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Michael Dunne: I'm Michael Dunne. In a community where homelessness is such an issue, the added curse of housing discrimination can create an almost impossible situation for many. Such discrimination is often aimed at people who are challenged to defend themselves, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Today on the show, you'll hear from the Fair Housing Council of Oregon and learn how they defend against this type of discrimination throughout our community and state. Sometimes those with disabilities face the double whammy of being denied housing at the outset or denied reasonable accommodation once they take up residence. Then we'll finish the show by talking to the Register-Guard about the slow but steady progress of an emergency room potentially opening up back in Eugene. Jaime Gatewood, education and outreach and development manager for Fair Housing Council of Oregon, Jaime, thanks so much for coming on and talking with us.
Jaime Gatewood: Yeah, thank you so much for having me today. Glad to be here.
Dunne: Why don't we start here: What is the Fair Housing Council of Oregon? What do you do?
Gatewood: The Fair Housing Council of Oregon is a statewide civil rights organization. What we do is proactively promote housing justice, equity and inclusion. Our mission is to end illegal housing discrimination, and the way that we try to meet our mission and goals is through education, telling people about their fair housing rights, and for housing providers, educating them about their responsibilities under fair housing laws. We also have an enforcement team. What they do is directly advocate for people who are experiencing illegal discrimination in housing based on their protected class. We like to think of those as their protected identity.
Dunne: How do you work in terms of education? Do you hold seminars and classes online? How do you spread the message throughout the state?
Gatewood: We actually do it in a lot of different ways. We do in-person trainings, and usually we partner with community-based organizations to do those. That can be for their staff, like home visitors and advocates, folks who are basically working with the groups most affected by housing discrimination in our state. So that might be families with kids. It might be culturally specific organizations working with folks who have immigrated to this country, people of a different national origin, people of specific races. Some groups experience more discrimination than others. Definitely folks with disabilities. So we partner with them and come in to do trainings. Then we also do trainings for community members at large, for renters and homebuyers. Those are the folks who need to know about their rights so they can stand up for themselves if discrimination happens. And then we do a lot of online training as well.
Dunne: Talk about the challenges and even barriers that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities face in Oregon related to housing.
Gatewood: We were able to do some listening sessions with members of the IDD community and their families and support workers. We really got to understand the specific barriers this community faces. We hear a lot about discrimination against people who are trying to get accommodations in housing. That can be a change to a physical part of their housing, like widening a doorway or having grab bars in their showers or kitchens, adaptive kitchens. And sometimes it's a change to a policy rule or procedure. For example, if there's a property that says no animals, period. But then somebody might need an animal to restore equal access or enjoyment of their housing. In fair housing, we call them assistance animals. If they have a disability and that need is verified by a qualified individual, then they should be able to have that assistance animal. But we hear a lot about housing providers who are not willing to make those accommodations, which is actually illegal under the Federal Fair Housing Act.
Dunne: We've all been familiar for decades with the Americans with Disabilities Act. How does that come into play in terms of both the law and helping your organization educate and enforce laws on the books?
Gatewood: The Americans with Disabilities Act has some crossover with housing, but it really applies to public accommodation. ADA laws apply to where members of the public can go. When we talk about the crossover with housing, it would be places like leasing offices, parking lots, sidewalks, anywhere where the public can come in. That's where ADA law would apply. But it's really fair housing law, the Fair Housing Act, that has the enforcement mechanism for housing. So if people experience discrimination, they can file a claim under those laws and under Oregon state law as well.
Dunne: In any way you can contextualize, how many people in Oregon might be subject to discrimination or barriers based on a disability?
Gatewood: Here's the way I think about it. Fair Housing Council of Oregon gets over 2,000 contacts a year. Fifty percent of those are people with disabilities. So it's a huge chunk of the intakes we get altogether. Interestingly enough, that number is also true federally. Fifty percent of all fair housing inquiries that come across different entities like ours, which is called a fair housing initiative program, or other enforcers of fair housing law, are from people with disabilities. And when you think about it, what we know is that only about one in 10 acts of housing discrimination is ever reported. So there's probably a lot more discrimination happening for this population than we even hear about.
Dunne: I'm wondering too, with whatever numbers or context you can offer: Is it often discrimination, or misunderstanding, or a balance of both?
Gatewood: We can see both, but when you think about it in terms of the law, if a housing provider is violating the law, even if it's a misunderstanding, it's still a violation. What we try to do is educate everyone across the board about what fair housing is, so hopefully they can avoid those misunderstandings. A really great thing that happens at Fair Housing Council of Oregon is that we can resolve about 70 percent of all of the inquiries that come to us. We call them fair housing complaints. About 50 percent can be resolved with advocacy, and usually that's just talking to a housing provider or a landlord and educating them about the law, because a lot of times they just didn't know. So rather than go through the process of filing a claim, we can work with them through education. They are often really agreeable to changing their policy so they're no longer in violation of the law.
Dunne: In terms of the largest number of violations: Is it often that a landlord simply refuses to rent to someone with a disability, or is it that they rent to them but then refuse to make accommodations to make that person's life in the unit more livable?
Gatewood: We hear about both, but in terms of numbers, refusal of accommodations is something we hear about even more often than a flat-out refusal to rent. And sometimes it's really hard to determine what's going on. A housing provider might become cold and aloof and just stop the conversation when they find out that somebody in the family has an intellectual or developmental disability. Sometimes they just stop returning phone calls. It's pretty rare that they'll actually say outright, "We don't rent to people with IDD." It's a lot trickier the way it's done. But when you look at the situation, it's pretty clear in most cases. They find out, and then they just stop the conversation. In terms of sheer numbers, refusal of accommodations happens more often.
Dunne: Take us through an example. If somebody feels they're being discriminated against, how can they work with your agency? Take us through the process.
