Winter is coming
As cold approaches, advocates seek space to house city’s homeless
As winter approaches, Oklahoma City officials and homeless advocates are preparing to deal with a growing number of people who need a warm place to sleep on cold nights.
Last week, city officials and agency chiefs finalized details of the city's cold weather contingency plan, which maps out places where homeless people may go on nights when temperatures dip below freezing. Recent research suggests Oklahoma City has seen a sharp increase in the number of people living on the streets, leaving advocates scrambling to find enough space to house them all.
“We have to have more beds available for cold weather contingency
than we had last year," said Dan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless Alliance.
Each year, as a part of the plan, certain agencies and organizations agree to suspend specific rules and allow people to come in and sleep on cots and mats on cold nights.
This year, organizers have identified space for 224 people at a number of agencies across the city, including the City Rescue Mission, Jesus House and the Salvation Army. If that space fills up, Grace Rescue Mission, in the Stockyards District, has offered to open its gym to allow another 60 people to sleep on cots.
If the Grace Rescue Mission gym is full, the Homeless Alliance will open its day shelter, which has space to accommodate about 100 people, Straughan said.
“If that fills up, then I am moving to Florida," Straughan said.
City officials had to find more space this year following an uptick in unsheltered homelessness. Although overall homelessness in Oklahoma City declined by about 13.5 percent over the past year, the number unsheltered homeless people — those sleeping outdoors, in places not meant for human habitation — ballooned by 47 percent between 20172018, the city's 2018 Point-in-Time report suggests.
The report is based on a
census of all people sleeping on city streets and in homeless shelters on a single night in January.
Last year, the city designated space for 150 people to sleep on cots and mats at a number of facilities across the city, including the Salvation Army and Jesus House. But those 150 beds weren't enough, Straughan said. Although shelters never had to turn anyone away, a few ran out of cots and mats, he said, so a few people slept in chairs.
Officials also plan to offer people more advanced warning when agencies plan to open their doors, said Jerod Shadid, associate planner for the city of Oklahoma City's Planning Department. When the National Weather Service forecasts overnight low temperatures below freezing, advocates will begin letting people know 48 hours in advance, Shadid said.
Even if temperatures don't drop below freezing, those agencies will still open their doors, he said.
On a recent chilly morning, Maxine Hill, 49, was at the Homeless Alliance's day shelter for breakfast. On cold nights, Hill, who has been homeless for about five years, generally stays with friends or goes to a shelter, she said. During the day, when it's too cold to be outside, she goes to the day shelter to stay warm.
Hill said most people on the street know where they can go on cold nights. During the winter, people often stop by homeless shelters to ask if they plan to open their doors that night.
If they do, she said, word gets around.