text:
Lawmaker announces coalition to help Oklahomans facing eviction
Updated: 5:31 PM CDT Aug 7, 2020
KOCO Staff
First of all, I like to thank all of you for being here today. This is a very important issue. My name is Jason Lowe, J A S. O n. State representative, The House District 97. Today I am pleased to be joined by a group of community leaders to discuss ways in which we can mitigate the looming spike in evictions across the state of Oklahoma in the midst of a public health crisis. No Oklahomans should be worried about being evicted from their home or being without stable housing. My hope is that we can avoid a homelessness crisis by educating the public about the illegal rights as tenants and the various community organizations that are available to them as public servants. It is our duty to be proactive as possible to protect the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. The public sprink the public Service speaking today our esteemed members of the community that dedicating their time and their resource is to assure Oklahomans facing eviction have necessary support. Before I have the pleasure of introducing each in each of them to you all. I would like to express my gratitude for their work and their contributions toward making our communities a better place. I would now like to introduce Michael Figgins, executive director of Legal Aid Services, Legal Eights lead eviction attorney Jessa for Jennifer Montana. Brian Wolk Wilson, director of litigation and legal services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC and, lastly, merrily long founder and executive director of Northeast Resource Center, which is actually located in House District 97. And she's doing such a phenomenal job giving back to community, educating the community and making sure that they have the resource is they deserve. At this time, I would like to yield the floor to Michael Figgins. Thank you so much, Representative. Low. Thank you all for being here. I think what we have to say is important. I'm here as the executive director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, as well as the chairperson of the Oklahoma Access the Justice Commission. Let me put it simply for you. Oklahoma has a problem. Um, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. Top 20 in eviction rates nationally. That was before Cove it that also doesn't include illegal evictions and yes, some evictions are leaked illegal. They're called lockouts. And when you add lockouts into the cove, it and you add that into what we're doing now studies air showing that we're looking at another 130,000 130,000 potential evictions in Oklahoma. If things are not addressed now, what is the answer? This, you may say, Well, affordable housing. We need a four Laos, and we do need affordable housing. But we can't build it fast enough. Not when we're evicting 130,000 people. There's a faucet running that's called evictions. We need to turn that faucet off. Then affordable housing will have a much greater impact because we'll be. We'll have housing four people because we won't have thousands and thousands of being evicted every day. So what about landlords? Is this an anti landler idea? No. Evictions cost landlords lots of money. They have to file things after hire attorneys. Sometimes they don't ever get the rent. And today you're gonna hear about people who will be able to provide that actual rent. So there's answers for everybody. This is pro 10 of this is pro landlord, and the impact of evictions. I mean, you know what they are were in the middle of a public health crisis. That's really all we need to know. We don't need families on the street. We don't family need families bundling up with each other. But that's what we're looking at, remember, 130,000 potentially. And so how do we stop this? How do we ameliorate? How do we prevent it? Well, have some ideas. And again, they're just ideas. I would like to see more outreach and education. A single portal for access for eventual perfection services for everyone. One place for everyone to go to build access every service. There is direct outreach to tenets before they're getting evictions filed against them. Uh, see people early. Find out what the problem is and fix the problem before eviction. You're going to hear about rental assistance. That is important. Also, what have we had a small loan program for small landlords to make repairs? Wouldn't that be helpful? Both of the landlord and to the tenant? What if somebody didn't pay their taxes and they didn't pay when they were fined for violations of code enforcement? Some cities have sequester provision where they can actually go in and actually take the rent from the the 10 of themselves and the city. The county of the state access the landlord until the landlord makes a pairs. Now there is a legal process. As you know, mediation is certainly popular, but mediation requires both parties to cooperate. Often it's not within the landlord's incentive to do so. So it gets to what I'm all about and what you're going to hear from other people today. Legal representation. All you need to know is nationally, 80% of tenants who have an attorney 80% of attended to have an attorney do not get evicted. They do not get evicted. The one to do 6% who show up without internally. Only 6% will avoid eviction. So it's really all about legal representation. Attorneys obtained not only avoidance of eviction. They obtain extra time for tenants to move out. Ah, on a case of bad landlords. If a bad landlord knows that the tenant has an attorney, they're not going to do bad things. So what I'm talking about is a basic human need. I think housing is a basic human need. We all take it for granted. We all want it will need it. I think there should be a right to some kind of housing, and when I boil it down, I refine it to the bottom point. It's there should be a right to counsel. I mean, just think about it. A person can be forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel. Is it asking too much that there be a right to counsel when somebody's house is at stake? So when I have to tell you who this is impacting, it's poor people. It's people of color, disproportionately so. So I'm encouraging you. Let's think about these opportunities. Let's think about a right to counseling when housing is at stake. I thank you, thank thank you. Our next speaker is Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC. Thank you, Representive low. Thank you all for being here and thank you to my community partners. They represent but a small group of people who get it and you care. And I believe that's why you're here today is to increase that population of those who get it and those who care so we can help the people that need it. And as Michael said and all the stats prove out, those without a home have hurts beyond our imagination, and it has impacted more greatly. Camille's a color and the people who need us are crying out for us now. And this is a long term systemic issue. Committee cares, partner. My agency is an acute problem. Excuse me. An acute solution for an acute problem. We're about rent assistance, which is just one thing, so But I want to make sure we understand. Don't stop there. Don't stop with Cove. It don't waste a good pandemic. Make sure we continue this conversation because it's going to take long, slow, hard, difficult conversations and action to really move the needle for so many people. I wake up every morning in my nice bed with a roof over my head. I never worry about if my electricity is working. If I'm gonna have power, unless there's a storm, I'm lucky. I'm fortunate. I'm blessed. I'm privileged We got to think about those who are not so community cares is a public private partnership that came together two months ago to do something. We reached out to the city, to the state, to private funder, for reaching out to the county to agencies throughout this area. And we provide when assistance through an allocation from the state allocated $10 million for rent assistance. It's a really narrow, narrow field, though. First of all, you have to have an eviction summons filed against you. So you're on the precipice. You're right there at the cliff before the deep dive off. But when that happens, these funds are available. They're available to anyone who is a resident of the city of Excuse Me of the state of Oklahoma who's 18 years or older, and it's a cove it need. What that means is, after March 1, there's been a decrease in income. Could be a job. Boston could be a furlough, could be decreased hours or commissions. But a decreased income after March 1, where your people and your our people and the other qualification is 80% AM by 80% 80. My main area median income. That's roughly 41,000 for a single person. For family of four, it's roughly in the high fifties, we can provide you $3600 maximum for back grant as well as forward rant. And that helps us really negotiate with the landlord. Like Michael said, this representation for someone toe haven't advocate makes all the difference in the world. So we are up at the courthouse every day along with legal aid, ready to help you. And we also have been allocated $12.5 million from the CD of Oklahoma City. This is a broader spectrum of help because it's rent and mortgage assistance, utilities, connective ity, day care, transportation, retraining. Many, many ways it's we can help you if the cost is reasonable. If it's passed. Do. Except for retraining, obviously. And if you qualify, that being a resident of the city of the city of Oklahoma City and it's a Kobe related, that's that March 1 deadline start, start line. So the reason that we exist because people from Communities Foundation about Bahama from inasmuch foundation flourish. Okay, see the city of Oklahoma City Legal aid, Homeless alliance, upper transitions United Way. I could go on and on about the amazing partners that we have and isn't that really the true definition of the Oklahoma standard. And I'm so grateful to be a part of this. But y'all the clock is ticking September 30th. That is when we have to spend all of our state dollars. That is a state and post requirement. It is nothing to do with the Federal Cares Act the city dollars we have until December 30th. We've also yesterday. The budget board at the county, approved at $1.5 million is still has to be approved by the county commissioners next week. So keep your fingers crossed because people in Edmond the Village Jones, they're out of luck. Unless they haven't eviction sevens filed against him. Our goal is to help people before that time and with the city dollars and ideally, the county dollars. Those funds will be available for people they know in July that they're probably not gonna be able to make August or September rent. Why wait until they're nearly kicked out of their home? Seniors, veterans, Children. Every one of these people are impacted, and I believe that we could do better. And we will do better if we come together and find innovative solutions and keep moving the needle on this very crucial issue. