Eviction Court (June 2021)

Acrylic on Canvas

30” x 24”

This painting of eviction court in Licking County, Ohio, is full of families waiting their turn to become homeless.

In this small-town courtroom in 2018, as many as 80 families were thrown out on the street every two weeks.   In response, The Freedom School in Licking County joined forces with Southeast Ohio Legal Services (SEOLS) to conduct free workshops to give tenants information about their basic rights.

The painting shows two people handing out free copies of the blue booklets used in the workshops, “Ohio Landlord-Tenant Rights and Responsibilities.” 

 By the time people got to eviction court, it was usually too late to do anything to stop the eviction.  David recalls that “landlords almost always had lawyers and tenants almost always had none.  At this eviction, the magistrate is scolding a poor woman for bringing her two children with her to court.”

The expiration of the moratorium on evictions because of Covid and the economic crisis portend a looming catastrophe in housing and the collection of owed rents.  Eviction courtrooms may soon be overflowing, but we can organize to fight back.