Oklahoma’s closed eviction hearings are a transparency ‘black box,’ advocates say

Story by Ben Luschen and Mollie Bryant

Again, Beverly Douglas found herself waiting.

She waited two hours Tuesday morning inside Oklahoma County District Court for a judge to hear her eviction case. Douglas, a cancer survivor, has grown used to waiting in her life — waiting for the doctors to give her a clean bill of health, waiting for the chance to prove herself, waiting for bad news to turn into good news, to turn into better news.

There is never a good time to be in eviction court. That is particularly true during a global health crisis that, in addition to staggering death tolls, has gutted the national job market and plunged many into financial uncertainty. 

Before seeing a judge, Douglas sat with her own uncertainty over how a potential eviction would impact her living situation. 

“I’m sure there’s people worse off than me,” she said, “but I’ll have to either stay with somebody or in a motel. I haven’t even thought that far. It’s stress.”

Douglas rents a Midwest City home from Oakwood Property Management, Oklahoma’s No. 1 evictor during the pandemic, according to data from Oklahoma Policy Institute’s Open Justice Oklahoma program.

Public records show that since mid-March, Oakwood and two other companies filed evictions against several hundred tenants. They also received at least $1.5 million through a federal loan program meant to help businesses dealing with financial losses stemming from the coronavirus.

The president of one of those companies said the loan was a necessity to avoid layoffs, as many tenants have struggled to make rent, pushing down revenue. Two landlords said they’ve made efforts to work with renters, accepting partial payments or waiving fees to avoid evictions.

Potentially millions of people nationwide may face eviction during the pandemic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) placed a moratorium on evictions in early September, but advocates working to help Oklahomans stay in their homes say few are aware of the order.

According to data collected by Open Justice Oklahoma, more than 12,300 evictions have been filed in the state since March 15, with about 5,400 of those granted by a judge. During September, the number of evictions granted in Oklahoma rose slightly to 1,254, up 73 from the month before.

The CDC’s order halts certain evictions for the rest of the year as long as tenants can show their ability to pay rent has been impacted by covid-19 and they have sought government assistance with their payments. 

However, landlords don’t have a perfect track record of honoring a previous eviction ban. Big If True reported this year that landlords in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi filed evictions in violation of the CARES Act, a federal coronavirus relief package passed in March.

Some landlords filing evictions in spite of the new ban are doing so for reasons other than rent. The new rules don’t protect tenants who put the health or safety of other residents at risk or break their leases in other ways. Those facing eviction in Oklahoma include renters who violated the terms of their lease, but also those who may be eligible for protection under the ban and not know it.

Complicating matters is the challenge of social distancing in courtrooms that would be packed absent a pandemic. Oklahoma County District Court only allows people directly involved in an eviction case into the courtroom. During two instances in September, a reporter for Big If True was not allowed into the room where eviction cases were being heard. 

Those at risk of eviction rarely have attorneys, and some legal observers worry that even with an open door, this practice presents transparency issues. And ironically, the policy forces dozens of people into the hallway outside the courtroom, where social distancing is out of the question.

Before the pandemic, those facing eviction crowded into a single courtroom at a set time and waited to have their cases heard during what’s known as a docket call. Jennifer Montagna, an Oklahoma City-based attorney for Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, said judges decide whether or not to use a traditional docket call.

As a covid precaution, some judges choose to limit the courtroom only to those involved in one case at a time, a move that turns the hallway into its own docket call. 

Katie Dilks, executive director of Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation, said some Tulsa County judges are also limiting the number of people who can attend eviction hearings, effectively shielding the proceedings from the public. She called the lack of transparency “a major concern.”

“Court reporters are in short supply in Oklahoma and have to be requested at least two days in advance and cost $50,” she said, “so most eviction hearings are happening in an absolute black box to the public.”

At an upcoming meeting this month, Dilks said the Access to Justice Commission will consider a resolution calling for the courts to look into the feasibility of requiring small claims proceedings to be electronically recorded.

At a crossroads in eviction court

The case against 55-year-old Douglas, who was on Oklahoma County’s Tuesday eviction docket, was ultimately dismissed by a judge due to the CDC order. But Douglas is still waiting on several other things key to improving her financial stability.

