A court order told him to move out 24 hours ago, but Benjamin Masterson came downtown to tell a judge why he was still living in a Tulsa apartment despite not paying rent for several months.
“I have nowhere to go,” he said outside the courthouse before last week’s hearing. “I would be homeless.”
A brief gap in a federal eviction moratorium allowed local courts to move forward this month on some cases that had been pending for as long as a year. President Joe Biden initially said he wouldn’t extend the moratorium, which had been in place in one form or another since summer 2020, then changed his mind just three days later, despite federal courts suggesting that it would likely be declared unconstitutional.
Masterson, having lost a job during the COVID-19 shutdowns, had been covered by the moratorium before, and hoped to be covered by it again. But it protects only tenants who say they can’t afford to pay rent because of the pandemic. It doesn’t cover other alleged violations of a lease.
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This time, Masterson was being evicted for not renewing his lease.
“I want to renew it,” he said, “but the landlord won’t let me. It’s just a way to get around the moratorium.”
As the moratorium expired, and wasn’t expected to be reinstated, Tulsa was bracing for a huge wave of new eviction cases. It didn’t hit immediately, but ironically the wave came just after the White House extended the moratorium until early October.
The first three days of August saw a relatively low evictions rate, but cases flooded into court over the next two days, with 73% more evictions filed in early August compared to early July, and more than double the number of cases from early June, according to data from the Oklahoma Policy Institute.
“If you look at just the first five business days of each month, August definitely saw a jump in filings,” said Ryan Gentzler, research director for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, which tracks eviction numbers statewide.
Beyond the sheer number of cases, court observers have noticed another trend as well. As the eviction moratorium continues, more and more Tulsa landlords seem to be looking for loopholes, according to attorneys who are working with tenants.
“We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of evictions filed because the lease terminated or for alleged lease violations,” said Eric Hallett, a Legal Aid attorney who works with tenants free of charge. “If those families are in Tulsa, they are forced to move.”
In some other counties, judges have taken a broader interpretation of the moratorium and won’t move forward with an eviction even after the lease has expired, Hallett said.
A Tulsa judge gave Masterson until mid-September to find a new place to live. And in the meantime, he’s applying for rental assistance to help pay for a different apartment.
The federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program has distributed more than $8.6 million in rental and utility payments to more than 1,800 households across Tulsa County since the effort began in March, officials said.
The program could just as easily be described as “landlord assistance,” said Jeff Jaynes, the executive director of Restore Hope Ministries, which is administering Tulsa’s rental assistance.
“We’re pro-landlord,” Jaynes said, noting that rental assistance payments go directly to property managers, not to tenants. “We’re making sure tenants can stay in their homes but we’re also making sure landlords get paid, so they can pay their own bills and mortgages and salaries. It’s a win-win for everybody.”
Most Tulsa landlords will be patient with tenants who have applied for rental assistance, but payments can take months to receive and property owners can’t wait forever, said Keri Cooper, executive director of the Tulsa Apartment Association.
“Unfortunately, there’s a population of renters who aren’t communicating or aren’t following through with rental assistance,” Cooper said. “There are people who won’t take action until there’s a very real possibility of being evicted, but our members would rather not have to do it that way.”
A federal appeals court in the District of Columbia allowed the eviction moratorium to remain in place Friday, rejecting a bid from Alabama and Georgia Realtors to have it declared unconstitutional.
The Realtors seem likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which voted 5-4 in June to allow the moratorium to continue through the end of July. But Justice Brett Kavanaugh, while joining the majority, warned the Biden administration not to extend it any further without explicit approval from Congress.
Nationwide, roughly 3.5 million people face eviction in the next two months, according to the Census Bureau.
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G.T. Bynum Talks Eviction Moratorium during a joint news conference to discuss the end of the eviction moratorium, which is set to expire July 31
Photos: City helps Spanish-speakers sign up for emergency rent assistance
Iglesia Hispana Victory
City of Tulsa communications staffer Gitzel Puente (center) said the event was the first of its kind in which the city had in-person help available for Spanish speakers. She said the city previously helped coordinate a similar event in English for residents in north Tulsa.
“We know that everybody has been impacted by COVID, and we know that there is a language barrier sometimes,” she said. “That’s why we’re bringing this to people who might not have heard of the program before this.”
Puente said Tuesday’s event had an “overwhelming response.”
Iglesia Hispana Victory
The line started to form outside the church doors around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
La Cosecha was “serving about 600 families every week (before COVID-19), and now we are serving about 2,000 every week, so yes, it has changed things for us, for sure,” Gallardo said of the pandemic.
She said La Cosecha — meaning “The Harvest” in Spanish — was also working with the Tulsa Police Department on a drive-through event on Saturday to give away backpacks containing much-needed children’s school supplies.
Asked about the increase in service over the past year, she said: “It’s heartbreaking to see the situations people have. We try to do as much as we can to help them and support them, but they are facing very sad situations.”
Iglesia Hispana Victory
Iglesia Hispana Victory held the application sessions in its hall at 10188 E. 41st Street.
The worship hall was filled with families, separated into groups by which operating systems their phones use, as Puente and other volunteers guided the audience on the online application process through Restore Hope’s Spanish-language website.
The first step: photographing copies of identification cards, lease agreements and utility bills. Those without cellphones received aid with submitting their applications on laptops.
Iglesia Hispana Victory
The Oklahoma Caring Van also had a pop-up vaccination clinic at the church to offer access to the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma had a presence at the event to help tenants who may have received threats of eviction or had proceedings initiated against them during the ongoing pandemic.
Iglesia Hispana Victory
“We just love doing this for the community,” Gallardo said of Tuesday’s event. “(The pandemic) has been a roller coaster for sure, for everyone, but we just have to adjust every day, basically.”
Iglesia Hispana Victory
To date, the Emergency Rental Assistance Program has drawn more than 12,000 applications, and more than $8.6 million in rental and utility assistance has been distributed to more than 1,775 households within the city of Tulsa and Tulsa County.
For more information about ERAP and to apply, go to cityoftulsa.org/erap.
Iglesia Hispana Victory
Those needing utility assistance can call 311 (918-596-2100 outside city limits) to set up a payment arrangement; call 211 for financial help; or check the Emergency Rental Assistance Program at cityoftulsa.org/erap to see if you qualify.
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