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is merrily long from Northeast Resource Center. First of all, I would like to say good morning that morning, toe all the partners that's here. I am representing Northeast Resource Center and what we're here today to is because we are a community organization that cares about the community. We also have spots where we bring the community in that otherwise don't have computers SS to Internet. We bring him in and we have beyond feel the application out for gears and we follow them through until the application has been approved and they have received the funding that they're needing. We also reach out to the seniors to the youth, the younger ducts, whoever is looking for homes. We as Northeast Resource Centre have homes that we ran out. We also have them because we partner with different um Renate er different rill. Attar's difference. People's. They have Renner that's available, and we help walk them through the process until we get him. It's a place to leave. At this time. I'm going to carry it over to my system to back up. What else we do here? Hello. We do a multitude of things. We help people with clothing frontage. Er, we even do yard work. Honey do list for seniors. We offer referrals to mental health. Substance abuse. We've been helping several 100 people complete the non filers for stimulus who don't have access. Some people believe that a lot of people would have immediate access to be able to complete these processes. But some people don't even have phones, and we find it. A lot of seniors don't have the tech savvy to even operate a smartphone, so we help them through the process. We also do some income tax completion. We low cost food. We have a co op store. We also are partnered with Oji Any with senior fan programs. We offer our life skills program because we find that helping people one time isn't enough. We need to give them the tools to be able to utilize what they have and make it work for them. A lot of people struggle with managing their funds to make sure they're able to meet their bills on a monthly basis, so we offer a program for that with money management. We also offer mental health, physical health or social media. We have jobs services that help people find employment, teach them how to do resumes, how to do mock interviews. We dress them for success to go on these interviews as well. Right now, we're working with doing backpacks for schools to make sure they have all the things they need. A star supplies from everything. The mass sanitizer of you, name it, pencils, everything that they could imagine going. These and we adopt usually five schools a year and give, like 50 backpacks to school. We also do Valentine National schools, Easter baskets for schools. We're trying. We're working on doing online training, online education for schools. Also in our training room, where we have social distance were able to take a student's. Where were the parents don't have access to a computer or online so this so their Children can complete their education online. They can come to us and we will facilitate that. Okay, we also have ah feeding house where we feed the homeless seniors Children. The service is about. Send me to 80 people a day. We feed them from 3 30 to 4 30 Everything is because of Cove. It We have to make everything to go. So we try to make sure we do everything correctly for a social distance as they come up. Teoh get the food. And we also delivered to a seniors also over a lot of different areas, and that helps a lot. We also offer bless bags, and sometimes we go out into the community to go door to door. We go under bridges, we go into tent cities trying to find the people who need help. Don't come out because we try to meet them where they are, because sometimes it's tough with him to come to us. So that's one of some of the things we offer. Ah, you can reach us through any r c i dot org's, which is a website. You can call us at 405 6737355 and our email is any R. C at SBC global dot net. We could be reached just about any time through one of those avenues, and we'll help. If it's something we don't offer. We'll find it for you. We'll find a way to help you All right? Thank you all for giving us Jason low this opportunity. Thank you. We have also speaking here today Brian Wilkinson, director of litigation and legal Services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for coming out today. Definitely want to thank Representative low for having everyone come together and bringing this very important issue forward. And thanks to our advocacy partners who are represented here today for the important work that they're doing and continue to dio, I'm the legal director of the Oklahoma Disability Law Center. The Oakland of Disability Law Center is the protection and advocacy firm nonprofit law firm that is federally mandated to exist in the state of Oklahoma. Our sole mission is to represent legally and advocate for individuals with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, individuals living with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma are often a very marginalized group on a daily basis. In addition to living with what could be often difficult circumstances related to their various disabilities, they have to face oftentimes discrimination and, uh, and continued misunderstanding by the general public. In a time like this, when we're facing the cove in 19 Pandemic, and we're talking about eviction issues and housing. I can't think of Amore important issue for individuals with disabilities than having safe and secure housing at a time when we have been told to shelter in place when we've been told that the safest place is at home and when, as we all as individuals, no, really, the best way to keep ourselves safe is do manage our own personal safety needs. Individuals with disabilities are oftentimes at more risk not even in the time of a pandemic, but just in general of health health issues that are going around susceptibility to getting various viruses and diseases. So with Cove in 19 at a heightened risk of potentially contracting the virus and a heightened risk of potentially having, um, worsening conditions from the virus or suffering the effects of the virus in a disparate way, individuals with disabilities need the shelter, safety and security of their homes. We are a non profit law firm, and we represent anyone with a disability that comes to us that calls for our assistance that needs help. And in this time, when we're dealing with evictions in the state of Oklahoma, at astronomical rates as we face the federal moratorium ending Ah, on evictions as we face the courthouses in Oklahoma being open again and allowing civil proceedings to proceed at this time. Evictions in Oklahoma, Four individuals disabilities are a huge problem. So what I would like everyone to understand is that were there to help you. You need toe contact, our office. You can give us a call. You can visit us at our website. One of our in tech specialists will take down your information and get it to our advocates and our attorneys as quickly as possible. We are taking eviction issues very seriously right now. And we would encourage anyone with a disability to contact our office. And because we are federally mandated to exist in federally funded, we do not charge for our services. There is no fee for our legal advocacy or representation If we, uh, ultimately have to go with you to court to fight this issue with you, not only will we but you won't be charged for those services. So anyone that struggling right now we understand you and we want to hear from you. Um and I would simply ask all Oklahomans to come together right now to treat this issue as seriously as it needs to be taken and understand that right now is not the time to replacing our most vulnerable citizens outside of their homes. There are solutions that we come up we can come up with. And as we work through this pandemic, there are solutions on the back end that we can work out so everyone has made home. But the wrong reaction right now is to put someone out of their home, to put an individual with the disability who may be more vulnerable to this virus and more vulnerable to us. Its effects out of their home is not something that we as Oklahoma should be doing right now. So I would implore all Oklahomans, landlords, renters, advocacy groups to work together to come together in a partnership like we're standing here today to try to dio to solve this problem and not to just have it continue, because displacing Oklahomans right now is the wrong thing to do. So please, if you know someone with a disability or you are living with the disability and you're struggling with an eviction X, you are a potential eviction issue. Please contact our office. We stand ready to help you. Thank you guys very much for your time. Our last speaker is Jennifer Mom Tag DNA Legal A's lead eviction attorney. Hello, I'm here. I'm one of several dedicated housing attorneys in the Oklahoma City Law Office of Legal Aid. We're on the front lines of this crisis. We have attorneys at the eviction docket in Oklahoma County Courthouse every single day that there is a docket. We really want to make sure tenants are aware of the rights and our availability to assist the greatest. It's best if you are facing eviction and you receive a summons or even prior to the court action. You're receiving a notice regarding being late on your rent. You should call legal aid immediately. It's 18885345 to 43 It's if you cannot apply ahead of time, you still should go to court. You can apply right there at the courthouse with us and we will assist you. The outcomes are so much better for tenants if they have legal representation. Many most landlords haven't attorney andan. If they don't, they know the process. They know what's going on, and so tenants are at a significant disadvantage. So we really encourage you to contact us so we can assist you Well. I want to just kind of briefly talk about just the process of people. Do understand that you cannot be removed from your housing without a court action. Your landlords notice might say that they can remove you, but they cannot legally. If that happens, you need to call legal aid immediately. You are entitled to a notice regarding your late rent in five days to pay that to cure it. And then there must be a court action and you're always entitled to a hearing. You do not have to agree to. You know anything that the landlord's asking. You can ask for the hearing. If you want the judge. Legal aid can help you guide guide you through that process. So again I just encourage you to reach out to us. I want to briefly talk about the Cares Act eviction moratorium, because everybody's talking about how it's over. It did technically end July 25th but we're in a 30 day notice period. So if you live in a cares covered property. It is not proper for your landlord to file an eviction until after August 24. You must call legal aid. If this happens, the judges understand the cares act in, you know whether you call ahead of time or talk to us at the courthouse. It's really important because your case will be subject to dismissal if it's in violation of the Cares Act. Hopefully, you know, right now, I think the Cares Act has really helped with the number of evictions because it worked as intended by Congress. If it's not extended, we're going to be looking at a tsunami of eviction filings in late August and in September. So it's really important, really important that tenants are reaching out for rental assistance. If it's derided related to Cove it, any income reduction is Jenny Karl talked about from Community Cares partners. There is a lot of resource is for you. If it's not still, call 211 There are other Resource is available to the earlier you act, the better because it's more likely to be able to reach an agreement with the landlord to make up time for rent. If you, the sooner you act. But they were all at the courthouse Community Cares Partners, has a table at the courthouse. So if you've reached the point where you haven't been told, apply ahead of time, they're there in Legal. Aid's here, and we're We're really saving people from homelessness every day at the dock. It if you just reach out for help. I wanted to. Jenny meant to mention there is an online okla. Www. Oklahoma Community Cares dot or I'm sorry. Okay, community cares dot org's You can apply online with community Cares partners ahead of time. Someone will get in touch with you and then 211 is a central place that will connect you to lots of places, including community care partners. So again, we just what people? Because this if this does show other places around the state, legal aid has statewide representation. If there's an advocate available in counties outside of Oklahoma, they will assist you or at least give you legal advice to help you. There's also attorneys at the dock it up in Tulsa at every eviction docket, so we're here to help and hopefully stop, reduce homelessness and help people in this crisis. Thank you. Once again, thank you for all the speakers for being here today and providing some What's so much good information to individuals