Douglas has been in cancer remission for several years. She used to live with her former fiancé, who often worked two jobs at a time to support the couple. After he broke his leg in several places while on the job making storm shelter improvements, he was unable to work for a year, and his medical bills piled up.

Upon recovery, he was met with a job market stalled due to the pandemic. Douglas says the couple separated in May, and she has since been living alone.

She applied for financial assistance from the resource center Community Cares Partners but is still waiting to hear if her case qualifies for support. A job offer earlier this month from the US Census Bureau seems in doubt after the program was cut short. Douglas applied for Section 8 housing assistance in June and recently heard that she’d been added to a fast-track waiting list due to a disability. 

“I’m just waiting on that to kick in,” she said. “They said they would help me to where I wouldn’t even have to move at all. I’m just trying to buy a little time.”

Because of her health, Douglas tries to take extra caution against covid-19. She had some concerns about going out in public for her hearing.

“I think it’s pretty safe,” she said, “but let’s be serious. We’re in a courthouse.”

Masks are required in Oklahoma County District Court, and plexiglass has been put up between clerks and the public. During two hallway docket calls in September, every adult waiting outside eviction court was wearing a mask, but with dozens of people waiting to see the judge or speak with legal aid attorneys, social distancing was not possible.

Bessie Bruner, 59, was on the eviction docket two weeks ago. She said she has a heart condition and was recently on a breathing machine. Bruner was worried about adequate social distancing in court but was more concerned with how a potential eviction could put her at risk of contracting the virus, particularly given her existing health needs.

“I can’t do without electricity, and I surely can’t be out in no cold,” she said. “I’ve got high blood pressure, and I have a hard time breathing.”

Bruner does not work and lives alone in a northwest Oklahoma City apartment, though her children have been helping to take care of her recently. She also receives some food and aid from local churches and The Salvation Army. She likes where she lives and does not want to leave.

“I like my neighbors over there,” Bruner said. “We all get along. If one neighbor needs something, they’re there.”

She said her faith keeps her positive that her housing situation will be resolved. Still, she has moments of doubt. Her health, the pandemic and a potential eviction weigh heavily on her mind.

“It’s just making people stressed out,” Bruner said. “A couple of times it’s come to my mind just to jump off a bridge, but it ain’t worth all that.”

Some Oklahoma landlords broke an eviction ban, while others have worked to keep renters in their homes

In April, the US Small Business Administration launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which gave companies loans meant to save jobs as the pandemic shook the economy.

According to Open Justice Oklahoma’s court tracker tool, three Oklahoma property management companies – Oakwood Property Management, Atlas Property Management and LynCo Properties – filed more than 270 evictions since March 15. A database of PPP recipients shows that those businesses also received $1.5 to $3.35 million from the program.

The Small Business Administration released some information on the program, but not the exact amount that each business or nonprofit received. The agency also hasn’t released the names of companies that received less than $150,000, allowing those program details to escape public scrutiny.

Broken Arrow company Atlas, LynCo in Tulsa, and Oklahoma City-based Oakwood each manage apartment complexes, with responsibility for maintenance, collecting rent and evicting tenants.

Oakwood has been Oklahoma’s top evictor during the pandemic, filing more than 100 evictions since mid-March, according to Open Justice Oklahoma’s court tracker. The company received a PPP loan of $150,000 to $350,000, a federal database shows.

Isaac A. Williams, who didn’t return a call seeking comment, is listed as a member in state business filings for Oakwood Property Management. Public records show Williams owns Arapaho Properties, the No. 3 evictor in Oklahoma County during the pandemic.

County records said Arapaho Properties owns the Chateau DeVille and Glen apartment buildings in Oklahoma City. Arapaho has filed more than 40 evictions during the pandemic, most of which were dismissed. Court records obtained by Open Justice Oklahoma show that a judge dismissed about 10 of those cases because the complex was covered by the CARES Act eviction ban.

Atlas, which manages properties around the state, received $350,000 to $1 million through its PPP loan. The company has been Muskogee County’s top evictor during the pandemic, filing about 60 evictions since mid-March.

An Atlas employee refused to answer questions, including her full name, but said the evictions were spread across 13 different complexes.

