OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – The state of Oklahoma has seen 1,668 eviction notices and nearly 300 foreclosures filed since March 15, according to data published by Oklahoma Policy Institute’s Open Justice Oklahoma initiative.
Almost 400 of the evictions are in Oklahoma County. With the courts set to reopen on May 18, those evictions will start to be heard by judges again after being put on hold during the pandemic as people lost their jobs.
“Any of us who are luckier than the rest of us just be prepared to help,” said Jerod Shadid, a program planner for Oklahoma City Homeless Services.
Shadid said worries linger about the amount of people that will end up homeless after this backlog of evictions are dealt with.
“We’re very worried about it,” he said. “We’re preparing for it as if it’s going to need to be addressed very, very, very quickly.”
According to The Homeless Alliance Executive Director Dan Straughan, not all of them will become homeless. However, if any do, homeless shelters may struggle.
“If 200-300 of them become homeless, that would be a significant percentage increase on our total homeless population in Oklahoma City,” Straughan said.
The homeless population on any given night in Oklahoma City is about 1,500, Straughan said. This will possibly add to it when there is no more room in the shelters.
“We’re at capacity as it is,” Straughan said. “It’s going to be a really challenging next couple of months.”
The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for enforcing those evictions.
“We want to be as helpful as possible,” said Mark Myers with the Sheriff’s Office.
They have to abide by a judge’s order if they rule in favor of a landlord. However, they have 60 days to serve the notice. Myers said he hopes that 60-day window will give people enough time to make arrangements.
“We’re going to be sensitive to what’s currently going on with the health threat,” Myers said.
The state is set to distribute more than $1 billion in federal funds from the CARES Act; $1.4 million is already in the hands of Shadid and Homeless Services for eviction prevention. However, with the possibility of this being a long-term problem, Shadid said he still has concerns.
“I still don’t know if that will be enough,” Shadid said.
According to Shadid, some renters are protected by the CARES Act until that is up in late July. However, he said that only covers about a quarter of rental properties in the city.
The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency also said they have a lot of people waiting for renters assistance. In Oklahoma County alone, there are more than 7,700 on the waiting list. Statewide, they said they are looking at more than 16,000, claiming they can only assist a little over 10,000 at any given time.
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