who are facing this crisis as faras evictions. I would like to say as well that as an attorney, I see the long lines every single day at the courthouses. I'm at every call, all the courthouses, Um, throughout the year in the state of Oklahoma. And I see the long lines, the packed courtrooms of people that are being kicked out of their homes, I see on their faces the sense of hopelessness, the sense off. No one is here to help me to sense off. I am. I'm on this journey alone. But I tell you, I tell you here today, these people behind me, they're here to help you. They're here to support you, the hair to give you the help that you deserve. And I'm just so excited that they're here today. So there is a remedy for this. There's one thing also I would like to mention as well. If you do receive an eviction notice. One thing that you should not do is ignore it. We have the resource is we have the help out there and I hope individuals will use it First of all, I like to thank all of you for being here today. This is a very important issue. My name is Jason Lowe, J A S. O n. State representative, The House District 97. Today I am pleased to be joined by a group of community leaders to discuss ways in which we can mitigate the looming spike in evictions across the state of Oklahoma in the midst of a public health crisis. No Oklahomans should be worried about being evicted from their home or being without stable housing. My hope is that we can avoid a homelessness crisis by educating the public about the illegal rights as tenants and the various community organizations that are available to them as public servants. It is our duty to be proactive as possible to protect the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. The public sprink the public Service speaking today our esteemed members of the community that dedicating their time and their resource is to assure Oklahomans facing eviction have necessary support. Before I have the pleasure of introducing each in each of them to you all. I would like to express my gratitude for their work and their contributions toward making our communities a better place. I would now like to introduce Michael Figgins, executive director of Legal Aid Services, Legal Eights lead eviction attorney Jessa for Jennifer Montana. Brian Wolk Wilson, director of litigation and legal services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC and, lastly, merrily long founder and executive director of Northeast Resource Center, which is actually located in House District 97. And she's doing such a phenomenal job giving back to community, educating the community and making sure that they have the resource is they deserve. At this time, I would like to yield the floor to Michael Figgins. Thank you so much, Representative. Low. Thank you all for being here. I think what we have to say is important. I'm here as the executive director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, as well as the chairperson of the Oklahoma Access the Justice Commission. Let me put it simply for you. Oklahoma has a problem. Um, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. Top 20 in eviction rates nationally. That was before Cove it that also doesn't include illegal evictions and yes, some evictions are leaked illegal. They're called lockouts. And when you add lockouts into the cove, it and you add that into what we're doing now studies air showing that we're looking at another 130,000 130,000 potential evictions in Oklahoma. If things are not addressed now, what is the answer? This, you may say, Well, affordable housing. We need a four Laos, and we do need affordable housing. But we can't build it fast enough. Not when we're evicting 130,000 people. There's a faucet running that's called evictions. We need to turn that faucet off. Then affordable housing will have a much greater impact because we'll be. We'll have housing four people because we won't have thousands and thousands of being evicted every day. So what about landlords? Is this an anti landler idea? No. Evictions cost landlords lots of money. They have to file things after hire attorneys. Sometimes they don't ever get the rent. And today you're gonna hear about people who will be able to provide that actual rent. So there's answers for everybody. This is pro 10 of this is pro landlord, and the impact of evictions. I mean, you know what they are were in the middle of a public health crisis. That's really all we need to know. We don't need families on the street. We don't family need families bundling up with each other. But that's what we're looking at, remember, 130,000 potentially. And so how do we stop this? How do we ameliorate? How do we prevent it? Well, have some ideas. And again, they're just ideas. I would like to see more outreach and education. A single portal for access for eventual perfection services for everyone. One place for everyone to go to build access every service. There is direct outreach to tenets before they're getting evictions filed against them. Uh, see people early. Find out what the problem is and fix the problem before eviction. You're going to hear about rental assistance. That is important. Also, what have we had a small loan program for small landlords to make repairs? Wouldn't that be helpful? Both of the landlord and to the tenant? What if somebody didn't pay their taxes and they didn't pay when they were fined for violations of code enforcement? Some cities have sequester provision where they can actually go in and actually take the rent from the the 10 of themselves and the city. The county of the state access the landlord until the landlord makes a pairs. Now there is a legal process. As you know, mediation is certainly popular, but mediation requires both parties to cooperate. Often it's not within the landlord's incentive to do so. So it gets to what I'm all about and what you're going to hear from other people today. Legal representation. All you need to know is nationally, 80% of tenants who have an attorney 80% of attended to have an attorney do not get evicted. They do not get evicted. The one to do 6% who show up without internally. Only 6% will avoid eviction. So it's really all about legal representation. Attorneys obtained not only avoidance of eviction. They obtain extra time for tenants to move out. Ah, on a case of bad landlords. If a bad landlord knows that the tenant has an attorney, they're not going to do bad things. So what I'm talking about is a basic human need. I think housing is a basic human need. We all take it for granted. We all want it will need it. I think there should be a right to some kind of housing, and when I boil it down, I refine it to the bottom point. It's there should be a right to counsel. I mean, just think about it. A person can be forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel. Is it asking too much that there be a right to counsel when somebody's house is at stake? So when I have to tell you who this is impacting, it's poor people. It's people of color, disproportionately so. So I'm encouraging you. Let's think about these opportunities. Let's think about a right to counseling when housing is at stake. I thank you, thank thank you. Our next speaker is Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC. Thank you, Representive low. Thank you all for being here and thank you to my community partners. They represent but a small group of people who get it and you care. And I believe that's why you're here today is to increase that population of those who get it and those who care so we can help the people that need it. And as Michael said and all the stats prove out, those without a home have hurts beyond our imagination, and it has impacted more greatly. Camille's a color and the people who need us are crying out for us now. And this is a long term systemic issue. Committee cares, partner. My agency is an acute problem. Excuse me. An acute solution for an acute problem. We're about rent assistance, which is just one thing, so But I want to make sure we understand. Don't stop there. Don't stop with Cove. It don't waste a good pandemic. Make sure we continue this conversation because it's going to take long, slow, hard, difficult conversations and action to really move the needle for so many people. I wake up every morning in my nice bed with a roof over my head. I never worry about if my electricity is working. If I'm gonna have power, unless there's a storm, I'm lucky. I'm fortunate. I'm blessed. I'm privileged We got to think about those who are not so community cares is a public private partnership that came together two months ago to do something. We reached out to the city, to the state, to private funder, for reaching out to the county to agencies throughout this area. And we provide when assistance through an allocation from the state allocated $10 million for rent assistance. It's a really narrow, narrow field, though. First of all, you have to have an eviction summons filed against you. So you're on the precipice. You're right there at the cliff before the deep dive off. But when that happens, these funds are available. They're available to anyone who is a resident of the city of Excuse Me of the state of Oklahoma who's 18 years or older, and it's a cove it need. What that means is, after March 1, there's been a decrease in income. Could be a job. Boston could be a furlough, could be decreased hours or commissions. But a decreased income after March 1, where your people and your our people and the other qualification is 80% AM by 80% 80. My main area median income. That's roughly 41,000 for a single person. For family of four, it's roughly in the high fifties, we can provide you $3600 maximum for back grant as well as forward rant. And that helps us really negotiate with the landlord. Like Michael said, this representation for someone toe haven't advocate makes all the difference in the world. So we are up at the courthouse every day along with legal aid, ready to help you. And we also have been allocated $12.5 million from the CD of Oklahoma City. This is a broader spectrum of help because it's rent and mortgage assistance, utilities, connective ity, day care, transportation, retraining. Many, many ways it's we can help you if the cost is reasonable. If it's passed. Do. Except for retraining, obviously. And if you qualify, that being a resident of the city of the city of Oklahoma City and it's a Kobe related, that's that March 1 deadline start, start line. So the reason that we exist because people from Communities Foundation about Bahama from inasmuch foundation flourish. Okay, see the city of Oklahoma City Legal aid, Homeless alliance, upper transitions United Way. I could go on and on about the amazing partners that we have and isn't that really the true definition of the Oklahoma standard. And I'm so grateful to be a part of this. But y'all the clock is ticking September 30th. That is when we have to spend all of our state dollars. That is a state and post requirement. It is nothing to do with the Federal Cares Act the city dollars we have until December 30th. We've also yesterday. The budget board at the county, approved at $1.5 million is still has to be approved by the county commissioners next week. So keep your fingers crossed because people in Edmond the Village Jones, they're out of luck. Unless they haven't eviction sevens filed against him. Our goal is to help people before that time and with the city dollars and ideally, the county dollars. Those funds will be available for people they know in July that they're probably not gonna be able to make August or September rent. Why wait until they're nearly kicked out of their home? Seniors, veterans, Children. Every one of these people are impacted, and I believe that we could do better. And we will do better if we come together and find innovative solutions and keep moving the needle on this very crucial issue. