Landlords sought to house veterans
Goodwill Industries of Central Oklahoma housed more than 100 homeless veterans in July and early August after receiving COVID- 19 relief funding, but now the nonprofit is facing a bottleneck as permanent housing options are running short.
Goodwill received $ 830,000 in funding from the CARES Act — the federal g over nment's COVID- 1 9 relief package — and quickly designed an internal goal to use the money to house 100 veterans experiencing homelessness during July.
“It was a pretty aggressive goal, but within the 30 days, we were able to house 99 veterans. Within 31 days, we were able to house 102,” said Tanya Howard, manager of Goodwill's veteran services outreach program. “I consider that a win.”
Jeffrey Stevenson served in the U.S. Army for 10 years. In March, he was working to become an Oklahoma teacher.
“Then the pandemic hit,” he said. “It left me homeless and jobless. ... Everything fell like dominoes.”
After four months of experiencing homelessness, Stevenson was found sleeping in a local park by an officer with the Moore Police Department.
Stevenson was connected to the Goodwill program, and within a month he had been sent to a hotel and then to permanent housing. He also found a job.
The Moore Police Department later posted his story online, and donations flooded in to buy Stevenson a car.
“It's allowed me to hit the ground running,” he said. “It was overwhelming.”
But now, housing options are becoming thin.
Howard said Goodwill is paying for more than 160 veterans to live in hotels because there is a bottleneck to get them into permanent housing.
Even though Howard's team was able to meet their housing goal with the grant money, “the pandemic is not going away,” she said.
Along with spikes in unemployment, the pandemic has caused shifts in the housing market nationally, and in Oklahoma, the need for affordable housing is continuously increasing.
Oklahoma City saw a sharp uptick in homelessness over the last year, according to the 2020 Point-In-Time Count, which is a one-night count of individuals experiencing homelessness in the city.
Close to 1,600 people were counted this January, and veterans made up 10% of that population. Nearly half of those veterans were unsheltered, which is a higher rate than the general homeless population.
Oklahoma has a high number of veterans in general, with more than 300,000 living in the state.
And veterans are more likely to experience mental health or substance abuse issues.
The veterans outreach program typically serves around 400 veterans and their families every year. Because of COVID-19, that number is trending up, and the department is seeing more female veterans in need, as well.
“We need community solutions,” Howard said.
“We are trying to make a plea as best we can to any private landlords, apartments, duplexes, to anybody who is able to provide any type of assistance so we can get these veterans out of a hotel and into permanent housing so they can start living their life and giving back to the community.”
Stevenson urged other veterans to take advantage of the resources that are available.
“These folks are here to help,” Stevenson said. “Don't see it as a handout. See it as a hand up.”