My open letter to Oregon's Legislators

Respected Legislators,

I grew up in Eastern Oregon and I have been an owner / operator of an Oregon based business since 1996 - started while in school at university.  I am Oregonian through and through.

Now the failure of our governing bodies to provide adequately for the safety of my family and all Oregon families risks destroying everything I have worked the last 25 years to build.  It starts at the top, where much of it is out of your control, but there is still plenty that COULD have been done and STILL MUST BE DONE within our own borders in Oregon.

I must protect my family.  I must provide for and protect the future of my wife and children.

I will have no choice but to lay off staff in the coming weeks.  My business has already experienced a downturn and I have already been flowing funds into the business just to make payroll because I value my people.  Now I fear for them being unemployed without income to pay their mortgages and rents.  It sickens me that it has come to this.

And yet still worse - Unless the legislature acts immediately, I will have no choice but to evict tenants from my property when the inevitable time comes that they cannot pay.

I believe several actions are required to address the well being of our great State and prevent a huge opportunistic land grab like what happened in 2008.

1. We must start at the top of our financial system, at the banking level.  The banks right now have been receiving emergency loans, payment holidays, and ZERO INTEREST from the Federal Reserve.  Those same payment holidays and ZERO INTEREST should be extended to ALL OREGONIANS across the board for ALL bank mortgages, student loans, SMB loans, credit cards, etc.  Do it across the board, without requiring expensive documentation overhead, and make it sunset when COVID-19 is no longer a risk to the general population.  Any bank not cooperating can have their state licenses revoked.
2. We must put all home and condo insurance payments on hold for homeowners that can demonstrate loss of income due to COVID-19. Coverage must remain intact. I believe a statewide fund could be established to back 80% of claims made during this time. This would not be free for the state like the banking relief above, but would be the most cost effective way to ensure our insurance companies are not bankrupted and no one loses coverage on their homes.  Any insurance company not cooperating can have their state licenses revoked.
3. We must provide property tax relief for homeowners that can demonstrate loss of income due to COVID-19. This has an unavoidable side effect on county and city budgets, but I believe that has to be managed, given the far worse alternative of so many becoming homeless. The homeless are a proven far larger financial burden on society than those with homes so the more we can help, the better.
4. (added explicitly because I made the mistake of assuming this would be automatic) Once landlords are protected we can safely require state-wide that no evictions occur for lack of payment.

It is not time to allow Wall Street or the money printers to prey on the weak or the unprepared.  It is time to stand up and protect those that can least protect themselves.  We have a duty to keep people securely sheltered, both in my property and across Oregon.  Your immediate action is appreciated.

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Edit/Add:

Let me clarify a few things here:

Landlords generally are not going to evict anyone if there is ANYTHING they can do to help it. Eviction will simply be unavoidable because landlords will go bankrupt, not because they think they can put someone else in the home or anything of the sort.

I don't think a lot of readers realize that this structure would essentially get them free rent. What I am asking for is protection for EVERYONE with property, whether they rent it or not, so that WE AS A WHOLE can protect EVERYONE. You could essentially add a point #4 above saying "Once these three are done, require landlords to provide rent relief"

I hope that makes sense to everyone. Stay safe out there.