OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — In 13 days of Operation SAFE, 1.37 million pounds of trash and debris were cleared from homeless encampments across Tulsa.
2 News heard from Tulsan's living on the street, asking where they were supposed to go, especially with shelters full all across town. Leaders across the city shared that same sentiment.
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In Oklahoma City, the approach to a full community effort.
Jamie Caves, Strategy Implementation Manager for the Key to Home Partnership, said the city is the lead agency with nearly 50 agencies supporting their effort.
OKC's Point in Time count shows their homeless population is 1,882. Caves said that includes everyone from those staying in shelters, sleeping outside or in transitional housing programs.
"Our data indicated that 80% of people that were sleeping outside were experiencing chronic or long-term homelessness," said Caves. "So we wanted to design an initiative that would help target those people that have had a hard time exiting the system and provide the supports that they need."
In 2019, Mayor David Holt launched a task force to better address homelessness.
This came just four years before Tulsa's 3H task force was started by former Mayor G.T. Bynum.
That task force helped Key to Home identify gaps in the system and bring key stakeholders together to find solutions. That's where they were able to spearhead their encampment rehousing initiative, which Caves refers to as a 'street to housing pipeline.'
"We launched this particular initiative in September of 2023 with a goal to house 500 people that are sleeping outside in encampments," said Caves. "We're currently at 444 people, so we're right on track to hit our goal of 500 by the end of this year."
Caves said about 12 partners collaborate on the initiative. It all starts with outreach groups connecting with the homeless community.
From there, the process moves rapidly.
"We identify a site for closure, we go to that site every single day and work really intensively with those folks to get them housing ready," said Caves. "We have a landlord engagement team that identifies apartment complexes in the community where they can move. They select these sites, do the application and move in. From the time we identify a site to the time everybody is moving into housing is between 4 and 6 weeks."
The key that helps them get ahead of the game, Caves said, is they don't wait for folks to be ready to move and then start looking.
Having those teams identifying locations to rehouse teams helps them expedite the process. Key to Home is able to support their clients financial needs, Caves explained, because they have a flex fund with both private and federal dollars.
“In order to have a very clear pathway to housing, we’re going to offer housing to everyone at the whole encampment. So we go to a site, if there’s 20 people there, they’re all getting a housing offer. And 93% of people are accepting that housing offer by the way, dispelling the common myth that people don’t want help."
So far, Caves said they have been able to house their clients with market rate housing in their community. She said she knows they'll run out of units eventually, which is why they have to continue building housing in the meantime.
Housing Solutions CEO Mark Smith said he is in communication with Caves and team to see how their approach can be implemented to impact the homeless population in Tulsa.
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