TULSA, Okla. — More than 30 teams of around 70 volunteers met Friday morning at Iron Gate in downtown Tulsa.
These volunteers gathered to help Housing Solutions Tulsa conduct the city’s annual point-in-time count (PIT) of Tulsa’s homeless population.
Kyle Browning, Deputy Director of Outreach with Housing Solutions Tulsa said, “Understanding what they need, and the causes that contributed to their homelessness, helps us paint a better picture of what we can do as social service providers moving forward to increase access to housing, increase access to services, increase access to case management, to help meet those needs.”
Browning said data collected helps guide policy decisions for the city and county on how to help people struggling with homelessness.
The volunteers helping with the count include city councilors, People who work with the homeless and Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith.
“But for the grace of god go any of us. I mean, things happen in people’s lives, and some of it’s very unfortunate.” She said. “It’s really surprising who’s out there,”
City Councilor Lori Dector Wright is a member of Tulsa Mayor G. T. Bynum’s task force on homelessness, housing and mental health.
“Even if they’re doing all the things to help their situation, they’re still going to need our help in creating better policies, better programming and bring more partners to the table to fill those gaps,” Wright said.
Wright said more than a thousand people were counted last year and 86 percent of them became homeless in Oklahoma.
She pointed out, the PIT only counts homeless people in shelters and who the volunteers find on the streets.
“There’s a lot of people that we don’t see, because they’re living in our hotels, they’re being taken in by charities, you know, for a week at a time, and those people also need our help,” Wright said.
The PIT count will wrap up Saturday evening, and the updated numbers should be available shortly after.
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