Gatewood: You would start off with an intake. People can make contact with our organization in a couple of different ways. We have an intake and investigations phone number where they can call. Sometimes someone will be available to pick up, but it's a very small group, small but mighty, and they do respond to folks as they can through voicemails in the order that they're received. We don't provide emergent services, which means we can't necessarily call someone back the next day if it's a very time-sensitive matter, simply because we are a smaller group. Folks can also contact us through our online portal. There's a large magenta button at the top of every page on our website that says "Report Discrimination," and that's another way to get added to our list. At that point, someone from our intakes and investigations team will call and start talking about the situation, do some investigation and make sure it's a bona fide fair housing claim: that it happened in housing and that it was happening to a member of a protected class, like someone with a disability. Then they talk with them about what steps they would like us to take. We always wait for permission before we reach out to a housing provider or landlord to talk to them about the law. Sometimes it just means advocating for a reasonable accommodation or another policy change. If that advocacy doesn't work, or if the person prefers, we can also assist them in filing a claim with the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which has a whole fair housing investigation team. I think a lot of people don't know that about the Bureau of Labor and Industries here in Oregon. Or sometimes with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is another enforcement mechanism. We also have an attorney pool, so we can connect people with a lawyer or other legal services. Disability Rights Oregon is another group we partner with, as is Legal Aid Services of Oregon.
Dunne: As I found out, April is Fair Housing Month. Talk about how important it is in terms of spreading this message, both for people who are in need of housing and for people who rent houses, or just the community in general.
Gatewood: The Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968, and despite the 58 years since its passage, we still see a lot of discrimination happening today. Everyone deserves access to safe housing regardless of who they are, regardless of their race, color or national origin, whether they have kids, whether they're using a rental subsidy, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity. There are a lot of protected groups, and everyone deserves access to housing. But the reality is that's not what's happening, and that's why we're really glad to be doing this work. We're the only civil rights organization in Oregon fully focused on housing discrimination. We partner with other groups who are also helping enforce the laws, but we're working hard to advocate for people and educate people about their rights, so that when discrimination happens, they'll be able to identify it and know how to get help.
Dunne: She's Jaime Gatewood, the education and outreach and development manager for Fair Housing Council of Oregon. Jaime, really appreciate you coming on and talking with us.
Gatewood: Thank you so much for having me today. I appreciate it.
Dunne: Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard, and he now brings us an update on something the Eugene community has been hoping for years: a new hospital emergency room. Alan, great to see you.
Alan Torres: Yeah, thanks.
Dunne: I read your story about the potential for an emergency room by McKenzie-Willamette taking a step forward. Let's go back a couple years ago, when McKenzie-Willamette announced they wanted to open an emergency room in downtown Eugene. What's been the latest? Your story was about a hearing. What happened there?
Torres: McKenzie-Willamette submitted its initial land use application to build the hospital back in fall 2025 and then submitted an updated proposal last February that got its official land use hearing last week. At that hearing, officials with the developer behind the project, as well as the city, basically made the case for why this hospital meets the various land use criteria. We haven't heard the official decision yet, but it seemed to go well for the developer.
Dunne: And where might the project be located?
Torres: It's proposed to go at the block where the Kia dealership used to be, right between the Jack in the Box and the McDonald's, in that area of Sixth and Seventh.
Dunne: You mentioned it seemed to go well for the developer. So what's the process? If they clear this hurdle, what happens next?
Torres: If the hearings official says they're free to build, then it would move from the land use phase, which is just determining that this is an allowed use and approving the general site plan, to more specific development permits: wastewater, electrical, that sort of thing.
Dunne: This is Eugene, obviously, and a lot of times people might protest a sunny day. But reading your article, was there any opposition expressed?
Torres: Not at this hearing. There have been community concerns around the hospital generally, and at the neighborhood meeting they held a while back there were some negatives. But no one testified against it at the land use hearing.
Dunne: As I understand it, the city was there. City staff was there. What were some of the things they said? Was city staff basically saying they approve this?
Torres: Yes, staff did approve it. And then it moves up to the next level, which is a neutral hearings official. But yes, city staff approved the application, and at that hearing they made the case that McKenzie-Willamette met the land use requirements. They also went a bit off script to talk about how having a hospital again would just be good for the community.
Dunne: This is a long timeline, isn't it? We're not talking about an emergency room that could be built in the next 12 months or so. What's the timeline looking like?
Torres: Most likely not. It was a little unusual. Usually an application like this is for an 18-month timeline, and this particular application asked for a 10-year timeline. I'm sure you've heard a lot about uncertainty within the medical industry very recently, and that was more or less why McKenzie-Willamette asked for the longer timeline, given the uncertain financial nature of the hospital industry.
Dunne: From what you could tell, are there any potential issues with the site or proposal that might be problematic down the road?
Torres: City staff didn't seem to think so. They did ask for a few of the typical requirements to be waived, largely around vegetation and ambulance access, that sort of thing. But like I said, the hearing seemed to go well.
Dunne: Downtown Eugene has been without an emergency room for quite some time, and it's been a huge issue. Have any elected officials weighed in? From the big decision makers in this town, does it seem like this is going to happen?
Torres: I'll say that if it doesn't happen, I don't think it's going to be the city's fault. I haven't really heard city councilors or county commissioners go out of their way to support this project. But when PeaceHealth closed the University District hospital, all of those local officials were very critical of that decision. I would imagine they would support this now.
Dunne: We'll see how it goes. It might take some time. Alan Torres covers local government for the Register-Guard. Always appreciate your insight. Thanks so much.
Torres: Thank you.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner and the Sierra Club will join us to talk about important investments the state has made toward the environmental sustainability movement and using pension funds to reduce carbon pollution. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
