OKC taking steps to reduce homelessness

Anyone that has driven in Oklahoma City in recent years has no doubt noticed what appears to be a significant increase in the city’s homeless population. Whether it shows up as more panhandlers on street corners, more homeless camps popping up across the metro or more people sleeping under bridges or overpasses, homelessness is an epidemic that affects many people and impact communities.

Last year, just before the pandemic hit, the City of Oklahoma City conducted its annual Point-in-Time Count of OKC’s homeless population, and what it revealed was sobering. According to the survey, 1,573 people were experiencing homelessness, a jump of about 300 people from the 2019 count. There are many theories about why the sudden increase, but officials agree those figures may be much higher today.

Oklahoma City’s approach to homelessness and what further steps are needed to help combat this pervasive problem has been a topic of debate and discussion for some time. In 2019, Mayor David Holt formed a task force to develop strategies to better approach homelessness within the community. That report was recently approved by the City Council and includes 24 different strategies across eight focus areas: advocacy; transition age youth services; transportation; emergency and temporary shelter; funding sources; affordable housing; preventing homelessness; and outreach, engagement and case management.

Approximately 70 stakeholders were surveyed to help create those strategies, including the smaller service providers and several homeless individuals. One recurring theme throughout the survey was the need for more affordable housing in Oklahoma City.

“While we have a very affordable housing market here in Oklahoma City, if you are a family of four living on $26,000 a year or less, we do not have that kind of housing available. And that drives our homeless numbers way more than mental illness, way more than substance abuse, way more than anything else,” said Dan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless Alliance.

Jerod Shadid, program manager of homeless services for the City of Oklahoma City, who guided the study from start to finish, said, “We are top heavy with affordable housing in that we have a lot more purchase housing than we have rental housing here in Oklahoma City. Our goal with developing this study was to try to have strategies that would complement what is in MAPS 4 and not just basically do a repeat so that we can get more people off the street.”

Of the 16 projects included in MAPS 4, several aim to reduce and eventually eliminate homelessness in Oklahoma City, including a $50 million investment in true affordable housing. The investment is expected to leverage more than $400 million in funding from other sources. MAPS 4 also includes $40 million for two new mental health crisis centers, a restoration center with detox and substance abuse services, and temporary housing for people experiencing mental illness and homelessness while transitioning out of a crisis center.

For business owners who are struggling with how to deal with the homeless population on a daily basis, especially when it involves homeless people damaging their property or disrupting business, the Oklahoma City Police Chief Wade Gourley has some tips.

He suggested covering electrical outlets around the business so transients will have a harder time charging their cell phones or other devices; installing bright lighting around the outside of the business to make it less conducive for sleeping; and replacing more grassy areas with gravel, which will make it more difficult for transients to erect tents.

“We want to drive those folks to homeless services that will get them help and off the streets. The less conducive we make it around businesses or under overpasses, things of that nature, then they may be less likely to continue that type of destructive behavior,” Gourley said.

This story originally appeared in the October 2021 edition of the VeloCity newsletter.