Tulsa’s low-income tenants and landlords caught up in eviction proceedings may soon be able to access city-backed legal help.
The city council is expected to consider a resolution Sept. 16 that would declare the city’s intent to establish and pursue funding — public and private investment — for the program. Before then, the resolution’s author, District 4 City Councilor Laura Bellis, has to update some language.
The resolution was originally on Wednesday’s council agenda, but it was pulled from consideration shortly after the meeting began. Bellis, who represents midtown Tulsa, told the Flyer the resolution was pulled because a colleague asked her to add language Tuesday evening prioritizing mediation and resolving disputes outside of the courtroom.
“There was a late language addition, basically,” Bellis said Thursday.
If the resolution is approved, a department designated by Mayor Monroe Nichols would explore a public-private partnership that pools philanthropic, corporate or government funding to establish a sustainable program, according to the resolution language.
Those funds will then be distributed through a request-for-proposals process to nonprofit legal service organizations and attorneys licensed to provide representation in eviction proceedings.
The program would be open to Tulsa residents with a household income at or below 200% of the federal poverty level. Households with school-aged children or in vulnerable populations would be prioritized.
“There are 13,000 evictions a year in Tulsa. About 3,500 of them have tenants with representation,” Bellis said. “What if a few more had representation?”
Bellis also referenced a 2024 report from the youth-focused nonprofit ImpactTulsa, which shows that a family experiencing an eviction filing often sees an increase in chronic absenteeism, which can follow the child for up to a year afterward.
“This is really like, what can we do as a city to support children, families and academic and economic outcomes?” Bellis said. “This is one piece of that as well.”
Program would also support some landlords
If approved, the resolution would also offer support for low-income landlords pursuing eviction proceedings. Bellis said the largest eviction-filers in Tulsa tend to be landlords of large, out-of-state corporations.
“There are those mom-and-pop folks, or maybe someone inherited a property, and people have those challenges and can’t afford to resolve it on their own,” Bellis said. “That’s hard for them, in contrast to these much larger corporate entities.”
While an ordinance has the force and effect of law within the city, a resolution is an action taken by councilors that states the will or opinion of the city on some matter. Approval of the resolution would not designate a specific amount of funding or resources to the program — it would state the intention of the city to support its creation and funding.
During a Public Works Committee meeting Aug. 26, Bellis floated a “ballpark” multi-year investment of $500,000 from different city sources to plant seed funding for the program.
Philanthropic and corporate organizations will not provide funding until the city shows “skin in the game,” Bellis said, and she believes there could be potential off-ramps for the city down the line.
“That is like an upper bound for like three years, where we know that there are private dollars and people who believe in this work want to come alongside,” Bellis said. “I don’t know that our city even has to make an investment past a certain point, but we’re not going to get those partners who are ready to be at the table fully there putting their dollars in, until we show that skin in the game.”
District 7 Councilor Lori Decter Wright — who chairs the Public Works Committee — said she believed there was funding dedicated to eviction mitigation in the 3H Task Force that could be used for the program. The task force focuses on housing, homelessness and mental health.
Katie Dilks, executive director of the Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation, said at the same meeting Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma would likely take on some of this work but said it would pave the way for more providers to get involved.
“It would also open the door to additional providers, which could really help fill some of the gaps that our community is seeing right now around eligibility, around considerations on conflict checks,” Dilks said. “Just making sure we have more providers at the table is going to pretty dramatically, I think, expand who can have access to that representation.”
Dilks said the justice system works best when both parties are represented.
“Recognizing that a fair and accessible justice system really works best when it is available to all of the sides of a dispute was a really important consideration as we put this proposal together,” Dilks said.
District 8 City Councilor Phil Lakin, who primarily represents south Tulsa, asked “who or what is not going to like this?” Later in the meeting, District 6 Councilor Christian Bengel said he hopes landlords are involved in the program.
Dilks said she believes some landlords will be skeptical at first, “maybe based on prior experience but also a lot of assumptions.” Once there’s a proof of concept, she thinks the city and its partners will be able to demonstrate how the eviction process can be smoother and “more humane.”
“My hope is that what has happened in other communities will also be proven true here,” Dilks said. “Which is that when a lawyer is involved on both sides of an eviction dispute, it gets resolved faster, it gets resolved more smoothly, it gets resolved with less conflict and then a landlord is more likely to get the money they are owed.”
News decisions at the Tulsa Flyer are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
