Eugene family living in Bend trailer can return home, due to revised state eviction ban
(Update: adding video, comment from family)
Family hopes to return to Eugene home by January.
BEND, Ore (KTVZ) -- Being able to work remotely means Joel Erickson can move his family back to Oregon after leaving four years ago.
He's been in Bend for about a month.
"We sold our house in Florida and wanted to move back to Oregon," Erickson told NewsChannel 21 on Thursday.
But there's one problem: His house was occupied.
"I got ready to give my tenant notice that I was planning to move back in, and that's when I realized there was a moratorium in place," he said.
Erickson and his wife, Kayla, kept their house in Eugene and were renting it out.
While essentially in a state of limbo, the Ericksons purchased a 1996 Jayco trailer to be their temporary home.
That's for Joel, Kayla and their 8 and 5-year-old sons.
"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up,” Joel Erickson said. "It's our house. It's our homeschool. Everything is kind of this trailer."
Kayla added, "It's been really challenging with the kids."
But Joel couldn't give his tenant notice to leave.
He wasn't comfortable sharing contact information for that renter, so NewsChannel 21 was unable to reach him.
A section of Oregon's tenant law was suspended by House Bill 4213 and prevented Joel from serving his tenant notice he wanted to move back in. Gov. Kate Brown's recent executive order preserves the eviction ban, but it also allows people in Joel's position to give their tenant's a 90-day notice.
"I think it might have been because I actually did reach out to the Housing Committee in the Senate and asked them for help," Joel said.
And that should make his family a whole lot happier.
"It's going to be really nice to have room to cook -- room to run around, do cartwheels and things like that," Kayla said.
Joel Erickson said he intends to give his tenant, who is in the process of building a new home, the 90-day notice Friday, and he hopes to be back in his home by January.
