Oregon business owners ask lawmakers for more time to repay late rent
Updated Mar 17, 2021;
Posted Mar 17, 2021
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The TeaScape Massage and Teahouse in Southeast Portland had been open just two months last year when Oregon ordered it and other massage therapists to close in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak.
Those restrictions eased a couple months later, but only about a third of TeaScape Massage’s clientele has returned. That left the business with far more in expenses than revenue. Owner Miho Hatanaka told Oregon lawmakers Tuesday that her business is now $25,000 behind on rent.
Oregon lawmakers allowed the state’s moratorium on commercial evictions to expire last September but gave business owners until the end of March to repay their outstanding rent, potentially preventing an onslaught of commercial evictions over the last six months.