TULSA, Okla. — By year's end, a new homeless shelter near Mohawk Park will serve as a short-term home for 50-75 people. The low-barrier shelter got zoning approval for a three-year period.
Just down the road, though, the people who live close by are not too happy about their new neighbors.
“You know it’s one of those deals where you like it, but you don’t want it in your backyard," said Gary LaBass.
LaBass and his wife live just around the corner from the vacant senior living facility.
He has only been in the community for a little more than two years, but his wife has called the country-like neighborhood home for three decades.
It's a quiet community, but the LaBass' aren't sure if things will stay that way once the low-barrier shelter opens.
“We’ve talked about putting up a fence in the front with a gate," said LaBass. "Who knows, you know, like I said, you don’t know what to expect.”
At Tuesday's meeting, city leaders and shelter operators were given criteria to follow to get zoning approval. They agreed and were granted three years.
2 News was at the zoning meeting on Sept. 10.
REGULATIONS THE SHELTER MUST FOLLOW
- 24/7 CLEET certified security guard
- Registered sex offenders can not stay at the shelter
- Violent felony offenders can not stay at the shelter
2 News asked LaBass if these stipulations made a difference in how he feels about the addition to his community.
"Well, yeah, it does, but still, how did these people get to this point? That’s one of the things I would have liked to have asked the lady, is there a common denominator of what causes someone to become a homeless person?”
That lady is Sarah Grounds, Executive Director for the City Lights Foundation, which will be the shelter operator.
LaBass and his wife said they have tried to set up a time to meet with her to better understand the shelter. They said they have been unable to reach her.
One of his concerns is the shelter's location, with little around it, and what the tenants will do once they are there.
"Are they just going to drop them off and leave them? I mean will there be a regular route of some kind? Will they provide them transportation? That's what my concern is, like i said there's no where to go and no way to get anywhere else."
Other neighbors who talked with 2 News off-camera were frustrated.
One man said he just wanted the place to 'blow up and go away.'
Another raised concerns that the capacity is too large to effectively address the needs of the tenants it intends to serve.
They told 2 News they just don't feel like they had a say.
“You know the city, it’s just like ‘here it is, and were doing this,’" said LaBass. "The place down there, before we even knew what was going on, they were starting to renovate it and redo it.”
Now that they've secured the zoning, the city will work to finalize a contract. They also plan to allocate dollars to operate the shelter and need to complete repairs to the building.
All of this is to open the shelter by the end of the year.
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