Residents at YES! Communities park in Oklahoma experience “serial evictions,” rent-to-own pressure
October 20, 2026
Yes! Communities’ eviction activity in Oklahoma has gained recent media attention, with one TV news story describing the company as a “serial evictor.”[1] Yes was recently acquired by Brookfield Asset Management, one of the largest private equity firms in the world.
The Yes-owned Westmoor Mobile Home Park was Oklahoma City’s seventh highest evictor in 2025, according to the News 9 story. Park management filed evictions against 76 households that year. Twenty-nine of these households had more than one eviction filed, with one household having 10 evictions filed against them in a single year.
This has been destabilizing and stressful for park residents, the story said. One resident reported having to use his retirement savings to pay off his balance.
Repeated eviction filings towards a single household are so common that experts have coined a term for them: “serial eviction.” Landlords may file serial evictions with the intent of forcing the tenant to pay rent and added fees rather than to actually remove them. While it is not possible to determine from the public record whether Yes! is involved in this practice in Oklahoma City, research from The Eviction Lab found that many “property managers use the courts to collect rent and late fees, while passing legal costs onto tenants.”[2]
Serial eviction has high consequences for tenants, according to this research. Each eviction filing translates into approximately $180 in fines and fees for the typical renter household, and eviction filings make it difficult for tenants to pass future tenant screenings.[3] Eviction records also contribute to cycles of tenant poverty by leading to lost belongings, job loss, educational disruption, and negative health outcomes.[4]
Evictions can be profitable for landlords. Because of this, investors may be attracted to environments with poor tenant protections, and Oklahoma’s eviction timeline is one of the fastest in the country.[5] “If you were an out-of-state entity looking for where to purchase property, then of course it’s going to be more appealing to buy property in a state that has laws that fit into that business practice,” said one Oklahoma housing advocate quoted by News 9. “If you are looking for properties in a state with a rapid eviction process that costs very little to file an eviction, then it would be appealing if that is a part of your day-to-day operation.”[6]
Oklahoma’s News 9 also stated that Yes is attempting to push residents at Westmoor into rent-to-own contracts, which shifts the burden of repairs onto residents and can often be predatory.[7] Because rent-to-own agreements offer poor protections for tenants, it is not uncommon for tenants to lose everything they’ve paid into the property (including maintenance costs) when something goes wrong.[8]
Residents also told News 9 that they experienced additional costs due to questionable fees, fines, and utility splits. For example, the cost of water is divided evenly amongst all park residents, regardless of how much individual residents use. One resident said that if he is too slow to mow his lawn, Yes will very quickly do it for him and force him to foot the bill.
These extra costs are tied directly to the eviction issue. A recent Yes!-owned park lease obtained by PESP explicitly counts many types of fees and fines as rent, meaning tenants who can’t pay are vulnerable to eviction.[9] This could result in a scenario where an elderly person is evicted and loses their home and all the money they spent on it over something as trivial as untrimmed grass.
Mass eviction and predatory lease terms are predictable outcomes of private equity ownership. Private equity firms seek to increase their profits by boosting revenue and cutting costs.[10] Revenue boosting strategies often include adding new fees and fines, raising rents, and replacing residents who fall behind on costs with new tenants. Cost cutting measures may include passing expenses onto residents and reducing maintenance and staffing.[11] In short, under private equity, tenants pay more for worse conditions.
The situation at Westmoor and the thousands of parks like it across the United States is not inevitable. Policy interventions like rent control, eviction process reforms, improved rent-to-own regulations, and junk fee bans should be pursued by officials at every level of government. In addition, investors have the power to act. Organized Yes! Communities residents are currently calling on investors in Yes’s owner, Brookfield, to work with tenants to institute fairer management practices. Brookfield’s investors, many of which are public pension funds, now have an opportunity to stop investing in predatory business practices that harm tenants while also reducing their own legal and financial risk burdens.
[1] https://www.news9.com/eye-on-oklahoma/okcs-seventh-highest-evictor-is-a-mobile-home-park-pushing-rent-to-own-deals
[2]https://evictionlab.org/serial-eviction-filings/
[3] https://evictionlab.org/serial-eviction-filings/
[4] https://evictionlab.org/why-eviction-matters/#eviction-impact
[5] https://oklahomawatch.org/2025/07/01/get-out-oklahomas-eviction-timeline-is-one-of-the-fastest-in-the-nation/
[6] https://www.news9.com/eye-on-oklahoma/okcs-seventh-highest-evictor-is-a-mobile-home-park-pushing-rent-to-own-deals
[7] https://www.lawny.org/page/64/beware-rent-own-agreements
[8] https://oklahomawatch.org/2026/03/03/rent-to-own-scheme-highlights-lack-of-tenant-protections/
[9] https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1becqrdoiwn94ou1s8n0q/copy-of-yes-brookfield-lease.pdf?rlkey=mds3wovbrq6jouqdm9d2slw61&dl=0
[10]https://taylorshelton.info/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/private-equity-landlords-nlf.pdf, abstract
[11] https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/02/single-family-landlords-wall-street/582394/
