Oklahoma City’s eviction rates are more than double that of New York City.
More than 40% of evictions filed in Oklahoma County were from the same 100 properties.
Over the past 12 months, 37% of eviction claims were for less than $1,000. Fifty percent were for less than the median monthly rent. Only 1% were for more than six months’ median rent.
That information, and more, comes from a new data set compiled by The Eviction Lab at Princeton University in collaboration with Mental Health Association Oklahoma. The lab’s eviction tracker will now include Oklahoma City and be updated monthly.
Advocates said that Oklahoma’s eviction policies are attractive to large corporate landlords and harmful to tenants, and that policymakers should use the data to combat high filing rates across the state.
“It is really appealing to an out-of-state entity that is looking at a state to buy property or to build property if they know it will be easy and inexpensive to incorporate that (an eviction) into their business practices,” Amy Coldren, the director of advocacy and communications for Mental Health Association Oklahoma, said.
Coldren used Oklahoma’s eviction timeline, which is among the fastest in the country, and the state’s low eviction filing fees as examples of why it is easy for a landlord to use the eviction process as a rent-collection tool.
Rent collection
Nearly half of all evictions filed in Oklahoma County during the first quarter of this year were dismissed, and, of those dismissed, 18% were dropped before the first court hearing, according to data previously released from Mental Health Association Oklahoma.
“There was a case in Oklahoma County this week that was for $33 in past due rent that was dismissed the same day the case was filed,” Coldren said. “The issue is not that landlords are trying to remove bad tenants from their properties, because in most cases it’s not resulting in a tenant moving, but it is damaging to the tenant.”
Coldren said policy changes to Oklahoma’s eviction timeline and the sealing of eviction records could be a start toward addressing the problem.
There have been several attempts to extend Oklahoma’s eviction timeline, but none have been successful.
Previous Oklahoma Watch reporting detailed how most eviction records remain publicly available indefinitely unless they are sealed or expunged by a judge. Even eviction filings that were dismissed in the tenant's favor, filed in error, or were discriminatory, remain available to the public. Because those records are discoverable by other landlords, it can damage a tenant’s ability to find a place to live.
When landlords use the eviction process as a form of rent collection, it opens the door to serial evictions, in which landlords file multiple eviction cases against a single household to collect rent and additional fees without removing the tenants.
The addition of court fees and late fees makes it more difficult for tenants, especially those who are rent-burdened, to avoid being late on rent in ensuing months.
A quarter of Oklahoma renters qualified as extremely low-income, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. Those renters earned at or below 30% of the area’s median income, or about $30,000 for a four-person household. Affordable housing in Oklahoma is scarce, with an estimated shortage of 84,125 affordable, available rental homes.
Disproportionately harming women and people of color
While the lack of affordable housing harms extremely low-income renters, leading to more evictions, the data from The Eviction Lab found that evictions in Oklahoma City disproportionately affect women and people of color.
Despite just making up 22% of renters in Oklahoma City, Black renters make up 37% of all evictions filed. Female renters also face high eviction filings, making up 46% of all evictions filed. Though it is more representative, with the group making up 52% of the entire renter population.
“If you’ve spent any time on the sixth floor of the Oklahoma County courthouse, you can see that the tenants that are there facing eviction are mostly women and they are mostly women of color,” Coldren said.
A previous Oklahoma Watch investigation found that women of color and mothers are drastically overrepresented in eviction court both in Oklahoma and nationally.
Oklahoma City’s eviction history
This is not the first time Oklahoma City has been mentioned in research conducted by The Eviction Lab.
A decade ago, the lab published a list of the top 100 cities in the United States with the highest eviction rates. Oklahoma City ranked 20th, with an eviction rate of 6.19%. Tulsa ranked 11th, with an eviction rate of 7.77%.
The eviction map and ranking were among the lab’s first big projects, and they show data for every county in the U.S. from 2000 to 2018.
“The rate has doubled from back then,” Juan Pablo Garnham, the communications and policy engagement manager for The Eviction Lab, said.
Oklahoma City’s eviction rate is at 12%, according to the new data.
“Not much has changed in the legal aspect, but we have seen that eviction rates have increased a lot if we compare 2016 to the numbers we just published,” Garnham said.
Garnham used both Dallas and Austin as examples of cities where Oklahoma City has higher filing rates than. Dallas’ rates are at 10%, and Austin’s filing rates are just 5%.
“It’s (Austin) a city that has become increasingly unaffordable, yet the eviction filing rate is just 5%,” Garnham said. “Affordability and the rent prices are only one part of the problem.”
Garnham used the eviction rates of larger, more unaffordable cities, such as New York City and those along the West Coast, to further demonstrate that affordability is a factor but not the root cause.
“Policy has a big role to play,” Garnham said.
A lack of protections
Despite multiple attempts to balance the Residential Landlord-Tenant Act, which often favors the landlord, the bills have repeatedly been left on the cutting room floor. This past legislative session, multiple bills fell flat.
Katie Dilks, Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation executive director, said there is some low-hanging fruit that policymakers can address to reduce Oklahoma’s eviction rates.
She said a reasonable increase in the filing fee for an eviction is a start to reducing eviction rates.
“Small claims court is supposed to be the people’s court; it’s supposed to be low-barrier, but the reality of the situation is that the vast majority of cases are eviction cases and debt collection cases,” Dilks said. “One side is represented, and often a frequent player, and the other side is often an unrepresented low-income Oklahoman.”
Dilks said that stronger tenant remedies are also a way to reduce eviction rates. That would include allowing tenants to withhold rent if a landlord fails to make repairs, as has been implemented in other states, and allowing courts to hold landlords accountable through injunctive relief.
Oklahoma Watch, at oklahomawatch.org, is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that covers public-policy issues facing the state.
