Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 3:06 AM | Published: April 19, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY (Free Press) —– The OKC City Council unanimously passed a development project earlier this month that will serve as an emergency winter shelter as well as a permanent supportive housing option for homeless and low-income individuals.
According to Dan Straughan, Executive Director of the Homeless Alliance, the overnight winter shelter will be physically separate from the 38-unit supportive housing facility.
The project location is within walking distance from the Homeless Alliance Resource Center, at 1645 & 1604 NW 4th Street, Oklahoma City, OK.
Emergency winter shelter
The Homeless Alliance came before the OKC City Council last Tuesday to ask for zoning changes which would allow the Alliance to convert an existing 25,000-square-foot warehouse into a full-time emergency shelter. The winter shelter will include 300 additional beds for the unhoused during extreme winter weather conditions.
“On any given night, we have about 1,400 people experiencing homelessness, but across eight shelters in Oklahoma City, we only have about 850 beds,” Straughan said in an interview with the Free Press. “So on any given night there’s about 400 or more unsheltered, homeless people, and of course, in the winter that can be deeply dangerous.”
Straughan said operational dates are still being determined, but he estimates that it’ll be ready for use sometime this winter.
SRO supportive housing
To the west of the shelter, a 38-unit apartment complex will serve as permanent supportive housing. 34 of the 38 units will be 300-square-foot single-room occupancy or SRO, units that will include a private bathroom, bedroom, living area, and kitchen. The kitchen will include a refrigerator and a microwave, but will not have an oven or stove top.
The solution to homelessness is more homes.
Dan Straughan, Executive Director, Oklahoma City Homeless Alliance
Straughan said the occupants would sign a lease and pay rent, which would be 30% percent of the tenant’s adjusted gross income.
“For some of them, that have zero income, their rent would be $0,” Straughan said.
The rent would be covered by either a housing choice voucher or a federally-funded permanent supportive housing program through the Continuum of Care planning process, a community-based coalition that provides supportive services for homeless individuals and families.
The SRO program is a collaborative project with the Homeless Alliance and developer Jerry Roca with Roca Enterprises to provide low-cost housing for those experiencing, or at risk of homelessness.
Roca is the founder of We Are Society, a non-profit organization that has created two 120-unit affordable housing facilities in OKC and Tulsa.
According to Straughan, the housing facility will be more of a long-term project and will likely be ready for occupancy in about two years.
The homeless alliance plans to supply the tenants and the resources that those tenants may need in order to sustain housing, such as mental health care, substance abuse treatment, and job training and placement services.
Solution
“The solution to homelessness is more homes,” Straughan said. “We have to invest in more truly affordable housing.”
Straughan said that although OKC has built a lot of housing and urban infill development, most of the housing is not affordable for most people in OKC.
“What we call an affordable housing market is in no way affordable to nearly 250,000 people,” Straughan said. “And that more than anything – more than mental health, more than the employment rate, more than substance abuse – that drives our homeless numbers.”
The last Point in Time count
According to the 2022 Point in Time Report, there were 1,339 “countable” people who were experiencing homelessness on the night of the Point in Time count.
Every year, a team of community coalitions and volunteers conduct a one-day census of individuals experiencing homelessness. The annual report serves as a “snapshot” of the homeless situation in OKC.
The survey is conducted by counting people in emergency shelters, transitional housing facilities, hot meal sites, crisis facilities, encampments, and street locations. The survey is not considered accurate, since it does not attempt to count those who are temporarily staying at a hotel, emergency room, jail, or with a friend or family member.
Brianna Garcia is a freelance journalist covering local politics and culture for Free Press. She has a degree in Journalism from the University of Central Oklahoma.
