A 57-year-old Oklahoma woman says she has been homeless for 3.5 years after COVID disrupted her farmers’ market business and her rent more than doubled

🇺🇸 A 57-year-old Oklahoma woman says she has been homeless for 3.5 years after COVID disrupted her farmers’ market business and her rent more than doubled ☹️

Heather has a bachelor’s degree in interior design and ran her own business for decades.

Today, she relies on small reselling jobs to survive, uses a gym membership to shower, and keeps her belongings in a storage unit.

She says her rent jumped from $400 to $925 after her landlord died and the building was sold.

Local lockdown rules that classified artists and non-food vendors as non-essential removed her income at the exact moment housing costs jumped, showing how those policies hit self-employed people who had no other safety net.

Source: @DreDre9947 / Writer: Lucas

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 11, 2026