OKLAHOMA CITY — A measure that would have slowed Oklahoma’s eviction process and given struggling tenants five additional days to avoid being pushed out of their homes cleared both Houses of the Oklahoma Legislature.
Then Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed it.
Senate Bill 128, by Sen. Julia Kirt, a Democrat from Oklahoma City, and Rep. Daniel Pae, a Republican from Lawton, would have extended the time period an eviction trial had to be scheduled by five days and extended the summons notice period from three days to seven.
Though the bill had bipartisan support in both houses of the legislature, Stitt said the bill was unnecessary. He said it made the already burdensome and difficult process of obtaining an eviction that much more burdensome.
In his veto message, which was filed May 5, the governor wrote the state’s existing law already provided adequate due process and notice.
“This bill would also do the opposite as intended,” the governor’s message said. “Instead of assisting renters in arrears, it would incentivize landlords to specifically not rent housing units to low-income households, for risk of greater eviction costs. We cannot overcome economic realities with good intentions. For these reasons, I have vetoed Enrolled Senate Bill 128.”
The veto drew harsh responses from the author of the bill and from state housing policy experts.
“It’s a tough issue,” Kirt said. “It’s a tough one. We’re talking about that balance between societal good and property rights.”
Kirt said many people talk about evictions as an inevitable thing, instead of how they can be reduced. She said it would be difficult to override the governor’s veto this year.
“It would take convincing a lot of people,” Kirt said. “I think it might be easier to make it a multi-year conversation, but I’m not giving up.”
Sabine Brown, a senior policy analyst for the Oklahoma Policy Institute, called the governor’s veto a missed opportunity and a step backward for the state.
“This bipartisan bill would have added just five days to the eviction trial timeline and increased the notice period from three to seven days,” Brown said in a statement posted on the organization’s website. “Five days could mean the difference between a family staying housed or landing in a shelter.”
Brown said the governor’s veto demonstrates that he cares more for corporate landlords’ interests than the needs of everyday Oklahomans who struggle to keep their families safely housed.
“Right now, large corporate landlords and bad actors can exploit Oklahoma’s eviction laws to extract extra revenue from their tenants,” she wrote. “Under the current system, landlords are able to bounce tenants on the street in under two weeks. This is almost no time to pay back rent, no time to ask off work and find childcare, and no time to find a lawyer or prepare for court. And, as housing costs rise faster than wages, more families are falling behind.”
Records show the number of evictions in Oklahoma is large and continues to grow. According to the group Shelterwell, Oklahoma recorded more than 48,200 eviction cases in 2023.
Data from the Legal Services Corporation’s Civil Court Data Initiative showed that Oklahoma and Tulsa County reported more than 100,000 eviction filings between March 2020 and March 2024.
Oklahoma County reported 62,785 filings for the four-year period, while Tulsa had 45,454. Other counties with high numbers include Cleveland County with 13,564 filings, Comanche County with 6,965 and Canadian County: 4,176 during the same four-year time frame..
Nationwide, landlords file about 3.6 million eviction cases per year, data from The Eviction Lab at Princeton University showed. That translates to one eviction about every four minutes.
Republished in partnership with Oklahoma Watch under a Creative Commons license. Free Press publishes this report as a collaborative effort to provide the best coverage of state issues that affect our readers.
M. Scott Carter covers housing, homelessness and evictions for Oklahoma Watch. Contact him at scarter@oklahomawatch.org or 405-589-1933.