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is merrily long from Northeast Resource Center. First of all, I would like to say good morning that morning, toe all the partners that's here. I am representing Northeast Resource Center and what we're here today to is because we are a community organization that cares about the community. We also have spots where we bring the community in that otherwise don't have computers SS to Internet. We bring him in and we have beyond feel the application out for gears and we follow them through until the application has been approved and they have received the funding that they're needing. We also reach out to the seniors to the youth, the younger ducts, whoever is looking for homes. We as Northeast Resource Centre have homes that we ran out. We also have them because we partner with different um Renate er different rill. Attar's difference. People's. They have Renner that's available, and we help walk them through the process until we get him. It's a place to leave. At this time. I'm going to carry it over to my system to back up. What else we do here? Hello. We do a multitude of things. We help people with clothing frontage. Er, we even do yard work. Honey do list for seniors. We offer referrals to mental health. Substance abuse. We've been helping several 100 people complete the non filers for stimulus who don't have access. Some people believe that a lot of people would have immediate access to be able to complete these processes. But some people don't even have phones, and we find it. A lot of seniors don't have the tech savvy to even operate a smartphone, so we help them through the process. We also do some income tax completion. We low cost food. We have a co op store. We also are partnered with Oji Any with senior fan programs. We offer our life skills program because we find that helping people one time isn't enough. We need to give them the tools to be able to utilize what they have and make it work for them. A lot of people struggle with managing their funds to make sure they're able to meet their bills on a monthly basis, so we offer a program for that with money management. We also offer mental health, physical health or social media. We have jobs services that help people find employment, teach them how to do resumes, how to do mock interviews. We dress them for success to go on these interviews as well. Right now, we're working with doing backpacks for schools to make sure they have all the things they need. A star supplies from everything. The mass sanitizer of you, name it, pencils, everything that they could imagine going. These and we adopt usually five schools a year and give, like 50 backpacks to school. We also do Valentine National schools, Easter baskets for schools. We're trying. We're working on doing online training, online education for schools. Also in our training room, where we have social distance were able to take a student's. Where were the parents don't have access to a computer or online so this so their Children can complete their education online. They can come to us and we will facilitate that. Okay, we also have ah feeding house where we feed the homeless seniors Children. The service is about. Send me to 80 people a day. We feed them from 3 30 to 4 30 Everything is because of Cove. It We have to make everything to go. So we try to make sure we do everything correctly for a social distance as they come up. Teoh get the food. And we also delivered to a seniors also over a lot of different areas, and that helps a lot. We also offer bless bags, and sometimes we go out into the community to go door to door. We go under bridges, we go into tent cities trying to find the people who need help. Don't come out because we try to meet them where they are, because sometimes it's tough with him to come to us. So that's one of some of the things we offer. Ah, you can reach us through any r c i dot org's, which is a website. You can call us at 405 6737355 and our email is any R. C at SBC global dot net. We could be reached just about any time through one of those avenues, and we'll help. If it's something we don't offer. We'll find it for you. We'll find a way to help you All right? Thank you all for giving us Jason low this opportunity. Thank you. We have also speaking here today Brian Wilkinson, director of litigation and legal Services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for coming out today. Definitely want to thank Representative low for having everyone come together and bringing this very important issue forward. And thanks to our advocacy partners who are represented here today for the important work that they're doing and continue to dio, I'm the legal director of the Oklahoma Disability Law Center. The Oakland of Disability Law Center is the protection and advocacy firm nonprofit law firm that is federally mandated to exist in the state of Oklahoma. Our sole mission is to represent legally and advocate for individuals with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, individuals living with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma are often a very marginalized group on a daily basis. In addition to living with what could be often difficult circumstances related to their various disabilities, they have to face oftentimes discrimination and, uh, and continued misunderstanding by the general public. In a time like this, when we're facing the cove in 19 Pandemic, and we're talking about eviction issues and housing. I can't think of Amore important issue for individuals with disabilities than having safe and secure housing at a time when we have been told to shelter in place when we've been told that the safest place is at home and when, as we all as individuals, no, really, the best way to keep ourselves safe is do manage our own personal safety needs. Individuals with disabilities are oftentimes at more risk not even in the time of a pandemic, but just in general of health health issues that are going around susceptibility to getting various viruses and diseases. So with Cove in 19 at a heightened risk of potentially contracting the virus and a heightened risk of potentially having, um, worsening conditions from the virus or suffering the effects of the virus in a disparate way, individuals with disabilities need the shelter, safety and security of their homes. We are a non profit law firm, and we represent anyone with a disability that comes to us that calls for our assistance that needs help. And in this time, when we're dealing with evictions in the state of Oklahoma, at astronomical rates as we face the federal moratorium ending Ah, on evictions as we face the courthouses in Oklahoma being open again and allowing civil proceedings to proceed at this time. Evictions in Oklahoma, Four individuals disabilities are a huge problem. So what I would like everyone to understand is that were there to help you. You need toe contact, our office. You can give us a call. You can visit us at our website. One of our in tech specialists will take down your information and get it to our advocates and our attorneys as quickly as possible. We are taking eviction issues very seriously right now. And we would encourage anyone with a disability to contact our office. And because we are federally mandated to exist in federally funded, we do not charge for our services. There is no fee for our legal advocacy or representation If we, uh, ultimately have to go with you to court to fight this issue with you, not only will we but you won't be charged for those services. So anyone that struggling right now we understand you and we want to hear from you. Um and I would simply ask all Oklahomans to come together right now to treat this issue as seriously as it needs to be taken and understand that right now is not the time to replacing our most vulnerable citizens outside of their homes. There are solutions that we come up we can come up with. And as we work through this pandemic, there are solutions on the back end that we can work out so everyone has made home. But the wrong reaction right now is to put someone out of their home, to put an individual with the disability who may be more vulnerable to this virus and more vulnerable to us. Its effects out of their home is not something that we as Oklahoma should be doing right now. So I would implore all Oklahomans, landlords, renters, advocacy groups to work together to come together in a partnership like we're standing here today to try to dio to solve this problem and not to just have it continue, because displacing Oklahomans right now is the wrong thing to do. So please, if you know someone with a disability or you are living with the disability and you're struggling with an eviction X, you are a potential eviction issue. Please contact our office. We stand ready to help you. Thank you guys very much for your time. Our last speaker is Jennifer Mom Tag DNA Legal A's lead eviction attorney. Hello, I'm here. I'm one of several dedicated housing attorneys in the Oklahoma City Law Office of Legal Aid. We're on the front lines of this crisis. We have attorneys at the eviction docket in Oklahoma County Courthouse every single day that there is a docket. We really want to make sure tenants are aware of the rights and our availability to assist the greatest. It's best if you are facing eviction and you receive a summons or even prior to the court action. You're receiving a notice regarding being late on your rent. You should call legal aid immediately. It's 18885345 to 43 It's if you cannot apply ahead of time, you still should go to court. You can apply right there at the courthouse with us and we will assist you. The outcomes are so much better for tenants if they have legal representation. Many most landlords haven't attorney andan. If they don't, they know the process. They know what's going on, and so tenants are at a significant disadvantage. So we really encourage you to contact us so we can assist you Well. I want to just kind of briefly talk about just the process of people. Do understand that you cannot be removed from your housing without a court action. Your landlords notice might say that they can remove you, but they cannot legally. If that happens, you need to call legal aid immediately. You are entitled to a notice regarding your late rent in five days to pay that to cure it. And then there must be a court action and you're always entitled to a hearing. You do not have to agree to. You know anything that the landlord's asking. You can ask for the hearing. If you want the judge. Legal aid can help you guide guide you through that process. So again I just encourage you to reach out to us. I want to briefly talk about the Cares Act eviction moratorium, because everybody's talking about how it's over. It did technically end July 25th but we're in a 30 day notice period. So if you live in a cares covered property. It is not proper for your landlord to file an eviction until after August 24. You must call legal aid. If this happens, the judges understand the cares act in, you know whether you call ahead of time or talk to us at the courthouse. It's really important because your case will be subject to dismissal if it's in violation of the Cares Act. Hopefully, you know, right now, I think the Cares Act has really helped with the number of evictions because it worked as intended by Congress. If it's not extended, we're going to be looking at a tsunami of eviction filings in late August and in September. So it's really important, really important that tenants are reaching out for rental assistance. If it's derided related to Cove it, any income reduction is Jenny Karl talked about from Community Cares partners. There is a lot of resource is for you. If it's not still, call 211 There are other Resource is available to the earlier you act, the better because it's more likely to be able to reach an agreement with the landlord to make up time for rent. If you, the sooner you act. But they were all at the courthouse Community Cares Partners, has a table at the courthouse. So if you've reached the point where you haven't been told, apply ahead of time, they're there in Legal. Aid's here, and we're We're really saving people from homelessness every day at the dock. It if you just reach out for help. I wanted to. Jenny meant to mention there is an online okla. Www. Oklahoma