Contingency plan for our homeless
When the temperature drops below 32 degrees, the wind is sharp and the ground is frozen, do you consider a plan for your warmth, safety and comfort? Do you cover your plants, drip your faucets and find extra blankets and fuzzy socks for your kiddos? For many of us, a cold weather contingency plan is something we take for granted. For those without adequate shelter and protection, though, it’s a crucial plan that must be considered.
Each night, when the temperature dips below freezing, more than 400 men, women and children find themselves on Oklahoma City’s streets, vying for only 200 open beds on cold weather nights.
It’s not enough to simply raise the questions of where the homeless of Oklahoma City will sleep when the temperatures are freezing; we must provide solutions. City Care is positioned to do just that — not out of an abundance of resources, but out of a determination to put a stop to the gaps in services in our city.
To truly transform the issue of homelessness in Oklahoma City, we must first transform the night by providing adequate shelter to those in need on cold weather nights.
City Care’s response is two-fold: short-term relief and long-term transformation.
This winter, City Care will aid in staffing the city’s cold weather plan. We are training the staff and securing the supplies necessary to meet this need. This isn’t built into our annual budget, yet we are positioned and ready to make this happen. Too many resources in our city can only be accessed by those in a position to work a program, a barrier to receiving shelter. Simply put, they require too much of guests who cannot see beyond relief from the elements, let alone be in a position to make a commitment to sobriety or provide identification. We are shattering that barrier by ensuring there are low barriers to securing shelter on the coldest of nights.
The long-term transformation comes in the way of a permanent solution. I want to introduce you to the City Care Night Shelter. In December, we will close on a building that will be used to shelter 200 guests at night. The shelter will open next year, and we could not be more ecstatic to transform the night for those experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma.
Where you live is not the measure of your humanity. The intrinsic value of a person is not based on his or her living arrangements. The intrinsic value is found in the fact that God created all men and women equal.
For too many of us, the extent of our cold weather contingency plan is bumping up our thermostats a couple of notches. It’s time we look at the entire issue to bring meaningful solutions to bear.
Luck is the CEO at City Care, an Oklahoma City-based organization whose mission is to inspire those willing to confront social injustice and extreme poverty and empower them to create change. Its phone number is (405) 652-1112.