The Oregon House is fast-tracking a revised rent cap that finally cleared the Oregon Senate as the 2023 session winds down.

The House Rules Committee held a public hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 611 and scheduled a work session for Thursday that would send the legislation to the House floor for a final vote.

The hearing came the day after the Senate passed it on Tuesday by a 17-8 vote.

The original bill was voted by the Senate Housing and Development Committee on April 3. It was revised again by the Senate Rules Committee on May 4, the day after minority Republicans began their 42-day walkout that deprived majority Democrats of the 20 senators to conduct business and take votes.

The original cap, which lawmakers approved in 2019, limited annual rent increases to the Consumer Price Index change plus 7%.

Tenant advocates pushed for change after inflation drove the 2022 cap to 14.6%, as calculated by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.

As passed by the Senate, the annual cap would still be the Consumer Price Index change plus 7% — but there would be an overall cap of 10%.

The cap applies only to buildings older than 15 years, as in the original 2019 law.

Sen. Wlnsvey Campos, D-Aloha, was a chief sponsor and floor manager for the bill. She acknowledged that it would not resolve Oregon’s housing shortage.

“It takes time to build housing, and people are losing their housing now,” she said. “We have to do everything in our power to keep Oregonians in their homes.”

“Rent stabilization can immediately address rising costs of living and provide relief for families choosing between prescription medications and keeping a roof over their heads. This cannot be an either-or approach. We can protect Oregonians from unreasonable rent increases and fix our housing supply crisis.”

The vote fell along party lines.

Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend — also executive vice president of the Central Oregon Builders Association — tagged SB 611 as the “San Francisco solution.”

Unlike the San Francisco rent control system, the Oregon law does not freeze rents.

“It is nothing more than a case of misplaced compassion and a talking point that lacks all logic and reality,” Knopp said in a statement. “It will force landlords to increase rent to the maximum cap while limiting new production, hurting the very people proponents say the bill will help. SB 611 will assuredly drive investors out of Oregon’s housing market to other states where their money is at less risk.”

Four Republicans and an independent originally elected as a Republican were listed as absent from the vote and not excused.

Stable Homes for Oregon Families, a coalition of groups advocating for the bill, said this in a statement after the vote that the Legislature needed to move quickly with the June 25 deadline to adjourn quickly approaching.

“We urge fast passage of this important protection to reduce high-rent homelessness so that it can protect tenants as soon as possible,” the group said in a statement. “Across the state, tenants continue to receive the legally allowed rent increases of 14.6%.

The group called the bill a fair deal for both renters and landlords.

“Senate Bill 611 provides reasonable and necessary rent stabilizations for tenants suffering from rent spikes and it is essential that it pass this session,” the group said. “It also maintains the ability of landlords and developers to maintain a reasonable profit.”