Sheniqua Johnson is part of the Sandwich Generation, caring for her 14-year-old daughter and 72-year-old mother. The family of three has lived at Heritage Point Apartments in Oklahoma City for six years.
In July, Johnson couldn’t pay her $1,114 rent.
Five months earlier, Johnson, 41, was fired from her management job at a Subway restaurant on her fourth employment anniversary.
Compounding Johnson’s stressful situation, her mom’s health was fading, requiring 24-hour health care.
“The only thing that was going through my mind, I just thought that we were going to get put out,” Johnson said. “We were going to be on street side.”
Johnson needed rental assistance or she would likely be evicted . Oklahoma landlords file about 4,000 eviction cases monthly in small claims courts. According to Legal Services Corporation’s Eviction Tracker , 32,108 evictions were filed in Oklahoma between January and August.
More than $400 million of pandemic-era federal Emergency Rental Assistance Program finally ran dry for Oklahomans in September, signaling a new era of scarcity for tenants behind on rent and for landlords who extended grace periods.