Catholic Charities Of Eastern Oklahoma Seeking Community Help To House Afghan Refugees

As Afghan refugees begin to arrive in Oklahoma, Catholic Charities of Eastern Oklahoma officials say they need the community’s help with housing and donations. They say their goal is to have all 1,850 refugees placed in permanent housing when they arrive, but right now, they say they have only been able to secure housing for less than half the families expected.

Over the weekend, the first four people out of the almost 2,000 expected refugees arrived in Oklahoma. CEO of CCEO Deacon Kevin Sartorius said this is only the beginning. The majority of the arrivals are expected in early-mid October.

“We are told they are just letting a few people out at a time and then they’ll really turn it on and we know we’ll have a lot of folks coming with bigger families,” Sartorius said.

Catholic Charities has put the first arrivals in stocked and furnished temporary housing, but they say they are in desperate need of more donations and housing recommendations.

They say they need people to continue to donate furniture, cleaning supplies, basic hygiene products, and much more for these homes. You can find donation and contact information by Clicking Here.

Officials say their biggest concern is where to put people when they arrive because the housing market in Oklahoma is slim.

“If people know of rental houses or apartments, or maybe even something off market, which would be university dorms that aren’t being used or something like that,” Sartorius said. “We are using all of these to try and provide long term housing for our new neighbors here.”

He says they expect more people to arrive any day, now that some people have begun to trickle in. 850 of the refugees will be placed around eastern Oklahoma and the other 1,000 people will go to western Oklahoma near Oklahoma City.