SALEM, Ore. – After months of rallies, messages to legislators, and packed hearing rooms, Fair Shot for All celebrated victories for behavioral health care workers and immigrant families. But coalition leaders warned that lawmakers left dangerous gaps in housing protection and worker rights that will harm Oregon's most vulnerable communities.
"We won real victories that will keep families together and workers safe," said Justice Rajee, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at the Urban League of Portland, "But lawmakers missed opportunities to ensure every Oregonian has a fair shot."
Fair Shot for All is a statewide coalition of community groups and labor unions that has helped win major advances in Oregon like paid sick days, a higher minimum wage, and protections for reproductive freedom. The 2025 Fair Shot Agenda included four priorities:
United We Heal
Lawmakers invested $7.1 million in behavioral health worker safety training, loan repayment, and improving career pathways (HB 2024).
“This funding is a lifeline for the front-line mental-health and addiction-recovery workers who meet Oregonians at their most urgent moments,” said Lamar Wise, policy director for Oregon AFSCME. “It will help us train new staff, keep seasoned behavioral health specialists on the job, and make clinics and recovery centers safer for workers and patients.”
Immigrant Justice Package
Lawmakers funded key parts of the immigrant justice package: $15 million for Universal Legal Representation; $2 million for the Farmworker Disaster Relief Fund; $750,000 for Indigenous Language Justice; and a partial investment in the Home Fund (rent assistance). However, they left out Food for All Oregonians, which would have provided food assistance to immigrant children under six.
“We made important progress protecting immigrant families, but we cannot turn our backs on babies and children facing hunger in Oregon simply because of where they were born,” said Ira Cuello-Martinez, policy director at PCUN.
Stable Homes for Oregon Families
While lawmakers passed SB 599, banning discrimination based on immigration status in housing, they failed to advance SB 722 to extend rent caps to new construction and ban AI rent hikes. Legislators also cut emergency rent assistance funding by more than 74% of the current service level adjusted for inflation, leaving an estimated 20,000 households at risk of eviction.
“We passed a critical nondiscrimination protection, and that matters,” said Kim McCarty, executive director of Community Alliance of Tenants. “But gutting rent assistance means thousands more families will be pushed toward homelessness. The cheapest way to address homelessness is to prevent it in the first place.”
Workforce Standards Boards
Lawmakers approved a farmworker standards study (HB 2548) but failed to advance a long-term care standards board (HB 3838), leaving Oregon's 72,000 farmworkers and tens of thousands of care workers still without a voice in setting fair wages and working conditions.
“The farmworker study is a first step, but workers need a real board with enforcement power to win fair pay and safe conditions,” said Alberto Gallegos, political strategist for SEIU Oregon. “Farmworkers and long-term care workers are vital to Oregon. They deserve a real seat at the table.”
Heather Stuart, coalition director at Fair Shot for All, said state action is crucial as the federal government targets immigrant Oregonians, erodes core freedoms, and cuts vital funding. "Oregon showed we can still win protections, but there's much more work ahead."
"Lawmakers listened to communities and delivered real wins for behavioral health care workers and immigrant families," Stuart said. "But by leaving out renters, hungry children, and low-wage workers, we reinforce the very inequities we should be working to fix. The Legislature still has work to do. Oregon families are counting on us. "
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