Residential eviction filings in Multnomah County last year inched up as Portland leaders weigh how to spend millions in unbudgeted housing funds.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reviewed data from two groups – Portland State University’s Evicted in Oregon program and the Eviction Lab at Princeton University – and found eviction filings rose slightly in Oregon’s most populous county, averaging about 1,000 per month last year.
Landlords filed most of the evictions against renters who failed to pay rent, the data shows. But most filings don’t result in evictions, with 16% of cases filed in 2025 ending in a judgment of eviction, declining two percentage points from 2024, according to Portland State. An average of about 2,000 renter households had an eviction judgment against them each year from 2022 to 2025.
A combination of factors explains why Oregon’s busiest eviction court dismisses so many cases, researchers say: recent changes to state law mean that if tenants pay the amount they originally owed before the case goes to trial, often with emergency rent aid, their case must be dismissed. But in other instances, renters might agree to move out in exchange for the landlord dropping the case.
When the latter happens, tenants are displaced even without an eviction judgment against them, Evicted in Oregon researcher Colleen Carroll said. And the increase in filings comes as government leaders have retreated from eviction prevention and diversion programs, she added.
“Support at the city, county and state level is inadequate,” Carroll said.
The findings come as the Portland City Council weighs how to spend $56 million in unbudgeted Portland Housing Bureau funds. City leadership earlier this year uncovered $106 million in unbudgeted funds but later explained to councilors that much of the money has tight restrictions on how it can be spent.
A proposal set to be reviewed by the Housing and Permitting Committee on Tuesday calls for councilors to spend $9 million on rent assistance and $1.9 million on a new eviction defense program for tenants. Council members Candace Avalos, Mitch Green, Angelita Morillo and Jamie Dunphy are bringing forward the “Keep Portland Housed” ordinance, which they say includes a mix of stopgap measures and longer-term fixes.
“While every level of government is slashing their budgets, these previously unbudgeted Housing Bureau funds are an opportunity to help those struggling the most with housing security,” Dunphy, the council president, said in a statement. “Healthcare and housing have a lot in common: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Avalos, chair of the Housing and Permitting Committee, said the proposed ordinance seeks to address the dual housing and homelessness crises.
“Previous, fragmented housing strategies haven’t worked to meet the scale of need, and today we’re seeing the results: more people are becoming homeless than we can house in our region,” Avalos said.
The number of people living without shelter — outside, in cars or elsewhere unsafe to reside — in Multnomah County increased 40% from January 2025 to January 2026 to reach nearly 8,800 people, according to the latest available county data.
Under the proposal, the balance of the $56 million would go toward:
$8.8 million to pay off affordable housing landlords’ debts in exchange for them lowering rents
$12.6 million to remain unallocated for future housing development
$10 million to jumpstart the acquisition of one or more “social housing” developments, a type of government-owned housing councilors have floated as a way to assuage the housing crunch
$5.6 million to develop 230 units of income-restricted housing on the 30-plus acre Broadway Corridor near the Broadway Bridge
$3 million for affordable housing financing for three groups: Williams & Russell, Self Enhancement Inc. and Urban Plaza. That money would fill financing gaps for their projects.
$800,000 for downpayment assistance to help tenants become homeowners
$200,000 to educate landlords and tenants on tenants’ rights
Meanwhile, the overarching trend of rising evictions is discouraging in light of state and local policy changes in the past decade meant to stem the displacement of renters.
The city of Portland is seeking an outside contractor to evaluate its landlord-tenant laws, planning to spend $400,000 over two years to gauge the effectiveness of “intended and unintended consequences” of Portland’s Fair Access in Renting, or FAIR, ordinances passed in 2019 and its mandatory rent relocation rules passed in 2017, according to a call for bidders.
The rent relocation rules, in particular, require landlords to pay relocation assistance of between $2,900 to $4,500, depending on rental size, when a property manager serves a no-cause eviction notice or in several other triggering events.
Oregon lawmakers also dramatically reshaped the landscape of evictions statewide in 2019 with the passage of Senate Bill 608, which required most landlords to cite a cause, such as failure to pay rent or a lease violation, when evicting renters after the first year of tenancy.
Some “landlord-based” for-cause evictions are still allowed under the law, including the landlord moving in or a major renovation. But in those cases, the landlords must provide 90 days’ notice and pay one month’s rent to the tenant, though landlords with four or fewer units are exempt from the payment.
Multnomah County saw 12,094 eviction filings in 2025, a 4% increase from the year before — the smallest percentage increase in recent years. But the number of eviction filings last year more than doubled the 5,957 eviction filings logged in 2019, according to Evicted in Oregon data. Researchers caution that comparisons from when Senate Bill 608 went into effect are complicated because of how it changed the filing process. Similarly, filings plunged during the pandemic, but didn’t halt altogether despite state and federal moratoria on evictions for nonpayment of rent.
The Eviction Lab figures showed the same trends from 2019 to 2025, with minor variations in the total number of filings.
Grace Hartley, a senior research specialist at the Eviction Lab, said the Multnomah County figures translate to 7 eviction notices per 100 renter households, or 7%. That’s higher than eviction filing rates in other places the group tracks, including New York City, at 5%, and Minneapolis-St. Paul and Philadelphia, both 4%. Those cities are good comparisons for Portland because they have similar governments, housing laws and tend to be politically progressive, Hartley said.
Since many people who receive help to avoid eviction remain housed, targeted rent assistance and other prevention services are among the most cost effective ways to reduce homelessness, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness. An overwhelming majority, 92%, of people who obtained eviction prevention services in Multnomah County in 2024 remained housed 12 months later.
Figures showed 93% of Multnomah County eviction filings in 2025 were for nonpayment of rent. Carroll tied that to the burdensome cost of local housing.
Census data shows nearly half of Portland tenants are “cost-burdened” by paying more than 30% of their income on rent. At the same time, a quarter of renters are “severely cost-burdened,” spending more than half their income on rent.
Evictions, Carroll said, split up families and lead to homelessness, among other adverse effects.
She said, “Emergency rent assistance and other eviction prevention measures should be understood as a tourniquet — a life-saving measure to forestall the worst outcomes — not just a Band-Aid.”
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