Sandra Gathron sat on a bench chatting on the phone and snuggling her 1-year-old granddaughter, Alaysha, near the elevators that lead to eviction court at the Oklahoma County District Courthouse on Aug. 22. Two other women sat alongside Gathron; one entertained Alaysha with a game of peek-a-boo.
Around the corner in the main hall outside the eviction courtrooms, Adonika Fuller waited quietly with her neighbor, Jerry Jones, for information. Fuller was there for her eviction hearing. Jones came as moral support for Fuller and their fellow neighbor, Jennifer Esquivel, who was discussing her eviction case with a Legal Aid attorney.
Next to Fuller and Esquivel, three other women waited for legal assistance. Across from them, one man in his senior years sat at the end of a bench next to five more women.
“Look around,” Fuller said. “What do you see? What do you see? How many women are here?”
Women represent about six in 10 eviction filings in Oklahoma County , according to Shelterwell, an Oklahoma City-based housing stability organization. The narrow demographic of Black women tenants with children, however, represents 28% of eviction filings nationally.