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.
This article was originally published by The Frontier. You can see the original story here.