TULSA, Okla. — Tulsa County received a federal grant, aimed at helping keep homeless youth off the streets. The county will receive more than $5 million to help eliminate youth homelessness in our area.
The executive director of Housing Solutions in Tulsa says this grant is extremely helpful. It’s part of the more than $83 million being distributed to communities across the nation.
The money is coming from HUD's Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. It was awarded to the county through the organization “A Way Home for Tulsa” which works with different local agencies to eliminate homelessness.
Housing Solutions in Tulsa applied for the grant and is the lead agency for “A Way Home.” This money can be used for a variety of housing programs like rapid rehousing, supportive housing, and transitional housing.
“We’ll have six months of youth-led community planning," says Becky Gligo, the executive director of Housing Solutions. "We will kind of look at what we need to do to end homelessness in Tulsa."
Gligo says there will be a community planning period that will help decide how the money will be spent. She says 2020's Annual Point in Time report showed 22% of people with no place to go were youth.
“We know it’s a significant part of our population. When we talk to them, these are kids who might have aged out of foster care with nowhere to go, or for whatever reason had a family separation,” says Gligo.
She says helping youth who are experiencing homelessness find housing is important, not just for that person, but for the entire Tulsa community.
“Kids who experience trauma often turn into adults who experience trauma. We know if we want a healthy and thriving Tulsa population, we need to do right by our children.”
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