OKLAHOMA CITY – Legislation aimed at giving tenants a more balanced eviction timeline failed to receive a full Senate vote, but the bill’s sponsor said she’s not giving up on the issue.
Senate Bill 1575, co-authored by Sen. Julia Kirt (D-Oklahoma City), would have extended the window for an eviction trial from a minimum of five days to 10 days and increase the summons timeline, the notification a tenant receives before they’re due in court, from at least three days to seven days. The legislation would have kept the expedited trial timeline for cases with property damage or illegal activity.
“There are a couple of other bills on this issue that are still out there and I’m not going to give up,” Kirt said, adding that passage of SB 1575 this session was an uphill battle.
Sabine Brown, an analyst with the Oklahoma Policy Institute, said the measure would have helped reduce the homeless rate in Oklahoma. Brown noted the state’s eviction timeline is “pretty short” and doesn’t allow tenants to “show up in court or make arrangements on back rent.” The added days in the legislation would have given tenants more time to find new housing before they are homeless, Brown said.
“SB 1575 puts in statute what responsible, fair landlords already do when tenants can’t pay,” Kirt said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed the proposal 8-2.
However, critics of the measure believe tenants have more than enough time to make new living arrangements. Lawton property manager Brenda Spencer-Ragland said tenants sometimes have as much as 45-60 days to get their situation resolved.
“Let’s say rent is due April 1 and the tenant is late. Eviction is filed April 15. Then, you’re waiting for a court date and then there’s waiting for an execution date so they (tenants) have more than just five days,” she said. “Most property managers are willing to work with tenants, but tenants should communicate with property managers at the first sign of trouble. Property owners and managers don’t look for evictions.”
Most landlords try to avoid going to court to evict tenants, Spencer- Ragland said. “We try so hard not to do that. When we go through evictions, it’s not the first resort. You’re at your wits end,” she said.
In Comanche County, landlords and tenants are often told by judges to enter mediation before an eviction case is litigated, Spencer-Ragland said.
Spencer-Ragland believes SB 1575 is trying “to create a solution when it’s creating a problem” for property owners. Specifically in Lawton, some military personnel own rental property, but if tenants fail to pay their rent it could cause the property owner to default on their mortgage.
“If that happens, they could lose their security clearance,” Spencer-Ragland said. “Sometimes, the property owners are leasing the home just for enough to make the mortgage payment.”
The bill also received opposition from associations representing apartment complexes and realtors, Kirt said. However, she attempted to work with both groups in order to satisfy their concerns, which centered on tenants who have damaged rentals and committed crimes while living there. The lawmaker said she’s realistic about the measure passing.
“It’s going to take a lot more education about this issue,” she said.
Oklahoma has one of the highest eviction rates in the nation, Kirt said.
“People who have been evicted are less likely to find future housing and employment,” she said. “We need our system to encourage resolution before eviction whenever possible.”
Amanda Ewing is the executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Community Action Agencies, representing 17 community action agencies across the state. Ewing said most community action agencies own or manage housing for low-income Oklahomans in communities throughout the state.
“We support modernizing Oklahoma’s eviction statutes because this five-day extension can give renters the time they need to get another paycheck or make other arrangements to pay their rent, something that shorter notice periods can often prevent,” Ewing said. “It’s better for Oklahoma families and communities.”
Brown, who specializes in infrastructure and housing access, said part of the solution is for policymakers and lawmakers to increase access to affordable housing, and to ensure tenants who appear in court have legal representation.
“We need policymakers at the federal level to increase funding for Choice vouchers,” she said.
Figures from the National Low Income Housing Coalition show Oklahoma has a shortage of 81,638 rental homes that are affordable and available for extremely low-income renters.
Extremely low-income households are defined as being at or below the poverty guideline or 30% of their area median income. In Oklahoma, the maximum income for a four-person extremely low-income household is $26,500. At the same time, the housing coalition shows the annual household income needed to afford a two-bedroom rental home at HUD’s Fair Market Rent in Oklahoma is $37,436. In addition, 70% of extremely low-income households are severely cost burdened, which means they spend more than 30% of their net income on housing and utilities.
Legal eagles According to a 2021 statistical brief written by Open Justice Oklahoma, Tulsa has the 11th highest eviction rate among American cities, with more than 14,000 cases filed each year and 7,000 granted.
“Evictions have enormous, long-term destabilizing effects on families, and cities and counties spend millions each year to address the emergency needs of displaced residents,” the brief’s author Brancen Gregory wrote. “Some cities and states have begun providing legal representation to all tenants who have an eviction filed against them in order to protect their rights and reduce displacement.
This research brief examined the relationship of legal representation and eviction case outcomes in Tulsa County. Statistical analysis of data collected by Open Justice Oklahoma of eviction cases in Tulsa County from 2010 through 2020 shows that legal representation is significantly associated with greater odds of a tenant remaining in their home.