OSTA

Advocate for Resident Rights

Learn How To Make a Difference

It’s All About Who You Know

A great first step, is to know who your representatives are for your district. You will have a House Representative and a State Senator as well. You can visit the Oregon Legislature Website to find out who represents you at the capitol.

Find my Senator

Build A Strong Community

When residents in individual parks band together, through forming an tenants association or committee, they are able to spread the word about upcoming legislative changes which require action. When those committee members are also OSTA members, they will be the first to know what’s coming and what to do next.

OSTA Members Visit Senator Hayden

Be Ready to Make Your Voice Heard

OSTA will keep you informed of when it’s time to reach out to your representatives. Often the most compelling arguments for a bill are not made at the capitol, but rather through the heartfelt, genuine messages representatives receive from tenants just like you. A simple email or phone call can move mountains, especially when they hear from many people about the same issue.

It is also important to note that there is only a very short window of time in which to submit testimony, or public comment, on a bill. This becomes legal testimony and a permanent part of the bill’s record. Learn more about how to leave public comments below.

OSTA will make sure to keep members informed when it’s GO time!

Improving Tenant Lives One Legislative Session at a Time

OSTA has been advocating for park tenants since 1977. OSTA members were instrumental in forming the Manufactured Housing Landlord-Tenant Coalition which has existed since 1997. The Coalition has, since its inception, negotiated and gotten adopted a bill amending Manufactured Housing Landlord-Tenant law in every long legislative session since then. That’s over 12 consecutive legislative sessions. The secrets to our success are our thorough, detailed work, and our collaborative, consensus-building style.

The Oregon legislature likes collaboration among normally competing groups over complex and contentious issues. The Coalition was created, when the two sides – Manufactured Housing Park Landlords versus Manufactured Housing Park Residents – testified on opposite sides on a complex bill before the 1997 legislature. The committee chair, then State Senator Bill Kennemer, told the groups to go away and not come back until they had worked out an agreement. We did that, and have been doing so ever since.

The Coalition successes have included probably half of the statutes applicable to manufactured housing parks, and some applicable to marina tenancies, too.

Legislative Action Today

The Coalition is no longer in action today, but OSTA continues to work with other tenant advocacy groups and the channels for communication between the Landlords groups and those like OSTA remain open for collaboration. In today’s legislative climate, it is truly through our member’s actions and the actions of other residents statewide, that we are able to get legislation pushed through.

Take an active part in shaping future legislation.

ADVOCACY

Advocacy encompasses the actions one takes in order to effect change for a cause they are invested in.

Is There An Issue That is Important to You?

Are you experiencing issues at your park or marina that aren’t addressed by the law?

Or, perhaps, you are not satisfied with the current laws?

Check out our current campaigns to see if we are covering a topic that interests you and get involved with us!

OSTA Fights for YOU

Since 1977, OSTA has been fighting to positively impact park and maria tenants’ lives.

Nearly every right and protection that we have that is above and beyond apartment tenant rights was fought for and won by OSTA members.

fists in the air

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” – Kalu Ndukwe Kalu