LynCo, which received a PPP loan of $1 to $2 million, manages Urban Oaks and Darlington Oaks apartment complexes, which respectively filed the second and eighth highest number of evictions in Tulsa County during the pandemic. Since mid-March, more than 100 evictions were filed against tenants in both buildings, about 60 of which were granted by a judge.

LynCo President Gary Goss said that Darlington Oaks and Urban Oaks, which by itself had $59,000 in delinquent payments as of mid-August, are large properties that weren’t protected by the initial CARES Act eviction ban.

Goss said LynCo has been working to connect tenants with rental assistance to avoid evictions that cost the company $200 per filing.

LynCo, which manages about 5,200 rental units for about 50 properties across Oklahoma, has made a series of changes to how it operates to adapt to the current situation and limit evictions. Goss said the company has waived $200,000 in late fees since March and stopped charging certain fees for online payments.

During the pandemic, LynCo has given tenants at risk of eviction information on how to apply for rental assistance and how to be covered by the CDC ban, Goss said, in some cases helping them fill out the required paperwork.

LynCo applied for the PPP loan this year as a way to cope with revenue lost to overdue rent. Goss, who declined to say the specific size of the loan, said that it helped the company dodge layoffs.

“A lot of times, that’s the first thing to go is to try and trim the fat on some of these properties if maybe the owners think you’re overstaffed or whatnot, and we were able to keep everybody employed on these properties during this period,” Goss said. “It was a temporary crutch to help those respective properties get through that period, as well.”

CDC eviction ban still under the radar

Most mornings you can find Eric Hallett or another legal aid attorney outside Tulsa County District Court, hoping to intercept potential evictees before they step inside.

If someone outside the courthouse tells Hallett they are being sued for rent, he asks them if they’ve applied to receive aid through the CARES Act. Some of them have heard of the federal funds made available for housing assistance during the pandemic, while some have not. But when Hallett asks them whether they have heard of the CDC’s eviction moratorium, almost no one knows what he is talking about.

“I say, ‘Did you know I can stop your eviction right now?’ and people don’t even believe me,” he said. “The fact is lawyers don’t even believe me, because this is such an aberration in the law that there would be this unilateral executive action, non-legislative act, that fundamentally alters eviction like this.”

Hallett called the moratorium a “God-send” tool that leaves landlords with little recourse. Right before the CDC order was announced, he said Tulsa County was seeing about 100 eviction filings per day, compared to about 80 before the pandemic. While Hallett said it is possible eviction filings could slow down as landlords become more familiar with the order, statewide data shows filings were up slightly since the moratorium was put into place.

Montagna said legal aid attorneys in Oklahoma County go through new eviction filings and try to mail those renters information about the CDC moratorium and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, which provides free legal assistance to low-income people.

“A lot of times that mail is returned. People are moving out,” she said. “It’s really disturbing.”

There are limitations to the CDC order, however. Dilks said all eyes are still on Washington, DC and the legislators hashing through a second pandemic relief package.

“When the moratorium was announced,” she said, “the universal acclaim was, ‘Great, this is really important, and it absolutely needs to be accompanied by rental assistance, because if it doesn’t, then it’s at best a half measure.’”

Dilks said the state is fortunate in that it still has CARES Act money to apply to those in need, but that the money will stretch only so far, and more relief is needed.

Community Cares Partners received about $21 million in CARES Act funds from the state, Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County to distribute to those in need of assistance with rent, utility payments and other services.

Executive Director Ginny Bass Carl said that out of those funds, about $1.9 million had been spent on rental assistance as of Sept. 17.

While most locally allocated CARES Act money has yet to be dispersed to applicants, demand for assistance is quickly spiking. 

“From the prior week alone, we increased the spend by over 30%,” Bass Carl said in mid-September. “It’s truly a hockey stick. We are increasing our team in order to process more clients and provide more assistance as efficiently and effectively as we can.”

Additionally, a freeze on rent-based evictions means landlords and rental property owners are left without one of their most effective tools for collecting payment. A statement from the Apartment Association of Central Oklahoma said without rent payments, owners face a financial crisis of their own.

