Murmurs: Oregon House Speaker Wants Extension of Eviction Ban

OREGON HOUSE SPEAKER WANTS EXTENSION Of EVICTION BAN: Even as COVID-19 infections and the resulting economic decline continue across Oregon, the state is six weeks away from an end to its moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. That ban ends Sept. 30. It's not clear how elected state officials will address that. It may require a special session of the Legislature (the third this year) or an executive order by Gov. Kate Brown. House Speaker Tina Kotek is pushing for a six-month extension. "My top priority for September is making sure we can extend the eviction and foreclosure protections for another six months," says Kotek. "Nothing is getting any easier, and people need to stay housed." The governor's office declined to say whether Brown will call a special session. "We're in conversations with legislative leaders and housing advocates about what the necessary next steps are," says Brown spokesman Charles Boyle.

CITY COUNCIL WILL WEIGH PEARL HOTEL: A first test of Portland's 2035 Central City Plan comes before the City Council on Aug. 20. At issue is a proposed Hyatt Place hotel, with 160 rooms and 113 residential units planned for a quarter block on the corner of Northwest 12th Avenue and Flanders Street in the Pearl District. The project would be taller than previously permitted at 23 stories and 250 feet with no onsite parking, and it abuts the Flanders Street Greenway. The 2035 plan encourages density and a shift away from automobiles. The group opposing the project, Pearl Neighbors for Integrity in Design, says it's too tall, would generate too much traffic, and is poorly designed. The group also worries about "impacts to cultural and ethnic diversity of the South Pearl area," which opponents claim would be preserved by retaining the neighborhood's low-rise buildings. The council will decide Thursday whether to stick with the Design Commission's approval or order modifications to the project. Patricia Cliff, president of the neighborhood group, wanted to postpone the hearing until Commissioner-elect Dan Ryan could be seated. No dice. "[That's] most unfortunate," Cliff says, "since a major land use decision of this type should really be vetted before a full, five-person City Council."

COMPETITION COMES TO OREGON HEALTH PLAN: A new competitor is coming for the region's biggest health care providers, including Providence, Legacy, Kaiser and Oregon Health & Science University. These giants partner in the tri-counties' only provider of Medicaid services, Health Share of Oregon, which serves more than 320,000 Oregon Health Plan members. Health Share is the state's largest coordinated care organization, and its constituent providers have fought to keep a deep-pocketed competitor, Trillium Community Health Plan, out of the local market. Last year, Trillium, which is owned by Centene Corporation, a massive for-profit firm based in St. Louis, filed suit in U.S. District Court to gain access to the Portland market. On Aug. 18, the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees the state's Medicaid program, including regulating its providers, announced it had granted Trillium's application to enter the local market effective Sept. 1.

PRISON HUNGER STRIKE BEGINS: Prisoners in solitary confinement at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton announced Aug. 18 they would go on a hunger strike amid an outbreak of COVID-19. The Eastern Oregon prison has 189 active COVID-19 cases among inmates and 61 active infections among staff. On Aug. 12, a man incarcerated at the facility died from COVID-19. Rose Harriot, a spokesperson for strike organizers, says prison staff has arbitrarily denied inmates phone calls to family members, and that those incarcerated must use baking soda to brush their teeth and make do with one bar of soap a month. Strike organizers say a prisoner named Steven Corbett, who has Crohn's disease, has suffered seizures that caused him to "fall and hurt himself and for his organs to come out of his body through his colostomy bag," says Harriot. They demand his transfer to a medical facility. Department spokeswoman Jennifer Black told WW that Corbett is assessed daily by medical personnel and that staff have not witnessed him falling or injuring himself. She said inmates in solitary can earn incentive phone calls and they are also provided pencils and paper to send letters to loved ones. "The process of providing phone calls is labor intensive, usually involving two staff escorting the [inmate] to the phone, then placing them back into their unit after the call is over."