Oklahoma Senate Bill SB274

Oklahoma 2026 Regular Session

• Introduced: 2/3/25
• Refer: 2/4/25
• Report Pass: 2/11/25

Caption

Landlord and tenant; requiring criminal history screening policy for award of certain tax credit; establishing procedures for certain screening policies. Effective date.

Summary

SB 274 amends Oklahoma landlord-tenant law for certain affordable housing properties that receive federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits or certain state tax credits. The bill preserves existing authority for owners of those properties to screen for and deny or terminate leases based on specified felony convictions, including drug offenses, sex offenses, assault or battery, violent felonies, and other offenses the owner chooses to include in the lease. It also updates the statute to make clear that these lease conditions apply to qualifying lease transactions and can supersede conflicting administrative rules. The bill’s main new requirement applies to tax credit awards beginning on or after January 1, 2026: recipients must adopt a clearly defined criminal history screening policy in their tenant selection plans. That policy must require individualized review before denying an applicant with a criminal conviction, set out how long criminal records will be considered, and explain the review process, including notice to the applicant and an opportunity to submit supporting documentation and mitigating evidence. The bill also directs the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency to review tenant selection plans for compliance and to provide guidance to property owners.

Impact

SB 274 would affect owners and operators of affordable housing developments that receive Section 42 federal tax credits or certain Oklahoma income tax credits, as well as applicants for those units. It codifies and expands screening-related requirements in 41 O.S. Section 201, while also requiring future tax credit recipients to use written criminal history screening policies that include individualized review standards. The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency would gain an explicit compliance-monitoring role, and its guidance responsibilities would be expanded. The bill would also preempt conflicting state administrative rules to the extent they conflict with the statute.

Sentiment

The available vote history suggests the bill had at least some support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it passed 6-2 on an amended committee substitute. The committee substitute and the lack of recorded transcript discussion indicate the measure was advanced in a relatively technical policy form, focused on housing tax credit compliance and tenant screening procedures. Overall, the bill appears to have been treated as a housing-administration measure rather than a broad ideological proposal, though the recorded opposition shows there was not unanimous support.

Contention

The main point of contention is likely the balance between landlord discretion and tenant fair-housing protections for people with criminal records. Supporters of the bill would favor clearer screening standards and individualized review requirements for affordable housing tax credit properties, while opponents may view the measure as either too permissive toward criminal-history exclusions or too restrictive on property owners’ ability to protect residents and property. Another likely area of dispute is the bill’s preservation of broad owner discretion for certain felony categories alongside a new requirement that denials be based on individualized review, which could create tension between uniform compliance rules and case-by-case decision-making.