Oklahoma City could see thousands lose their homes in coming months due to record unemployment and economic turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Attorneys and academics told The Oklahoman a moratorium on eviction hearings, once ended, will be followed by a wave of evictions creating a homeless population not seen since the Great Depression.
Court records reviewed by The Oklahoman show the number of filings over the past two weeks has slowed — but that trend won't continue after the pandemic, warns Richard Klinge, director of the Pro Bono Eviction Assistance Program at Oklahoma City University. The state’s unemployment rate hit record levels within weeks of the outbreak, with first-time claims on unemployment insurance up by nearly 800%.
Nearly 100,000 Oklahomans, more than the entire population of Edmond, filed initial claims in the past two weeks.
“I don’t see how these people are going to be able to pay their bills,” Kinge said. “It’s a tsunami coming on the horizon as people can’t pay their rent.”
The Pro Bono Eviction Assistance Program under Klinge has helped 650 families — more than 1,300 men, women and children — facing eviction and other landlord issues since the organization was started in 2018. That is only a fraction of total evictions the state could see this year alone.“Before COVID-19 struck, based on filings to date in Oklahoma County, 14,000 cases would be set for Oklahoma County in 2020,” Klinge said. “That means more than 30,000 men, women and children will be facing eviction from their homes.
“Now, given the COVID-19 situation and the resulting massive unemployment, the numbers throughout Oklahoma will grow exponentially,” Klinge said.
Normal eviction processes have been disrupted, slowed or stopped altogether as a result of the coronavirus. The CARES Act passed by Congress put a 120-day moratorium on evictions for property owners with federal funding used for mortgages, financing or rent assistance. On March 16, the Oklahoma State Supreme Court “strongly urged” courts to stop hearing non-emergency cases, including evictions, and doubled down on that message March 27.
About the same time, Oklahoma County Sheriff P.D. Taylor put a stop to enforcing eviction orders.But landlords continue filing evictions, creating a backlog of cases to be attended to later.
“We could be potentially seeing thousands of evictions happening and being executed all at the same time,” Gentzler said. “Either all of those thousands will show up at court and it will be a public safety disaster having everyone in court filing evictions or it will be equally disastrous if they don’t show.”
Brigid Kenedy, an attorney who represents landlords including Aspen Place and Yes Companies, isn’t convinced a flood of eviction filings by landlords will hit courts when they reopen. She said landlords must balance the situation at hand with how to stay in business.“They’re doing everything they can to work with tenants,” Kennedy said. “They don’t want to lose them. "It doesn’t serve anyone’s interest.”
Keep reading on the Oklahoman.
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