Oklahoma senator proposes eviction reforms to curb homelessness, but landlords concerned

Oklahomans facing eviction have more warning and more time for a trial under a measure being proposed by an Oklahoma City senator.

State Sen. Julia Kirt, a Democrat, said Senate Bill 1575 would extend the window for setting an eviction trial to 10 business days and extend the timeline for notice of a trial to a week. Kirt said the state's short eviction timeline compounds the problem for a majority of those who face eviction. She said her bill would give renters more time to come up with back-rent or find a new place to live.

Under current state law, renters facing eviction have only five days' notice of their eviction hearing, then 48 hours to get out. Kirt said giving people more time could help prevent homelessness.

“Giving tenants a little more time to figure out their next step, whether it is coming up with their rent money or another place to live, can help reduce homelessness, and that’s better for families, taxpayers and our economy,” she said in a media statement announcing the measure.

Evictions in Oklahoma at an all-time high

The short time frame and the state's weak legal protections for renters have led to a record number of evictions in Oklahoma, one think tank said. According to the Oklahoma Policy Institute, 46,688 eviction cases were filed in 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels.

In Oklahoma County, court records show eviction filings for 2023 increased by 1,799 compared to the same period in 2019. In Tulsa County, there were 2,936 evictions in March 2020, up from 1,700 a year earlier. Nationwide, several Oklahoma cities are in the top 100 cities for evictions, data from the Eviction Lab, an organization that collects eviction data, showed. Tulsa ranked 11th in the nation, Oklahoma City ranked 20th, Norman was listed at 83rd and Broken Arrow 90th.

Kirt said the majority of those facing homelessness are families with children. And, because eviction is one of the root causes of homelessness, the resulting instability can make it more difficult for adults to keep their jobs and can undermine their children’s ability to stay in and do well in school.

Kris Steele, the executive director of The Education and Employment Ministry, agreed.

"There is no question when a person does not have shelter or a place to live, they are going to engage in acts of survival," Steele said. "If you're homeless, you'll do just whatever you have to do to make ends meet."

Steele said the staff at his organization — which provides employment and education for former inmates seeking to reenter the workforce — spend a great deal of time trying to connect clients with housing.

"Our case managers spend 70 percent of their time just to get people into housing," he said. "So anything that can help prevent eviction is encouraging. We're grateful Sen. Kirt is working on this issue. There is no doubt it can help."

Those who have been evicted also can face barriers to obtaining housing in the future. Kirt said studies showing a prior eviction is more concerning to landlords when screening a prospective tenant than job insecurity, criminal history or income. Evictions also are expensive for landlords and taxpayers.

More time can help people avoid homelessness

Sabine Brown, an analyst for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, said Kirt's bill could help tenants and help fight homelessness.

"Absolutely it would help," she said. "Our eviction timeline is relatively short and doesn’t give tenants a lot of time. These little changes to stretch out the timeline would give tenants more time to actually make arrangements with their work and for things like child care."

Giving renters more time to deal with a possible eviction, Brown said, will help to keep renters in their homes.

Landlords have doubts about the proposal

Industry groups, however, said they have concerns.

Keri Cooper, executive director of the Tulsa Apartment Association, said housing providers care very much about the people who live in their homes and apartment communities.

"Eviction is an unpleasant experience for all that are involved," Cooper said in a statement to The Oklahoman. "Many of the managers also become financial counselors to their residents, helping them learn how to budget so they can pay their rent on time each month to avoid late fees and eviction filings. If residents communicate with housing providers that they are going to have trouble paying rent, the majority of the time housing providers are willing to work with their residents."

Cooper said many housing providers will connect their residents to resources for rent assistance and other assistance that may be needed by the resident.

"However, in many cases the housing provider reaches out to the resident when rent is late and never receives a response from the resident. During the pandemic housing providers worked out systems to receive partial rent payments, accept promises to pay, work out payment plans, waive late fees and in some circumstances, forgive rent that was owed," she said.

She said experience has shown that if a resident gets behind in rent, it is difficult for those renters to get caught up.

"The later residents pay their rent in the month, the less likely it is they are going to pay at all, and the more likely they'll fall further behind. More often than not, housing providers are willing to waive late fees if a plan can be put in place for the resident to get caught up on rent," she said.

Cooper said Sen. Kirt’s statement that “a process that can take weeks in other states is just days in Oklahoma” makes it seem that someone can be evicted from their home in days, and that is simply not true.

"It takes at least 30 days to evict someone, and that is if everything happens quickly without appeal," she said.

Cooper said it may seem that Sen. Kirt’s bill is only adding a “few more days," but the reality is that this Kirt's bill is potentially adding additional months to the eviction process.

"And that is time a person could live in their rental home without paying the rent they agreed to pay when they signed their lease agreement," she said.

Kathy Portley, president of the Tulsa Real Estate Investors Association, told the media outlet Oklahoma Voice that good landlords struggle to make a profit for numerous reasons, including the rising cost of construction materials for repairs, higher interest rates, and city building codes and fees. She also said just because the court filing fee is low, it doesn’t mean evictions are easy or inexpensive.

“If you do it with an attorney, it’s a whole lot more and it doesn’t guarantee it will get done,” Portley said. “So, you may have to start completely over, pay again and wait 60 days.”

Kirt countered that the state's current law can result in families ending up on the streets.

"(This is) something we saw playing out in some 300 families facing eviction the week of Christmas in Oklahoma County,” she said. “Homelessness also results in increased reliance on programs funded by taxpayers and nonprofits. We’re not giving tenants a free pass but giving them just a few more days can result in a better outcome for all the stakeholders.”

State lawmakers will have the opportunity to examine the bill when the Oklahoma Legislature returns in February.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Eviction bill targets homelessness in Oklahoma; landlords concerned