For some Oklahomans, eviction is a death sentence

In April, Anthony Goulding, died in flames as sheriff’s deputies attempted to enforce an eviction order against him and his wife from the Oklahoma City home they had occupied for decades.

Charles Henderson Jr. died alone in a tent the first week of January. He’d been homeless since October due to an eviction.

In December 2023, Eviction Lab released a study showing a direct link between eviction and death.

This month, Oklahoma City’s The Curbside Chronicle is dedicated to the 74 people experiencing homelessness who died in Oklahoma City in 2024. According to 2024 Point-in-Time surveys, evictions and housing instability were the top precursors to becoming homeless in Oklahoma.

While evictions aren’t always an onramp to homelessness, for many of Oklahoma’s poorest and most vulnerable residents, losing a home can have mortal consequences.

Both Henderson and Goulding shared their eviction stories with Oklahoma Watch before they died.

Nowhere to Go

Goulding, 82, was evicted from the home he’d shared with his wife for 20 years. The eviction was filed by his stepson, who bought the home from Goulding’s wife. Goulding resisted moving out after a judge ordered him to vacate.

He told Oklahoma Watch after his eviction hearing that he and his wife had nowhere to go. He was desperate to stay in his home and said he had no hope for the future.

“I guess we’ll have to go out to the streets,” Goulding said.

When two Oklahoma County sheriff’s deputies arrived to remove the elderly couple forcibly, Goulding doused a hallway and bedroom with gasoline and set the home on fire.

Deputies dragged Goulding’s wife out of the inferno, but Goulding died, engulfed in the blaze.

Henderson met his premature end in a tent on an empty plot of urban land in Oklahoma City.

He became homeless after his mother was forced to choose between her own housing security and allowing her vulnerable son to stay with her.

Henderson, 36, lived with his mother, Sheila Gaddy, for about two years after he was released from prison. She resided at the Moore Santa Fe Estates mobile home park for 20 years.

Theirs was a symbiotic living arrangement. Gaddy needed Henderson’s help recovering from a broken leg and Henderson needed a place he could live within a green zone, an area more than 500 feet from schools, daycares and parks.

Henderson served six years in prison and was required to maintain registration as a sex offender in Oklahoma. He needed an address.

But Henderson wasn’t on Gaddy’s lease as an approved resident. After rejecting his lease application, the mobile home park filed for eviction against Gaddy for having an unapproved resident.

Charles Henderson lived in a tent in a field before he died on Jan. 3. He had been evicted and became homeless before his death. (Courtesy photo)

At the eviction hearing, Henderson promised to move out if Gaddy could stay. A month later, a judge decided the agreement had been broken and upheld the eviction, forcing Henderson to the streets and Gaddy to stay with another adult son.

Henderson’s family was alarmed when they didn’t hear from him all day on Jan. 2. Henderson had stayed in contact while living in his tent, sending regular text messages expressing gratitude and regret, yet hope for a positive future.

A Map Toward Mortality

Eviction can be a step into homelessness, especially in Oklahoma, which is the tenth poorest state in the nation.

“Most of my clients are so low-income, their savings are non-existent, they're lucky if they're coming out at zero at the end of the month, rather than in debt,” Legal Aid Services housing attorney Justin Neal said.

Neal assisted Henderson and his mother during her eviction hearing.

Neal said that after an eviction, people may be locked out of their homes and lose everything, from their mail to any local support network they may have built. Moving costs can be impossible. For some of Oklahoma’s poorest residents, an eviction is a virtual death sentence.

Henderson was working with a social worker to clean up his traffic record. He got his driver’s license back and completed a job-readiness program at Diversion Hub, a nonprofit that works to keep people with criminal pasts from recidivism.

He even had a job interview set for the day after he died.

But he didn’t take the best care of himself, Gaddy said. He had health care through a tribal clinic, but diabetes requires ongoing attention and he wasn’t faithful with his insulin.

A staph infection might have killed Henderson, his brother said. But Henderson was young and likely could have fought the infection with proper medical attention.

“I don't think anybody deserves to be found dead in a tent,” Neal said.

Housing is Health Care

Premature death is a constant threat to the estimated 4,000 homeless Oklahomans, especially during winter when too few shelter beds mean hundreds of people sleeping outdoors in freezing temperatures.

“Having a roof over your head is kind of step one in being able to maintain health, whether that's physical health, mental health,” said Meghan Mueller, CEO of The Homeless Alliance in Oklahoma City. “Having the stability of a place to call home is health care. When you don't have that, outcomes are bad.”

It's been a bad season for deaths among people experiencing homelessness, Mueller said. During the past few weeks, she has received several calls about deaths in the homeless community.

“You know, we as a community have done really good work around getting people off the streets and into permanent housing, but as evictions continue to remain really high, the inflow into our system, it's a faucet that we just haven't been able to turn off,” Mueller said.