Community Cares dot or I'm sorry. Okay, community cares dot org's You can apply online with community Cares partners ahead of time. Someone will get in touch with you and then 211 is a central place that will connect you to lots of places, including community care partners. So again, we just what people? Because this if this does show other places around the state, legal aid has statewide representation. If there's an advocate available in counties outside of Oklahoma, they will assist you or at least give you legal advice to help you. There's also attorneys at the dock it up in Tulsa at every eviction docket, so we're here to help and hopefully stop, reduce homelessness and help people in this crisis. Thank you. Once again, thank you for all the speakers for being here today and providing some What's so much good information to individuals who are facing this crisis as faras evictions. I would like to say as well that as an attorney, I see the long lines every single day at the courthouses. I'm at every call, all the courthouses, Um, throughout the year in the state of Oklahoma. And I see the long lines, the packed courtrooms of people that are being kicked out of their homes, I see on their faces the sense of hopelessness, the sense off. No one is here to help me to sense off. I am. I'm on this journey alone. But I tell you, I tell you here today, these people behind me, they're here to help you. They're here to support you, the hair to give you the help that you deserve. And I'm just so excited that they're here today. So there is a remedy for this. There's one thing also I would like to mention as well. If you do receive an eviction notice. One thing that you should not do is ignore it. We have the resource is we have the help out there and I hope individuals will use it First of all, I like to thank all of you for being here today. This is a very important issue. My name is Jason Lowe, J A S. O n. State representative, The House District 97. Today I am pleased to be joined by a group of community leaders to discuss ways in which we can mitigate the looming spike in evictions across the state of Oklahoma in the midst of a public health crisis. No Oklahomans should be worried about being evicted from their home or being without stable housing. My hope is that we can avoid a homelessness crisis by educating the public about the illegal rights as tenants and the various community organizations that are available to them as public servants. It is our duty to be proactive as possible to protect the citizens of the state of Oklahoma. The public sprink the public Service speaking today our esteemed members of the community that dedicating their time and their resource is to assure Oklahomans facing eviction have necessary support. Before I have the pleasure of introducing each in each of them to you all. I would like to express my gratitude for their work and their contributions toward making our communities a better place. I would now like to introduce Michael Figgins, executive director of Legal Aid Services, Legal Eights lead eviction attorney Jessa for Jennifer Montana. Brian Wolk Wilson, director of litigation and legal services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC and, lastly, merrily long founder and executive director of Northeast Resource Center, which is actually located in House District 97. And she's doing such a phenomenal job giving back to community, educating the community and making sure that they have the resource is they deserve. At this time, I would like to yield the floor to Michael Figgins. Thank you so much, Representative. Low. Thank you all for being here. I think what we have to say is important. I'm here as the executive director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, as well as the chairperson of the Oklahoma Access the Justice Commission. Let me put it simply for you. Oklahoma has a problem. Um, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. Top 20 in eviction rates nationally. That was before Cove it that also doesn't include illegal evictions and yes, some evictions are leaked illegal. They're called lockouts. And when you add lockouts into the cove, it and you add that into what we're doing now studies air showing that we're looking at another 130,000 130,000 potential evictions in Oklahoma. If things are not addressed now, what is the answer? This, you may say, Well, affordable housing. We need a four Laos, and we do need affordable housing. But we can't build it fast enough. Not when we're evicting 130,000 people. There's a faucet running that's called evictions. We need to turn that faucet off. Then affordable housing will have a much greater impact because we'll be. We'll have housing four people because we won't have thousands and thousands of being evicted every day. So what about landlords? Is this an anti landler idea? No. Evictions cost landlords lots of money. They have to file things after hire attorneys. Sometimes they don't ever get the rent. And today you're gonna hear about people who will be able to provide that actual rent. So there's answers for everybody. This is pro 10 of this is pro landlord, and the impact of evictions. I mean, you know what they are were in the middle of a public health crisis. That's really all we need to know. We don't need families on the street. We don't family need families bundling up with each other. But that's what we're looking at, remember, 130,000 potentially. And so how do we stop this? How do we ameliorate? How do we prevent it? Well, have some ideas. And again, they're just ideas. I would like to see more outreach and education. A single portal for access for eventual perfection services for everyone. One place for everyone to go to build access every service. There is direct outreach to tenets before they're getting evictions filed against them. Uh, see people early. Find out what the problem is and fix the problem before eviction. You're going to hear about rental assistance. That is important. Also, what have we had a small loan program for small landlords to make repairs? Wouldn't that be helpful? Both of the landlord and to the tenant? What if somebody didn't pay their taxes and they didn't pay when they were fined for violations of code enforcement? Some cities have sequester provision where they can actually go in and actually take the rent from the the 10 of themselves and the city. The county of the state access the landlord until the landlord makes a pairs. Now there is a legal process. As you know, mediation is certainly popular, but mediation requires both parties to cooperate. Often it's not within the landlord's incentive to do so. So it gets to what I'm all about and what you're going to hear from other people today. Legal representation. All you need to know is nationally, 80% of tenants who have an attorney 80% of attended to have an attorney do not get evicted. They do not get evicted. The one to do 6% who show up without internally. Only 6% will avoid eviction. So it's really all about legal representation. Attorneys obtained not only avoidance of eviction. They obtain extra time for tenants to move out. Ah, on a case of bad landlords. If a bad landlord knows that the tenant has an attorney, they're not going to do bad things. So what I'm talking about is a basic human need. I think housing is a basic human need. We all take it for granted. We all want it will need it. I think there should be a right to some kind of housing, and when I boil it down, I refine it to the bottom point. It's there should be a right to counsel. I mean, just think about it. A person can be forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel forcibly removed from their home without legal counsel. Is it asking too much that there be a right to counsel when somebody's house is at stake? So when I have to tell you who this is impacting, it's poor people. It's people of color, disproportionately so. So I'm encouraging you. Let's think about these opportunities. Let's think about a right to counseling when housing is at stake. I thank you, thank thank you. Our next speaker is Jenny Carl, executive director of Community Cares Partners and founder and CEO of Given Well LLC. Thank you, Representive low. Thank you all for being here and thank you to my community partners. They represent but a small group of people who get it and you care. And I believe that's why you're here today is to increase that population of those who get it and those who care so we can help the people that need it. And as Michael said and all the stats prove out, those without a home have hurts beyond our imagination, and it has impacted more greatly. Camille's a color and the people who need us are crying out for us now. And this is a long term systemic issue. Committee cares, partner. My agency is an acute problem. Excuse me. An acute solution for an acute problem. We're about rent assistance, which is just one thing, so But I want to make sure we understand. Don't stop there. Don't stop with Cove. It don't waste a good pandemic. Make sure we continue this conversation because it's going to take long, slow, hard, difficult conversations and action to really move the needle for so many people. I wake up every morning in my nice bed with a roof over my head. I never worry about if my electricity is working. If I'm gonna have power, unless there's a storm, I'm lucky. I'm fortunate. I'm blessed. I'm privileged We got to think about those who are not so community cares is a public private partnership that came together two months ago to do something. We reached out to the city, to the state, to private funder, for reaching out to the county to agencies throughout this area. And we provide when assistance through an allocation from the state allocated $10 million for rent assistance. It's a really narrow, narrow field, though. First of all, you have to have an eviction summons filed against you. So you're on the precipice. You're right there at the cliff before the deep dive off. But when that happens, these funds are available. They're available to anyone who is a resident of the city of Excuse Me of the state of Oklahoma who's 18 years or older, and it's a cove it need. What that means is, after March 1, there's been a decrease in income. Could be a job. Boston could be a furlough, could be decreased hours or commissions. But a decreased income after March 1, where your people and your our people and the other qualification is 80% AM by 80% 80. My main area median income. That's roughly 41,000 for a single person. For family of four, it's roughly in the high fifties, we can provide you $3600 maximum for back grant as well as forward rant. And that helps us really negotiate with the landlord. Like Michael said, this representation for someone toe haven't advocate makes all the difference in the world. So we are up at the courthouse every day along with legal aid, ready to help you. And we also have been allocated $12.5 million from the CD of Oklahoma City. This is a broader spectrum of help because it's rent and mortgage assistance, utilities, connective ity, day care, transportation, retraining. Many, many ways it's we can help you if the cost is reasonable. If it's passed. Do. Except for retraining, obviously. And if you qualify, that being a resident of the city of the city of Oklahoma City and it's a Kobe related, that's that March 1 deadline start, start line. So the reason that we exist because people from Communities Foundation about Bahama from inasmuch foundation flourish. Okay, see the city of Oklahoma City Legal aid, Homeless alliance, upper transitions United Way. I could go on and on about the amazing partners that we have and isn't that really the true definition of the Oklahoma standard. And I'm so grateful to be a part of this. But y'all the clock is ticking September 30th. That is when we have to spend all of our state dollars. That is a state and post requirement. It is nothing to do with the Federal Cares Act the city dollars we have until December 30th. We've also yesterday. The budget board at the county, approved at $1.5 million is still has to be approved by the county commissioners