TULSA, Okla. — Tackling Tulsa’s homeless crisis has city officials wanting to first understand its root causes.
That was the focus of the first public meeting of the year for the city’s Housing, Homelessness, and Mental Health Task Force Tuesday inside the OU Schusterman Center.
The task force was created in December and held its first private meeting in January.
Both the public and city leaders agree the data is sufficient but action is now needed to combat the issues, with most speakers mentioning housing as the first step.
"Homelessness is a multifaceted issue. So therefore there needs to be ecosystems of care,” one speaker commented.
"Take your homeless projects to communities that can afford it. It is not north Tulsa,” another speaker said of the tiny houses project in north Tulsa.
Among the crowd in attendance was James Johnson, who became homeless himself during the pandemic.
"We have this mental attitude around Tulsa, Oklahoma: ‘Not in my backyard’," Johnson told 2 News. "As we saw here, they’re trying to put tiny homes out north where there are no resources for people that would be living there. I think education for the public, our mayor , council members, I think that’s what needs to happen.”
District 7 Councilor Lori Decter Wright said the meeting helped set a course for the months and years to come, with an initiative to gather $500 million in community housing investments.
“We as city leaders with policy, programming, with investment, need to know where we can help bridge together and not just be relying on our nonprofits, not just be relying on business community, the private sector," Wright said. "We can convene. We can also invest.”
Councilor Wright added that the next meeting open to the public is slated for April, with further details to be announced.
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