Nearly a year ago, with Tulsa facing one of the highest eviction rates in the country, Legal Aid Services offered landlords an alternative to going to court: If they would agree to go to mediation with a tenant instead of filing an eviction, property owners would qualify for as much $1,200 to cover unpaid rent and late fees.

Similar programs had reduced eviction filings by nearly 80% in other jurisdictions, officials said. But in Tulsa, very few landlords agreed to participate, a Legal Aid attorney said, while other property managers insisted that mediation would only delay the inevitable and prolong the financial agony for everyone involved.

Facing nearly 1,200 eviction cases a month, Tulsa won’t find one magic-bullet solution to what the mayor’s office has described as an epidemic.

Read more in this Tulsa World article