On the first Monday after Dec. 1 rent payments were due, the phone lines at the Oklahoma City nonprofit Neighborhood Services Organization started ringing off the hook. Hundreds of people called within a two-hour period for rental assistance that day alone. And thousands called in November. 

Landlords started filing evictions against tenants as early as Dec. 8. The nonprofit’s single call operator switched from call to call, offering assistance where she could, as employees in other departments assisted. The influx of calls was expected. About a month ago, hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma families temporarily lost federal food benefits, leaving many with gaps in their monthly budgets.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provides low-income families with stipends to buy produce and other food. But those benefits stopped rolling out on Nov. 1 because of the 43-day government shutdown, leaving nearly 700,000 Oklahomans without federal food assistance. 

While SNAP benefits were eventually restored, many families initially received only partial payments in November. A spokesperson for the Department of Human Services said she believes all November payments have since been made in full to SNAP recipients.

Jessica Earley, director of Stay Housed, a program of Neighborhood Services Organization that provides one-time rental assistance to people in need, said lost SNAP benefits likely contributed to tenants falling behind on their budgets in November, which could set them back for future rent payments.

“Last month, we were like, ‘This is going to absolutely kill us in December,'” Earley said.

She expects calls for rental assistance to flood the lines in the coming weeks as more and more people receive eviction notices. The nonprofit offers limited financial assistance to people with a verified emergency that prevents them from paying rent and puts them at risk of eviction, like a flat tire or unexpected job loss. For many, Earley said losing SNAP could be that emergency that tips them over the edge.
“Those clients are already living on very tight margins,” she said. “So the loss of those benefits will definitely contribute to people falling behind.”

Families choose between buying food or paying rent

The hall outside an Oklahoma County courtroom was packed the week before Thanksgiving. Over a dozen people, including an elderly couple and a single mother with her five young children, sat on benches lining the walls. 

It’s not uncommon for Oklahoma County’s eviction dockets to be packed. Only this time several people were there after they lost their food benefits.

SNAP recipients in Oklahoma receive an average of around $180 a month, per person, depending on household size and level of income. A mother of eight The Frontier spoke with at eviction court says she saw her family’s $1,400 monthly SNAP benefits disappear in November. She said she started receiving partial payments later that month.

Go behind the story

Subscribe

We’ll never share your email, and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Leave this field empty if you're human:

The tenants were waiting to go before the judge to see if they would be evicted. Some were told they would receive a lock-out notice later that afternoon and would need to be out of their homes within two days. 

Mental Health Association Oklahoma surveyed 79 people at eviction court over a two-week period in November with the help of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, and many said they were falling behind on rent because of lost SNAP benefits during the recent government shutdown. 

More than half of the households surveyed by Mental Health Association staff said they lost SNAP benefits, and 73% of those households believed losing their benefits was a factor that contributed to their eviction. 

Families were suddenly forced to choose between paying rent or buying food, the survey found. More than half of those surveyed reported skipping meals and 30% said they forgoed medicine and medical treatment to afford rent. One mother included in the survey who lost her SNAP benefits said she couldn’t make rent because she needed to purchase formula for her six-month-old daughter. 

“I heard a lot of stories like that, of families who had to make really tough decisions in order to try to stay housed, only to find themselves in eviction court,” said Amy Coldren, director of advocacy and communication at Mental Health Association Oklahoma who helped conduct the survey.

Oklahoma has one of the highest rates of food insecurity in the nation, and one of the shortest eviction timelines; It can take as little as two weeks for someone to be locked out of their home after an eviction is filed against them. 

It wasn’t just SNAP benefits lost. The government shutdown resulted in 24% of those surveyed at eviction court losing a job, hours or pay. And the unexpected loss of income directly led to an eviction filing for 84% of those households, respondents said.

For most, this was their first time at eviction court in at least two years and they’d only missed one month of rent, according to Coldren. 

“These are families who lost their benefits or their job or their hours or wages because of decisions that were made by the federal government that then pushed them into housing instability and likely homelessness,” Coldren said. “We have created a system in Oklahoma where families are more vulnerable to facing homelessness or housing instability when something like that occurs.”

Even when a case is dismissed, the tenant is still responsible for paying certain court costs and attorney fees associated with the eviction filing, Coldren said. In some of these cases, tenants wind up paying more in fees than they owe in rent. 

Having a previous eviction filing on record can make it harder for people to find new housing. 

Shelterwell, an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit that collects eviction data and advocates for housing stability, found that in Oklahoma, 63% of landlords will not rent to a tenant with a prior eviction filing, regardless of the case outcome. And tenants with an eviction filing on their record often pay more for future housing because of rent increases and tacked-on fees, Coldren said. 

“It’s great that their case was able to be dismissed,” Coldren said. “The problem is the long-term impact that now that eviction is going to have on their record.”

READ MORE:

What renters should know when facing eviction in Oklahoma

Oklahoma evictions are fast and cheap. Legislation aims to change that