next week. So keep your fingers crossed because people in Edmond the Village Jones, they're out of luck. Unless they haven't eviction sevens filed against him. Our goal is to help people before that time and with the city dollars and ideally, the county dollars. Those funds will be available for people they know in July that they're probably not gonna be able to make August or September rent. Why wait until they're nearly kicked out of their home? Seniors, veterans, Children. Every one of these people are impacted, and I believe that we could do better. And we will do better if we come together and find innovative solutions and keep moving the needle on this very crucial issue. Thank you. Thank you very much. Our next speaker is merrily long from Northeast Resource Center. First of all, I would like to say good morning that morning, toe all the partners that's here. I am representing Northeast Resource Center and what we're here today to is because we are a community organization that cares about the community. We also have spots where we bring the community in that otherwise don't have computers SS to Internet. We bring him in and we have beyond feel the application out for gears and we follow them through until the application has been approved and they have received the funding that they're needing. We also reach out to the seniors to the youth, the younger ducts, whoever is looking for homes. We as Northeast Resource Centre have homes that we ran out. We also have them because we partner with different um Renate er different rill. Attar's difference. People's. They have Renner that's available, and we help walk them through the process until we get him. It's a place to leave. At this time. I'm going to carry it over to my system to back up. What else we do here? Hello. We do a multitude of things. We help people with clothing frontage. Er, we even do yard work. Honey do list for seniors. We offer referrals to mental health. Substance abuse. We've been helping several 100 people complete the non filers for stimulus who don't have access. Some people believe that a lot of people would have immediate access to be able to complete these processes. But some people don't even have phones, and we find it. A lot of seniors don't have the tech savvy to even operate a smartphone, so we help them through the process. We also do some income tax completion. We low cost food. We have a co op store. We also are partnered with Oji Any with senior fan programs. We offer our life skills program because we find that helping people one time isn't enough. We need to give them the tools to be able to utilize what they have and make it work for them. A lot of people struggle with managing their funds to make sure they're able to meet their bills on a monthly basis, so we offer a program for that with money management. We also offer mental health, physical health or social media. We have jobs services that help people find employment, teach them how to do resumes, how to do mock interviews. We dress them for success to go on these interviews as well. Right now, we're working with doing backpacks for schools to make sure they have all the things they need. A star supplies from everything. The mass sanitizer of you, name it, pencils, everything that they could imagine going. These and we adopt usually five schools a year and give, like 50 backpacks to school. We also do Valentine National schools, Easter baskets for schools. We're trying. We're working on doing online training, online education for schools. Also in our training room, where we have social distance were able to take a student's. Where were the parents don't have access to a computer or online so this so their Children can complete their education online. They can come to us and we will facilitate that. Okay, we also have ah feeding house where we feed the homeless seniors Children. The service is about. Send me to 80 people a day. We feed them from 3 30 to 4 30 Everything is because of Cove. It We have to make everything to go. So we try to make sure we do everything correctly for a social distance as they come up. Teoh get the food. And we also delivered to a seniors also over a lot of different areas, and that helps a lot. We also offer bless bags, and sometimes we go out into the community to go door to door. We go under bridges, we go into tent cities trying to find the people who need help. Don't come out because we try to meet them where they are, because sometimes it's tough with him to come to us. So that's one of some of the things we offer. Ah, you can reach us through any r c i dot org's, which is a website. You can call us at 405 6737355 and our email is any R. C at SBC global dot net. We could be reached just about any time through one of those avenues, and we'll help. If it's something we don't offer. We'll find it for you. We'll find a way to help you All right? Thank you all for giving us Jason low this opportunity. Thank you. We have also speaking here today Brian Wilkinson, director of litigation and legal Services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center. Good morning, everybody. Thank you very much for coming out today. Definitely want to thank Representative low for having everyone come together and bringing this very important issue forward. And thanks to our advocacy partners who are represented here today for the important work that they're doing and continue to dio, I'm the legal director of the Oklahoma Disability Law Center. The Oakland of Disability Law Center is the protection and advocacy firm nonprofit law firm that is federally mandated to exist in the state of Oklahoma. Our sole mission is to represent legally and advocate for individuals with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma. Unfortunately, individuals living with disabilities in the state of Oklahoma are often a very marginalized group on a daily basis. In addition to living with what could be often difficult circumstances related to their various disabilities, they have to face oftentimes discrimination and, uh, and continued misunderstanding by the general public. In a time like this, when we're facing the cove in 19 Pandemic, and we're talking about eviction issues and housing. I can't think of Amore important issue for individuals with disabilities than having safe and secure housing at a time when we have been told to shelter in place when we've been told that the safest place is at home and when, as we all as individuals, no, really, the best way to keep ourselves safe is do manage our own personal safety needs. Individuals with disabilities are oftentimes at more risk not even in the time of a pandemic, but just in general of health health issues that are going around susceptibility to getting various viruses and diseases. So with Cove in 19 at a heightened risk of potentially contracting the virus and a heightened risk of potentially having, um, worsening conditions from the virus or suffering the effects of the virus in a disparate way, individuals with disabilities need the shelter, safety and security of their homes. We are a non profit law firm, and we represent anyone with a disability that comes to us that calls for our assistance that needs help. And in this time, when we're dealing with evictions in the state of Oklahoma, at astronomical rates as we face the federal moratorium ending Ah, on evictions as we face the courthouses in Oklahoma being open again and allowing civil proceedings to proceed at this time. Evictions in Oklahoma, Four individuals disabilities are a huge problem. So what I would like everyone to understand is that were there to help you. You need toe contact, our office. You can give us a call. You can visit us at our website. One of our in tech specialists will take down your information and get it to our advocates and our attorneys as quickly as possible. We are taking eviction issues very seriously right now. And we would encourage anyone with a disability to contact our office. And because we are federally mandated to exist in federally funded, we do not charge for our services. There is no fee for our legal advocacy or representation If we, uh, ultimately have to go with you to court to fight this issue with you, not only will we but you won't be charged for those services. So anyone that struggling right now we understand you and we want to hear from you. Um and I would simply ask all Oklahomans to come together right now to treat this issue as seriously as it needs to be taken and understand that right now is not the time to replacing our most vulnerable citizens outside of their homes. There are solutions that we come up we can come up with. And as we work through this pandemic, there are solutions on the back end that we can work out so everyone has made home. But the wrong reaction right now is to put someone out of their home, to put an individual with the disability who may be more vulnerable to this virus and more vulnerable to us. Its effects out of their home is not something that we as Oklahoma should be doing right now. So I would implore all Oklahomans, landlords, renters, advocacy groups to work together to come together in a partnership like we're standing here today to try to dio to solve this problem and not to just have it continue, because displacing Oklahomans right now is the wrong thing to do. So please, if you know someone with a disability or you are living with the disability and you're struggling with an eviction X, you are a potential eviction issue. Please contact our office. We stand ready to help you. Thank you guys very much for your time. Our last speaker is Jennifer Mom Tag DNA Legal A's lead eviction attorney. Hello, I'm here. I'm one of several dedicated housing attorneys in the Oklahoma City Law Office of Legal Aid. We're on the front lines of this crisis. We have attorneys at the eviction docket in Oklahoma County Courthouse every single day that there is a docket. We really want to make sure tenants are aware of the rights and our availability to assist the greatest. It's best if you are facing eviction and you receive a summons or even prior to the court action. You're receiving a notice regarding being late on your rent. You should call legal aid immediately. It's 18885345 to 43 It's if you cannot apply ahead of time, you still should go to court. You can apply right there at the courthouse with us and we will assist you. The outcomes are so much better for tenants if they have legal representation. Many most landlords haven't attorney andan. If they don't, they know the process. They know what's going on, and so tenants are at a significant disadvantage. So we really encourage you to contact us so we can assist you Well. I want to just kind of briefly talk about just the process of people. Do understand that you cannot be removed from your housing without a court action. Your landlords notice might say that they can remove you, but they cannot legally. If that happens, you need to call legal aid immediately. You are entitled to a notice regarding your late rent in five days to pay that to cure it. And then there must be a court action and you're always entitled to a hearing. You do not have to agree to. You know anything that the landlord's asking. You can ask for the hearing. If you want the judge. Legal aid can help you guide guide you through that process. So again I just encourage you to reach out to us. I want to briefly talk about the Cares Act eviction moratorium, because everybody's talking about how it's over. It did technically end July 25th but we're in a 30 day notice period. So if you live in a cares covered property. It is not proper for your landlord to file an eviction until after August 24. You must call legal aid. If this happens, the judges understand the cares act in, you know whether you call ahead of time or talk to us at the courthouse. It's really important because your case will be subject to dismissal if it's in violation of the Cares Act. Hopefully, you know, right now, I think the Cares Act has really helped with the number of evictions because it worked as intended by Congress. If it's not extended, we're