and extended to February 2026, covers unincorporated areas only and does not apply inside Battle Ground city limits.
Portland City Council's Housing and Permitting Committee, chaired by Candace Avalos, held its first Renters' Feedback Forum. The Portland Housing Bureau reports that about half of Portland renters are cost-burdened, spending more than 30% of their income on housing, and about one-quarter spend more than half their income on housing. Renters told the committee the city should intervene before missed rent becomes an eviction.
The council's Keep Portland Housed package, approved in April, allocated nearly $56 million in previously unbudgeted Portland Housing Bureau funds, including $5 million for short-term rent assistance.
Clark County staff presented a proposed manufactured home park overlay zone for unincorporated urban growth areas that would limit conversion of parks to other uses before the county's temporary redevelopment moratorium expires in February 2027. Under the proposal, an owner seeking to redevelop could apply for a "use exception" by demonstrating the overlay prevents reasonable use of the property or that operating the park is not economically viable. A Hazel Dell resident said her 128-lot park has sold twice in four years and that she pays $708 a month in park rent while new residents pay about $1,300.
The Clark County Council first approved the redevelopment moratorium in August 2025 and later extended it through February 2027.
Stateline · on public-charge rules counting housing assistance against immigration applicants
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia, and separately a coalition of six cities and counties including New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, King County, and Santa Clara County, filed lawsuits September 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against DHS and USCIS over rules letting immigration officers count enrollment in public benefits, including housing assistance, as a "public charge" ground for inadmissibility. The rules rescind a 2022 policy that excluded non-cash benefits and take effect Friday, September 18. The city coalition's suit argues roughly 1.3 million people, including 600,000 children, could lose care and coverage in those jurisdictions.
Under the 2022 policy now rescinded, non-cash benefits such as housing assistance were excluded from public-charge consideration.
Mayor Daniel Lurie announced a $30 million package of tenant-protection reforms Thursday, citing a "rent emergency" as Apartment List data showed San Francisco rents up 25.6% in the past year. The package earmarks $3 million to expand full-scope eviction counsel to 400 households and directs $27 million through the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing to about 650 extremely low-income households as federal Emergency Housing Vouchers expire. Other elements include a $1 million tenant-education campaign, a 25% increase in Ellis Act relocation payouts, and legislation from Supervisor Jackie Fielder barring nonpayment evictions for tenants less than one month behind.
The federal Emergency Housing Voucher program, which has supported more than 900 people in San Francisco since the pandemic, is set to expire at the end of 2026, four years earlier than originally envisioned.
The Clark County Council scheduled a public hearing for 6:30 p.m. September 14 on proposed protections for manufactured home parks. The county worked with a consultant to develop an overlay zone under which its 34 existing parks, home to about 2,000 residents, could not be redeveloped; the county said the approach is similar to that used by several Washington cities, including Vancouver.
The council approved a six-month emergency ordinance pausing park redevelopment applications in August 2025, extended it in October, and extended it again in February for a year.
Kansas City reached a relocation agreement August 27 with the North Lawn Tenant Union covering 10 households forcibly displaced August 21 when the North Lawn apartment complex was condemned, plus two units vacated since May over deteriorating conditions. The city will pay for storage units, moving costs, groceries, a security deposit and three months' rent, drawing on $500,000 from its Housing Trust Fund approved August 13. KC Tenants and the mayor's office negotiated the deal at city hall.
Street Roots · on tear gas lawsuits by Gray's Landing low-income housing tenants
Street Roots reported on two lawsuits seeking to limit federal officers' use of chemical munitions near the ICE facility on South Macadam Avenue — one filed by the ACLU on behalf of protesters and journalists, the other by REACH Community Development, owner of the adjacent low-income Gray's Landing apartments, alongside residents. Two orders by federal judges in Oregon limiting tear gas use are on hold, and appellate judges heard oral arguments on July 10. DOJ attorneys argued federal officers are protected from "incidental" impacts to bystanders caused by crowd-control measures.
The appellate panel heard oral arguments on the merits of both cases on July 10; two of the three judges were appointed by President Trump.