Oregon Laws on # People/room in Own House (Not Appartment or Duplex Ect.)...

I believe that there is more to it then just people per a room I think they also take into account the size of the room there must be so much square footage extra in the room per an extra person.

Hi KBS,

I know that the US has an 'occupancy statute' and you can find it on the hud.gov site:
a 1991 internal memorandum from former HUD General Counsel Frank Keating, which states that an occupancy standard of two persons per bedroom will generally be considered reasonable under the Fair Housing Act.
Currently, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Oregon have laws providing that two persons per bedroom, as a general rule, are presumptively reasonable. Approximately 24 state equivalency agencies use two persons per bedroom as the presumptively reasonable standard.
These guidelines are based off that assumption that each bedroom would be at least 70 square feet (7 feet x 10 feet), so if you have a bigger bedroom you could argue the case for more occupants.

Additionally, I found that........
The Oregon Fair Housing Council (FHCO), recommends the more conservative two individuals per bedroom plus one more individual for the unit. For example, a housing provider limited a two bedroom-home to five individuals. This "two plus one" formula will help insulate the housing provider from fair housing violations based on occupancy in most situations. That being said, if the bedrooms are overly large, neither the "two per bedroom" nor the "two plus one" would be considered appropriate.

Legally limiting occupancy does not allow housing providers the right to dictate who sleeps where or with whom. Similarly, housing providers may not require that children of different sexes sleep in separate rooms.

And now for the unsolicited advise. These are guidelines and we are not lawyers or DHS caseworkers.
The bottom line is that you either need to call a lawyer or ask DHS.

The bottom bottom line is that if DHS told you you have too many kids sharing a room, then you have too many kids sharing a room and you need to comply with the DHS plan, regardless of what the state or US guidelines are.

Good Luck.

I am sorry I do not have the answer to your question....but...if you OWN your own house who would be checking???

~Edit~
I just read your other posts and see who would be checking...all I can say is I wouldn't want to be messing around with them...if they think you have too many people in your house, you should do something about it.

If you own your house, there is no rule about how many people you can have there. If you're renting, the landlord tenant laws state 2 ppl/room + 1 child under a certain age (that I think is six - once over six they need their own room). However, if you have a situation where someone is coming into your home (ie - you own it) to evaluate your living conditions and/or the safety of the children they will take a lot of things into consideration and not just the number of people. You could have 1 person per room, but if it's filthy or unsafe you will have problems.

Kids grow. And they grow fast. You can't have them sleeping in drawers (or in closets). You need a bigger space to live in. Part of food clothing and shelter means providing adequate space for sleeping and living. You need to find another place for your family to live. Contact a womens shelter. They can help you find a place.
Additional:
Where we use to live they had maximum occupancy laws for every dwelling (rental or otherwise) because of a problem they were having with illegal immigrants. A small rental 3 bedroom house would sometimes have 30-40 men sleeping there. This was 6 houses down the street from me so I saw it first hand. There were sheets on the windows as curtains and nothing but mattresses for furnishings. The plumbing would often overflow and it wasn't unusual to wake up to find a few guys peeing in your garden. Every weekend would end with empty Corona beer bottles/cans all over the neighborhood. There are lots of reasons you don't want a flop house springing up in your neighborhood and occupancy laws helps keeps that from happening.

I wouldn't advertise it on a billboard that you have a ton of people in one room, but two per room is what I have heard in WA. However, this is mostly enforced for rental situations. I haven't ever heard of anyone having this enforced on a homeowner with the acception of when there are other charges. It is also neglect if your kids get lice in the state of WA, but you are only going to have a prob with CPS if you are being investigated for other things. Its for building a pattern of behavior. Good luck.

As far as living in low income housing the landlord want to get the highest amount of rent subsidized they can so if the family is living with too many people and the rent is.....say %500 but a larger apt or home would rent for $800 and still have the family pay the same amount of rent and the subsidy would cover the rest they are going to enforce the family to move.

In the case of a family who owns their own home but has excess children in the rooms and someone has the ability to decide if the ratio is correct or not then they usually go by these same guidelines. If there are more than 2 children in the bedroom and they are too far apart in age, or different genders, they will enforce the changes. It may be time to move. Or call the HUD office in your county to see if they can answer your questions.

I'm sorry, I don't know Oregon law but I know the law where I live. It is two per room + 1 in the house. My three bedroom house would allow 7. This is for homeowners as well as renters. Hopefully you can confirm the laws in your state.