going to be looking at a tsunami of eviction filings in late August and in September. So it's really important, really important that tenants are reaching out for rental assistance. If it's derided related to Cove it, any income reduction is Jenny Karl talked about from Community Cares partners. There is a lot of resource is for you. If it's not still, call 211 There are other Resource is available to the earlier you act, the better because it's more likely to be able to reach an agreement with the landlord to make up time for rent. If you, the sooner you act. But they were all at the courthouse Community Cares Partners, has a table at the courthouse. So if you've reached the point where you haven't been told, apply ahead of time, they're there in Legal. Aid's here, and we're We're really saving people from homelessness every day at the dock. It if you just reach out for help. I wanted to. Jenny meant to mention there is an online okla. Www. Oklahoma Community Cares dot or I'm sorry. Okay, community cares dot org's You can apply online with community Cares partners ahead of time. Someone will get in touch with you and then 211 is a central place that will connect you to lots of places, including community care partners. So again, we just what people? Because this if this does show other places around the state, legal aid has statewide representation. If there's an advocate available in counties outside of Oklahoma, they will assist you or at least give you legal advice to help you. There's also attorneys at the dock it up in Tulsa at every eviction docket, so we're here to help and hopefully stop, reduce homelessness and help people in this crisis. Thank you. Once again, thank you for all the speakers for being here today and providing some What's so much good information to individuals who are facing this crisis as faras evictions. I would like to say as well that as an attorney, I see the long lines every single day at the courthouses. I'm at every call, all the courthouses, Um, throughout the year in the state of Oklahoma. And I see the long lines, the packed courtrooms of people that are being kicked out of their homes, I see on their faces the sense of hopelessness, the sense off. No one is here to help me to sense off. I am. I'm on this journey alone. But I tell you, I tell you here today, these people behind me, they're here to help you. They're here to support you, the hair to give you the help that you deserve. And I'm just so excited that they're here today. So there is a remedy for this. There's one thing also I would like to mention as well. If you do receive an eviction notice. One thing that you should not do is ignore it. We have the resource is we have the help out there and I hope individuals will use it
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An Oklahoma lawmaker on Friday held a news conference, announcing a coalition of community leaders created to help Oklahomans facing eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic."Thousands of Oklahomans, devastated by job loss and decreased income due to COVID-19, are facing eviction next month now that the federal eviction moratorium has expired," State Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, said. "It is imperative that the public knows their rights as tenants, as well as the community services available to them in order to prevent a homelessness crisis." Lowe was joined by several community members representing organizations with resources to help Oklahomans facing evictions. "Tulsa and Oklahoma City are top 20 nationally for eviction rates and that was before COVID," said Michael Figgins, the executive director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. "When you add illegal lockout evictions, studies are showing that we are looking at more than 130,000 potential evictions." The resources available by the providers present ranged from legal representation, back rent, to occupational retraining videos, Lowe said."We have eviction attorneys at the courthouse every time there is an eviction docket," said Jennifer Montagna, the lead eviction attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. "If you are facing eviction and you receive a summons or prior to the court action a notice regarding being late on your rent, you should call Legal Aid immediately." Watch the full news conference in the video player above.Community leaders who spoke at Friday's news conference include: Michael Figgins, Executive Director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Jennifer Montagna, Lead Eviction Attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Ginny Carl, Executive Director of Community Cares Partners and Founder and CEO of Giving Well LLC, Brian Wilkerson, Director of Litigation and Legal Services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center, Inc. and Marilyn Long, Founder and Executive Director at North East Resource Center, Inc.
An Oklahoma lawmaker on Friday held a news conference, announcing a coalition of community leaders created to help Oklahomans facing eviction amid the coronavirus pandemic.
"Thousands of Oklahomans, devastated by job loss and decreased income due to COVID-19, are facing eviction next month now that the federal eviction moratorium has expired," State Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, said. "It is imperative that the public knows their rights as tenants, as well as the community services available to them in order to prevent a homelessness crisis."
Lowe was joined by several community members representing organizations with resources to help Oklahomans facing evictions.
"Tulsa and Oklahoma City are top 20 nationally for eviction rates and that was before COVID," said Michael Figgins, the executive director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. "When you add illegal lockout evictions, studies are showing that we are looking at more than 130,000 potential evictions."
The resources available by the providers present ranged from legal representation, back rent, to occupational retraining videos, Lowe said.
"We have eviction attorneys at the courthouse every time there is an eviction docket," said Jennifer Montagna, the lead eviction attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. "If you are facing eviction and you receive a summons or prior to the court action a notice regarding being late on your rent, you should call Legal Aid immediately."
Watch the full news conference in the video player above.
Community leaders who spoke at Friday's news conference include: Michael Figgins, Executive Director of Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Jennifer Montagna, Lead Eviction Attorney at Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, Ginny Carl, Executive Director of Community Cares Partners and Founder and CEO of Giving Well LLC, Brian Wilkerson, Director of Litigation and Legal Services at Oklahoma Disability Law Center, Inc. and Marilyn Long, Founder and Executive Director at North East Resource Center, Inc.
Coronavirus in Oklahoma: Latest local updates, helpful resources


If you love a podcast or need a reason to start listening in, this is your chance!
The Bittersweet Life is a podcast run by two expats, writer Tiffany Parks and radio producer Katy Sewall. It's based on their unique experiences of life in Rome. The wonder and yet sometimes the bittersweet aspects of life abroad.
They delve into a variety of topics including history, art and politics with humour but also a directness that makes you feel you are chatting to friends. Those who know you well and just want to get straight to the heart of the matter!
Katy and Tiffany very kindly invited me to talk to them about raising biingual children. Obviously I was delighted to join them and my episode will be live next Monday 6 August. The episode will be number 217 'BILINGUAL'.
Katy asked me plenty of difficult questions and showed the real effort that has gone into our bilingual journey! It's not easy but anyone can do it. I hope you enjoy listening and are tempted to learn a language or help your children with one.
I will share the link for my episode on Monday but for now you have A LOT to catchup on!
Head over to The Bittersweet Life to subscribe so you don't miss an episode!
Husband Graziano and I, dressed up for Venice Carnival!


RAFA BENITEZ has held talks with on-loan striker Adam Armstrong amid rumours he could be recalled by Newcastle.
Armstrong has spent the season with League One hopefuls Coventry, bagging 19 goals already this term.
And given the Toon Army's current plight in the Premier League, it's believed the 19-year-old could be brought back to St James' by the new manager.
"But he has been up there, been in the building, seen the manager and is back here in training, so it doesn't appear as if anything is happening.
"At this moment, as we sit here now, there doesn't seem to be any recall.
"I am not sitting here overly concerned, because I don't think he's going to be recalled. And if he does then we'll have to get on with it."


text:
China-based players at the World Cup – who's going and who is not?
China may have yet again failed to qualify for the World Cup, but the Chinese Super League looks set to be represented with a record number of players this summer on football's biggest stage.
With a little help from some overseas experts, looks at the China based players who have already booked their plane tickets to Brazil, those who narrowly missed out, and those still hopeful of going with final squads for every participating nation yet to be confirmed.
Leon Benko (Dalian Aerbin, Croatia)
Background: 30 years old, Striker, 4 caps since 2006, last cap v Switzerland March 2014
Season so far: Signed from HNK Rijeka, Benko has turned out for Dalian eight times in 2014. He featured for 90 minutes in the first four games and scored against Henan Jianye. Since then Benko has played a rotational role in four of his last seven games but not played a full match.
Expert opinion, Aleksandar Holiga (Twitter @alexholiga): There was pressure on Croatia managers (both Štimac and later Kovač) to call up Benko, as he was the leading goal scorer in the league – not only last season, but also this before he left Rijeka. However, Croatia have at least 5 or 6 forwards who are better than him and also better suited for the team's needs. He's no spring chicken and there wouldn't be much point taking him to Brazil just to sit on the bench, but he was nevertheless called up and tested. I think he wouldn't have made the final cut anyway, but by leaving for China he effectively eliminated himself from the list of candidates.
Chances: Left out of the squad
Mauricio Castillo (Qingdao Jonoon, Costa Rica)
Background: 26 years old, Midfielder and Forward, 8 caps and 1 goal since 2012, last cap v South Korea January 2014.
Season so far: After suffering painful relegation last term, Qingdao Jonoon were all change and signed Castillo to push for promotion but currently sit 9th, 11 points off the pace in the second tier. Castillo featured in Jonoon's first three matches all of which were 1-1 draws, a 3-0 win over Wuhan Zall in which he scored but then three losses with no goals scored. Jonoon overturned their fortunes with a 5-0 victory that Castillo sat out and recently featured in a 0-0 draw.
Expert opinion, Andrés Rojas (Twitter @Macho_Rojas10): I think that the chances that Mauricio has are very high. Jorge Luis Pinto likes the way he played when he was at Saprissa in Costa Rica but there are other players that are showing good performances. I think that if the national coach keeps calling the habitual players, Mauricio is going to be at the World Cup.
Chances: None – he was left out of the squad announced May 13th
Osman Chavez (Qingdao Jonoon, Honduras)
Background: 29 years old, Defender, 52 caps since 2008, last cap v Venezuela March 2014
Season so far: A surprise capture for Qingdao and the only China League One player to confirm his place Chavez and Qingdao sit mid-table in 2014. Qingdao endured a tough relegation and have started life in the second tier with 3 wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.
