TULSA, Okla. — Community Brookside Church, which got up and running days before the pandemic shut down in March 2020, faced challenges from the start.
The church hopes to eventually build on land they bought at the corner of 37th Place and Peoria, but they needed to do something with it until then.
That is Pastor Matt Morgan’s job to figure out.
“I was the United Methodist pastor appointed to dirt,” joked Morgan. “We turned it into something we hoped our Brookside neighbors would appreciate.”
They partnered with Josh’s Sno Shack, put in grass and a playset for families to gather and play. However, the $4,000 play set is coming down.
“We’re going to take it down and find something less inviting for people to live in and more inviting for families to play,” he said.
Morgan said they had continuous problems with the homeless community sleeping inside of it and two fires that damaged the play set.
WATCH: 2 News reported last fall when owner of Brookside’s Stash Apparel had multiple issues with the homeless community as well.
“I have honestly always felt very safe on Brookside until recently,” said Ashley Ryan.
Ryan said she called police five times one week. She experienced aggressive verbal attacks, destruction of property and theft.
Just this week, the City of Tulsa announced goals and action steps to address what it calls a homelessness crisis.
WATCH: Path to Home announced to address the homeless crisis
A task force formed in 2022 but the announcement indicates it is still in the planning stages.
“What we can do is test out every good idea that we come across and afford, see what works and what works we double down on the funding and what doesn’t we’ll pull back and try something else.”
In the meantime, the church will take down the play set themselves to save on labor costs and replace it with a Gaga Ball Pit, that's a game popular with kids.
They are partnering with an Eagle Scout to get it voluntarily installed.
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