The approved 2025-2027 budget for the Oregon Housing and Community Services will reduce funding for eviction prevention and long-term rent assistance, creating limitations for tenant support organizations across the state, including the Springfield Eugene Tenant Association.
SETA is a nonprofit organization that provides information and assistance to renters in the Eugene and Springfield area. Their main program is their 24/7 hotline, where renters can call to ask questions and receive answers within 48 hours. They recently announced on their website that they would be facing an over 70% reduction in their operating budget.
The Oregon State Legislature passed budget bill 5011 in the recent legislative session, which reduced funding for housing stabilization, eviction prevention and rent-assistance programs. In Gov. Tina Kotek’s signing letter for the bill, she noted that rehousing services and eviction prevention was severely underfunded compared to her recommended budget, cutting over half of its funding.
According to SETA’s monthly reports, the hotline has averaged over 200 calls a month since the beginning of the year. For July 2025, the majority of these calls were related to issues of late rent, financial assistance, termination notices and repairs, SETA Executive Director Timothy Morris said. He says the hotline has been extremely successful in preventing the eviction of tenants.
“Our main mission is to provide clear information and resources to tenants who are in need, while also doing it at extremely low cost to prevent significant legal fees or unnecessary move-outs or harmful evictions,” Morris said. “Our team (members) are considered experts in not only landlord tenant law, but also fair housing laws and other resources.”
Oregon had record-high rates of eviction filings in 2024 with a total of 27,290 according to the Oregon Law Center. Kotek stressed in her signing letter the importance of stabilized housing through rent assistance and eviction prevention, saying that eviction prevention is essential to stopping homelessness.
Morris agrees with Kotek. “It is proven and known that house eviction prevention and homelessness prevention works, but also is significantly cheaper than providing resources to the unhoused or providing shelters or temporary places to live.”
However, Morris doesn’t believe that the approved OHCS budget reflects this information.
“What we’re seeing is a consignment from the state of Oregon that they know people are going to be unhoused now, and that evictions that could be preventable are a lesser priority,” Morris said.
Cuts to the OHCS budget will detrimentally affect the availability of staff and resources of SETA, according to the announcement. The organization has already shut down their Free Education Program, laid off members of their staff and will have to reduce their hotline hours.
“Every single staff member working at SETA right now is working at half time. We are putting 100% of our programmatic funds right into the hotline in order to keep it working at the same operating level, so from an outside perspective we hope that it won’t look any different,” Morris said.
SETA also receives funding from the City of Eugene through the Community Development Block Grant CARES Act and its rental housing program, according to Lindsay Selser, a member of the city of Eugene’s Planning and Development Department. Selser said that the city will continue to fund SETA during the next fiscal year through these programs.
Despite these efforts, Morris is worried about the program’s long-term survival.
“We are burning through cash reserves, and we’re operating at a negative for this annual year and for future years. So it is not a sustainable approach long-term, but we are working as hard as we can to keep it alive.”
Now at reduced hours, SETA’s hotline is still open for tenants to call. In their announcement to the public about next steps, the organization said they were researching emergency grants and other alternative funding streams through the city and state. They hope to work with policymakers to restore their previous services and availability.