Expert opinion, Legion Catracha (Twitter @legioncatracha): People admire him and respect him, even when he was injured the people never questioned Chavez's presence in the team. He is respected too for always speaking about God even in churches; don't know how he is doing now in China with that but he did it in Poland!
Chances: Osman is already confirmed as part of the squad.
Ha Dae-Sung (Beijing Guoan, South Korea)
Background: 29 years old, Midfielder, 12 caps since 2008, last cap v Greece March 2014
Season so far: Arriving as part of the South Korean influx in Winter 2014, Ha replaced Egor Krimets as Guoan's Asian player. With Guoan 2nd in the CSL table, Ha has played only a few full 90 minutes but his contributions have been impressive to Guoan's 9 CSL victories.
Expert opinion, Kim Dae-Ryung (Twitter @KORFootballNews): Moving to China seems not to have been a good choice for Ha's World Cup dream. He doesn't have a lot of experience in the national team and his competitor is Ki Sung-Yueng who has played in England. I don't expect he will have many chances in the WC but he is useful substitute for Ki.
Chances: Officially named in South Korea squad.
Alessandro Diamanti (Guangzhou Evergrande, Italy)
Background: 30 years old, Forward, 17 caps 1 goal since 2010, last cap v Nigeria November 2013
Season so far: Arguably the biggest CSL signing of 2014 so far, Italian international Diamanti has turned out in all games so far for his new employers. With Evergrande topping the table and going strong in the Asia Champions League, his influence has been impressive even with the comparison's to the talismanic Dario Conca.
Expert opinion, David Amoyal (Twitter @davidamoyal): A lot depends on Rossi's health. I definitely think Prandelli is considering him, before Diamanti left for Guangzhou he talked to Prandelli to ensure move to China wouldn't take him out of running for Brazil. Prandelli promised Diamanti he would still follow his games in China.
Chances: None, left out of the preliminary 30-man squad
Joffre Guerrón (Beijing Guoan, Ecuador)
Background: 29 years old, Winger, 18 caps since 2007, last cap v Bolivia September 2013
Season so far: Guerron had a questionable first season for Guoan but sits second in the league with his side this season. He has played in 11 matches and scored 4 goals for Guoan in their 9 wins and 2 defeats in the CSL.
Expert opinion, Marco Maioli (Twitter @marcomaioli1 and @ecuafooty): It's highly unlikely that we will see Guerron in Brazil this summer. Rueda has rarely called him up in the last two years for Ecuador. Rueda clearly does not like him and there is shortage of centre-backs and centre-forwards, not of players like Guerron.
Chances: None, left out of the squad
Jang Hyun-Soo (Guangzhou R&F, South Korea)
Background: 22, defender, South Korea, 4 caps since 2013, last cap v Russia November 2013
Season so far: With Guangzhou R&F impressing as they sit confidently near the top of the table, Hyun-Soo has turned out in 4 wins, 4 draws and the single loss to put the Fuli youngster on the South Korean radar.
Expert opinion, Kim Dae-Ryung (Twitter @KORFootballNews): Jang is competing with Hwang Seok-Ho (Hiroshima) but Hwang seems to has superiority over Jang. Sadly, Jang dropped out but he is expected to be selected for next Asian Games. If he and team get a Gold, he will be exempt from military duty.
Chances: None now, he was left out of the squad
Park Jongwoo (Guangzhou R&F, South Korea)
Season so far: Much like his South Korean team mate, Jongwoo has been impressive only featuring in one defeat to date for Fuli and has turned out in four victories in his eight games at the club.
Expert opinion, Kim Dae-Ryung (Twitter @KORFootballNews): Probably two of three players Park, Han Kook-Young (Kashiwa) and Lee Myung-Joo (Pohang) will go to Brazil. Park Jong-Woo's situation is better than Ha. Ki Sung-Yueng and Koo Ja-Cheol are creative midfielders but have weakness in their defense ability, so Park Jong-Woo or Han Kook-Young will not have many opportunities in Brazil, Park's direct competitor is Han Kook-Young.
Chances: Good but may not start games
Ryan McGowan (Shandong Luneng, Australia)
Background: 24 years old, Defender, 8 caps since 2012, last cap v Ecuador March 2014
Season so far: With some superb performances last season, McGowan was one of the CSL's stand out players. With the arrival of Cuca in 2014, McGowan missed the start of the season with a niggling injury but found his way back into the squad featuring in 3 wins and 4 defeats with Shandong struggling to challenge Guangzhou Evergrande as predicted.
Expert opinion, Ahmed Yussuf (Twitter @ahmedyussuf10): McGowan is on the plane for sure. His chances are really good because one Holger didn't try enough of the youngsters and two Austalia have a bit of a shortage of quality centre backs.
Chances: McGowan is in the preliminary squad
Zvjezdan Misimović (Guizhou Renhe, Bosnia)
Background: 31 years old, Attacking midfielder, 80 caps 26 goals since 2004, last cap v Argentina November 2013
Season so far: Misimovic's surprise move to Guiyang in 2013 saw him perform confidently with five goals in 24 matches. In 2014 he has missed only one game and scored 3 despite Guizhou's disappointing league position and poor showing in the ACL.
Expert opinion, Saša Ibrulj (Twitter @sasaibrulj): After Muslimović went to China Safet Sušić commented that this is a step back for him and that he can't call a player that plays there. But when Misimović moved to China – to the same club -he continued to play him in the team. I can't see how Misimović could miss the World cup. What more, there is a huge possibility that he will be in the starting XI if not in all three matches, than in one at least.
Chances: High, he is a certainty now and included in the provisional squad
Kim Young-Gwon (Guangzhou Evergrande, South Korea)
Background: 24 years old, Defender, 19 caps 1 goal since 2010, last cap v Greece March 2014
Season so far: Highly rated by Lippi himself, Kim has missed only one game in 2014. He has even scored for Evergrande who sit top of the CSL and easily dismissed Cerezo Osaka to progress in the ACL.
Expert opinion, Kim Dae-Ryung (Twitter @KORFootballNews): Kim Young-Gwon must be included in the squad for the World Cup, he is 100% going to Brazil. I'm sure Kim will be a regular starting centre back with Hong Jeong-Ho. Hwang Seok-Ho and Kwak Tae-Hwi are also good players but Kim has always been a first choice of Hong. Many Korean fans just expect to him to show a good performance in Brazil and move to Europe after the competition.
Chances: Kim has already been named in the squad officially.
Beijing-based Peter Davis has followed Chinese football since 2008 and is a regular contributor to Wild East Football. He can be found on Twitter and Weibo at @peteydavis
Related TopicsAlessandro DiamantiHa Dae-SungJang Hyun-SooJoffre GuerronKim Young-GwonLeon BenkoMauricio CastilloOsman ChávezPark JongwooRyan McGowantop storiesZvjezdan Misimović
Pete is from Sheffield, England and came to China in 2008 initially living in Shenyang where he witnessed his first CSL game, Liaoning Whowin v Chengdu Blades. Pete is a fanatic Sheffield Wednesday fan but has picked up football allegiances from various trips, Galatasary in Turkey, Piacenza in Italy and Muangthong United in Thailand. In early 2009 he moved to Beijing and after a brief time started attending Guoan games regularly. Pete graduated in Journalism in the UK and has written for several educational publications on Chinese education for his day job as well as Chinese football for WEF which he wishes was more developed but avidly follows the Imperial Guards on their quest for CSL supremacy regardless.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A 61-year-old Carson City man is expected to admit charges of trafficking and sales of a controlled substance, his attorney told a judge on Wednesday.
Dennis Walter Myers appeared in East Fork Justice Court on Wednesday with his attorney Maria Pence.
Myers is waiving a preliminary hearing in connection with his arrest for allegedly selling methamphetamine, heroin and oxycontin.
Myers' Carson City neighbors said the drip system he was using to grow the plants overflowed and shorted out the electricity in the apartment below him.
The Douglas County warrant was issued a week after he was taken into custody in Carson City.
According to his attorney, the plea negotiation will see the dismissal of charges in connection with the Carson City arrest.
Myers is scheduled to appear in Douglas County District Court on Sept. 1.
■ A Gardnerville man who was the subject of an Aug. 16 disturbance call at Ranchos Aspen Park waived his preliminary hearing on a charge of being under the influence of a controlled substance.
Clifford Beattie, 59, was intoxicated on alcohol and methamphetamine, according to the sheriff's report.
He is scheduled to appear in Douglas County District Court on Sept. 1.
■ A Gardnerville man hopes to receive diversion when he appears in Douglas County District Court on Sept. 21.
Jacob Lee Lopes, 23, was allegedly caught selling oxycontin in the Gardnerville Ranchos on July 11.
He was released on his own recognizance and ordered to Douglas County District Court on Sept. 21.


Hello, everyone! I'm back from summer fever.
During that past two months that I was away - I had to focus my energy and worked all day and all night for my first ever trade show! It was so exciting and nerve racking and I wll talk about more details on a separate post. The latter part of my summer was spent on meditation, relaxation and just simply enjoying everything I have without having to go away from home.