{"id":694517,"date":"2022-03-02T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-02T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/?p=694517"},"modified":"2022-03-03T09:37:05","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T15:37:05","slug":"why-25000-plus-oklahomans-are-still-waiting-for-rental-assistance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oklahomawatch.org\/2022\/03\/02\/why-25000-plus-oklahomans-are-still-waiting-for-rental-assistance\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 25,000-Plus Oklahomans Are Still Waiting For Rental Assistance\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Timia Richardson sat alone in a wooden chair on the sixth floor of Oklahoma County Courthouse as the hall started to fill with people arriving for their eviction cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richardson, her husband and their seven-month old daughter were going to be evicted from their apartment in northwestern Oklahoma City in January, so they applied for rental assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI ended up borrowing some money just so we could pay it so we didn’t get kicked out,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cIt was money we really didn’t have, so now it’s like trying to get that money back to pay people back and then going into another month of that cycle. (We are) just getting pushed behind and it’s all just really a time sensitive thing. So many people are applying for this rental assistance that it\u2019s just backing up time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Dec, 2020, the state of Oklahoma received $485 million in federal emergency funds to help those at risk of eviction or having their utilities cut off, according to the U.S. Treasury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet thousands of Oklahomans have been evicted. <\/p>\n\n\n\t\n\t\t

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Audio Stories: December 29, 2025<\/a><\/h3>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/article>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\n\n

Of the 60,727 evictions filed since the start of the pandemic, 22,824 have been carried out, according to Open Justice Oklahoma eviction tracker, a program<\/a> from the Oklahoma Policy Institute \u2014 6,934 of those have happened since August when the federal eviction moratorium ended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state and governments in Cleveland and Oklahoma counties allocated $408.9 million to Community Cares Partners, a program of the Communities Foundation of Oklahoma non-profit, to provide emergency rental and utility assistance to Oklahomans during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization has distributed $174.6 million to those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was mid-February and Richardson was still waiting on a check from Community Cares Partners despite being approved for assistance in January. Her family received another eviction notice, so she was hoping to speak with a representative from the organization outside the courtroom that day since a representative is usually in the hall meeting with tenants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe knew we were gonna get the money and they even told us how much \u2014 it’s just literally waiting,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cThat’s what the stressful thing is. You don’t know when it’s coming, you don\u2019t know how long it’s gonna take. You just know there’s this check out there that’s supposed to come to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Timia Richardson, a stay-at-home mother of one, sits on the sixth floor of Oklahoma County Courthouse on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022. Richardson left her job when she got pregnant during the pandemic and now stays home to raise her daughter. Because her husband is the only source of income now, money has been tight and the family has been given two eviction notices. (Rebecca Najera\/Oklahoma Watch) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Long Wait Times<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Shannon Carr<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Shannon Carr, the director of communications for Community Cares Partners, said she knows there are a lot of frustrated applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are an emergency rental assistance program \u2014 everyone who has applied and who is waiting for us to work on their application, they are all in an emergency situation,\u201d Carr said. \u201cThere’s just so many Oklahomans that need assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September, Community Cares Partners closed applications to catch up on a backlog<\/a> of more than 13,000 applications. When applications reopened on Oct. 15, more than 2,000 were filed within the first 24 hours. Now with a backlog of more than 20,000, applicants are asked to allow the organization 10-12 weeks to review their requests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jeff Jaynes<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Restore Hope Ministries, a faith-based non-profit<\/a> that serves a 20-county region in the northeastern Oklahoma, closed its applications on Jan. 30 to allow time to process the backlog. Executive director Jeff Jaynes said 5,000 to 10,000 applications await review. That includes some duplicates and people requesting further assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you’re gonna push pause on new applications, February is a good time to do that because evictions plummet in the month of February, usually,\u201d Jaynes said. \u201cA lot of that’s because of people getting their tax refunds back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization also helps provide groceries for people experiencing food insecurity. Jaynes said the non-profit usually has less requests for food assistance in February as well because of tax season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople use their tax refunds for those basic needs,\u201d Jaynes said. \u201cSo those were a couple of the big reasons why we suspended when we did, just to get through the backlog and to do it at a time when people might have other avenues for assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n