Last Updated on August 6, 2023, 3:06 AM | Published: February 28, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — Tuesday, the City Council of Oklahoma City approved a professional services agreement with Mental Health Association Oklahoma (MHAOK or the Association) for a pilot street outreach program to address homelessness and mental illness in Oklahoma City.
The program provides for two teams consisting of two case managers and a licensed clinician who will do street outreach to offer services to people experiencing homelessness in OKC, and also will be utilized as a response to mental health calls when a civilian response would be more appropriate than police or fire department intervention.
Public safety departments will be able to call on the teams as co-responders in some situations.
The partnership between the City and the statewide mental health nonprofit will implement several of the strategies developed by the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness as well as the Community Policing Work Group and the Policing Task Force coordinated by 21cp.
Marty Peercy reports Local government
Not new for MHAOK
While the city hasn’t had a contract for street outreach before now, this is not new territory for MHAOK.
For the past few years the Association has had a very effective outreach team in Oklahoma City. Those outreach efforts have resulted in housing 110-120 people each year for the last two years.
By increasing the reach and the number of staff, so much more can be done, according to MHAOK CEO Terri White. In a prepared statement, White said this:
This program advances the winnable fight to end homelessness. MHAOK is grateful to the City of OKC for expanding our ability to connect with individuals experiencing homelessness and offer a life-changing path from the streets to housing, mental health and medical care, employment and self-sustainability. Working closely with the OKC Police and Fire Departments, we are excited to offer an alternative to police response as well as jail diversion. There is no doubt this program can serve as a model for cities across the country to emulate.
Objections answered
During a brief presentation before the Council, White used the phrase “end homelessness.” After the presentation she took questions from the horseshoe.
Ward 5 Councilman David Greenwell asked first if she believed that could be accomplished.
“I do! I absolutely think that can be accomplished,” White said, emphatically, before continuing. “It’s going to take a lot of things, not just street outreach.”
Greenwell continued his questioning with requests for verifiable data showing the success of programs like this that the Association has. He waxed about outcomes versus warehousing people and where to invest money for programs that work and pull money away from others.
White gamely answered Greenwell by saying that data is the cornerstone for the programming the Association offers, and explainied the kind of data collection the organization and other service providers utilize.
Significantly, another partnership between MHAOK was mentioned during a wholly unrelated item about tourism and conventions.
MHAOK’s A Better Way program picks up willing participants who have been panhandling or otherwise need employment assistance several times per week in a van.
Those participants help clean up litter at parks and other city properties. Each person is given a lunch and paid for the day’s work. They also are connected with services, such as housing security and employment training. One of those participants recently got a significant role at a hotel downtown, demonstrating the goal of the program.
Hopes are high that this new partnership will pay even more dividends for the community.
Columnist covering local government in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County from May 2019 through June 2023.