“(The CDC order) risks creating a cascade that will further harm the economy, amplify the housing affordability crisis, and destroy the rental housing industry,” the statement reads. “This housing crisis cannot be blamed on the rental housing industry, nor can the industry bear the brunt of the pandemic alone.”

As previously reported by Big If True, some landlords in Oklahoma have refused to accept rental assistance. Others, like LynCo and Aspen Way Apartments in northwest Oklahoma City, have accepted the support payments and have even helped residents apply.

Kristal Darby, property manager at Aspen Way, said her apartment has not evicted tenants who couldn’t make rent during the pandemic.  

“We’ve been working with them,” she said. “I’ve been doing the Community Cares application for some of them, because some of them are not really tech savvy. I’ve actually printed out the information, let them know who they can call for assistance, and we’ve also been waiving late fees.”

Goss, the president of LynCo, said that most of the evictions his property management company files are against tenants who didn’t communicate with their landlord.

“If they can make partial payments in the midst of trying to find some rental assistance funds,” Goss said, “or if we can help them find rental assistance funds, whatever that looks like, we’re here to help, but they can’t hide. They’ve got to communicate with us and let us work together with them.”

While Hallett will never lament a lack of evictions, he does sympathize with landlords and debt collectors who are losing income. He expects landlords and their attorneys to pivot from for-rent evictions and find other ways to evict that are not blocked by the moratorium, such as for-cause evictions.

“They have families to feed, and this is their business,” he said, “and suddenly their business is withering, so they’re going to do something to salvage that. They’re lawyers. They’re smart people, and they’re going to find a way to fight back.”

In Oklahoma City, a rapid increase in unsheltered homelessness

The pandemic has sent demand for Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers well past the state’s limit. Deborah Jenkins, executive director of Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (OHFA), said her agency is authorized to assist approximately 10,900 families through the affordable housing voucher program.

Before March, the total number of vouchers being used was around 10,100, but has spiked to nearly 10,800 today. Around 20,000 applicants and their families are on the agency’s voucher waiting list, up from 16,000 in May.

Jenkins said OHFA applauds the CDC’s eviction moratorium, but cautions that without needed rental assistance, it only delays the inevitable.

“For me personally,” she said, “I can’t imagine that any renter feels a sense of relief, not even temporarily, knowing that they could be facing homelessness right after the holidays during the middle of winter, especially with homeless shelters already at capacity.”

Homeless Alliance Executive Director Dan Straughan said the city’s shelter capacity is limited right now to accommodate social-distancing needs. While the number of people seeking shelter has not increased in the pandemic, Straughan says the real tale of homelessness in the city is more complicated.

“What we have seen in Oklahoma City is an increase in unsheltered homeless, so people in their cars or a tent out in the woods somewhere,” he said. “I don’t have solid data on what that increase is, but it’s pretty close to 50%.”

Though not ideal for shelter programs, distancing has helped keep transmission of the virus low in Oklahoma City’s homeless population thus far. The Homeless Alliance has bolstered its outreach initiatives since the pandemic, sending teams to homeless camps with food, water, hygiene items, masks and information about covid-19 and what to do if they or someone they know develops symptoms.

Because of the eviction moratorium, Straughan does not anticipate a sudden spike in the city’s homeless population through the end of the year. But when the order expires at the end of the year and unpaid rent has piled up, his fear is that a significant wave of homelessness could be coming.

“That will be disastrous,” Straughan said. “Even if we had the financial resources to address that quickly, we wouldn’t have the staff.”

Jenkins said without more federal rent relief, there is little the state or OHFA can do other than depend on available CARES Act money and other assistance. Above all, she urges people to continue making rent payments during the moratorium if possible, because the alternative creates an insurmountable obstacle to climb.

“We know the homeless population is dire here in Oklahoma,” Jenkins said, “and we don’t want to add to it if we can possibly prevent it.”

Ben Luschen is a writer and journalist based in Oklahoma City covering a wide range of subjects. He can be reached by email at okluschen@gmail.com. 

Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Twitter.

Correction: This story was updated Dec. 30, 2020 to correct information on the amount of money Community Cares Partners received in CARES Act funds. Community Cares Partners received about $21 million to provide rental assistance and other services in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma County and the state.

This report was funded by our readers. Big If True is a 501(c)(3) news nonprofit, and you can support our reporting here.