I love the 4th of July. It is a day that really makes me proud to be an American. When I watch the fireworks it always makes me feel proud, yet humbled. It’s a great day to celebrate – but it’s also a lot more than just hot dogs, sparklers, and parades. It is about patriotism and sacrifice.

April is Fair Housing Month. This is the time for us, as owners of rental properties, to review, reflect, and re-commit to the idea that housing is for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or familial status.

Let’s take a minute and explore who we are. We are not a committee, or a PAC. We haven’t just been around for years, or even for decades. We have been around for GENERATIONS. We are an alliance of property owners; people who have a vested stake in our community. There are people on our roster whose parents participated in RHA Oregon and who now have their own grown children who are also participating in this organization.

If you own a piece of rental property in Oregon today, you are being recruited by our local and state governments to open your pocket books or stretch into your line of credit or Master Card to the tune of thousands of dollars a year in order to pay for social services that your elected officials have deemed to be their priorities and have broadcast as their campaign promises.

I started off a class on property management recently with a question to the attendees: “What do Landlords and Tenants have in common?”
I was surprised that most of the group thought I was about to tell a joke. “They both blame the property manager.” “Lawyers.” “They both eventually die…”
Really?
It struck me that if a sincere question sounded like a set-up to a punch line, it may be time to review a few basic housing principles.