OKC Eviction Rate is "20th Worst" in Nation, New Program Gives Free Legal Help to Tenants

"Every day in Oklahoma City about 18 households get evicted, one of the highest rates in the nation, according to a new study.

“Oklahoma City is the 20th worst in the country. That's another one of those standards that I hope we're not proud of. We want to cut that down,” said Richard Klinge, the director of the Pro Bono Housing Eviction Assistance Program at the Oklahoma City University School of Law.

“Studies clearly show that eviction leads to homelessness, that leads to joblessness, that just creates a whole series of problems in the poverty cycle that our country deals with and our city deals with,” Klinge told The Oklahoman.

In 2016, there were 6,433 evictions in Oklahoma City, the Eviction Lab at Princeton University reported in a recently released study. The city's 2016 eviction rate was 6.19 percent, meaning 6.19 in 100 renter homes were evicted, according to the nationwide eviction database..."

Continue reading