Efforts Grow In Oklahoma To Loan Trailers, Temp Housing To Healthcare Workers

Healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 fight are finding ways to make sure their loved ones at home are also safe. 

There are growing efforts in Green Country to offer them help and services. 

When Dr. John Weber isn’t working at the Oklahoma Heart Institute, he’s staying in an RV in the driveway while his wife and two sons live in their Tulsa home. 

“I made the decision a couple of weeks ago to live in an RV because my son is a type 1 diabetic and based on all the available evidence, he’s at an increased risk if he were to contract COVID-19,” explained Weber. 

Weber bought his RV, but more people are offering theirs to healthcare workers in a national effort called RVs for MDs. 

It started with a Facebook group in which owners of RVs, campers and travel trailers use to find matches with those who need a temporary place to live. 

Tiffany Heimbach of Broken Arrow has been using the group. She wants to loan her summer getaway, a travel trailer that’s been sitting in her backyard. 

“Reading some of these posts from medical professionals within the group that talk about having an older family member living with them and potentially exposing them and they not be able to recover from the virus is very scary to me,” said Heimbach. 

Now, that concern is turning into momentum, as local volunteers focus on needs within the state. 

Alisha Stacy of Tulsa and another woman from Ardmore started a group called Oklahoma RVs for Medical Professionals. 

“To have to fight this virus on the frontlines and come home and be concerned about your family is not conducive to really, really top-tier healthcare, which is what we need right now,” said Stacy. 

Other businesses are also pitching in. 

Brett Fuller, owner of At Your Service Rentals, told News On 6 he has also started a Facebook group, rallying portable restroom operators from all over the country to help healthcare workers. 

They come to the RV or trailer to empty waste and wastewater tanks at no cost.

Weber was the first free client. 

“It’s been incredible to see the community of restroom operators jump on board with this,” said Fuller. “I honestly haven’t had a single one just flat out tell me, ‘No.’”

Stacy said volunteers are also looking for organizations to loan their parking lots for healthcare workers to use and eventually would like to add free food delivery. 

Click here for the Oklahoma RVs for Medical Professionals Facebook page.