The City of Tulsa’s Working In Neighborhoods Department is working on a plan to help guard against substandard rental housing.
It would accomplish goals of a landlord licensing program recommended by the city’s affordable housing strategy released in 2019. WIN Director Dwain Midget said they’re calling it a rental certificate of occupancy.
"What the program is designed to do is really promote a higher-quality of life for residents of rental properties and surrounding neighborhoods, eliminate nuisance and blight conditions to help reduce disorderly activity, and the preservation and maintenance of existing housing stock," Midget told city councilors during a presentation on Wednesday.
The proposal being drafted focuses on apartments and rental homes declared uninhabitable or a chronic nuisance under city ordinances. Property owners would be required to present a plan to the WIN Department to correct violations, then keep their certificate of occupancy for three years without violation, undergoing regular inspections.
Midget said they’re trying to set up a system that not only protects the city, neighborhoods and tenants from problem properties, but also offers owners due process.
"Taking a property right away from folks in Oklahoma — and I’m just being honest — man, that’s like pushing a snowball uphill in July. It is hard," Midget said.
Midget is also hoping funds being set aside for a city housing trust fund might be available to help rental property owners who need assistance with repairs.
An ordinance could make it to the council by March.
