Evictions are happening despite moratorium, how one deputy tries to help

The pandemic is still taking its financial toll on many Oklahomans.

Despite an eviction moratorium put in place by the CDC, hundreds of tenants are still being taken to court each week for not paying rent.

Fox 25 spent a day with an Oklahoma County Sheriff's deputy serving the paperwork to get a first-hand look at what she sees every day.

Deputy Davine Hopkins starts her day with a list of names.

She starts knocking on doors, leaving notices telling people they're being evicted and when a judge issues the court order, she makes sure no one is home before the locks get changed.

"Some that are just not paying, just because they’re not paying, and then some are genuinely having a hardship because of what’s going on," Hopkins said. "Then you have to think about the people who were already having issues before the Covid even started. Now it’s just even more of a setback.”

The current eviction moratorium lasts through March, but that hasn't stopped a lot landlords from filing.

"My goal is to make contact with them before I’m coming to do the lockout," Hopkins said. "Because if I can make contact with them, I’ve got a list of resources that will help pay utilities and rent.”

Behind the second door we visited, lived 71-year-old Diane Crump.

She was having trouble paying rent since her roommate who owned the home passed away.

We asked her how the pandemic has affected her.

"Horribly," Crump said. "Because I’ve been trying to find a place to live for months and months."

Ms. Crump said she's afraid, because she's disabled and doesn't have any family.

She was supposed to be out of the house already.

Deputy Hopkins goes through a list of resources with her, like Sunbeam and Catholic Charities.

"Don’t not call me," Hopkins said before leaving. "Because I want to be able to help you figure this out."

Hopkins wasn't going to lock an elderly woman out of her home with nowhere to go.

"She didn’t have family, so I need to make sure that, just as a system and just as a person, that I did everything to make sure that I helped her get in some sort of a better situation," Hopkins said.

Deputy Hopkins has been able to help people before.

"We’re going to see Ms. Spratt," Hopkins said on the last stop of the day. "She’s an individual I met a year and a half ago during a lockout. I was actually doing a lockout on her and her son. She’s an elderly lady. She’s 84. They were getting evicted."

When she first met Grace Spratt, Grace couldn't walk and had skin cancer.

"The first time that D and I met, she came to the door to take me out of our home," Spratt said.

Instead of locking Grace out of her home, Hopkins took it upon herself to bring her to a hospital for treatment, then eventually found a new home for her and her son.

"It was Davine intervention," Spratt said.

After Grace's "Davine intervention," a year and a half later, they've remained close, even spending holidays together just like family.

"She is my family," Spratt said. "She’s all I got. We don’t have no one but her.”

Deputies like Davine Hopkins can't do much for the people they never see, or who never show up to court.

Many tenants don't realize that to avoid eviction during the moratorium, they need to fill out a declaration form from the CDC then show it to their landlord.

That declaration can be found here.

In a story airing Tuesday night, Fox 25 visits the Oklahoma County Courthouse to take a closer look at why so many evictions are still being filed, what resources are out there and how the current situation can be hurting both tenants and landlords.