City Of Tulsa Launches New Homeless Initiative

The City of Tulsa launched a new initiative to better coordinate and fund the 50+ programs to address homelessness just in local government.

A task force created by the City Council and Mayor G.T. Bynum wrapped a year of study with recommendations to streamline goals and launch new strategies to reach them.

The recommendations include efforts to better coordinate funding and communication between government and philanthropic efforts.

Bynum said he shares the frustration of citizens over slow progress in addressing homelessness, but “We are dealing with the repercussions of decades of decisions that have led to an ever-increasing number of Tulsans experiencing homelessness or a mental health crisis.”

The task force found a chronic need for more housing at all price levels in Tulsa. The strategies within the task force recommendations include streamlining permitting on new housing, encouraging reuse of commercial property for housing, and encouraging renovation of substandard housing.

Every City of Tulsa department, according to Bynum, will have a hand in addressing the issues around homelessness, and come out of the goals and strategies developed by the task force.

“There's a good balance of things in there we haven't historically tried as a city and that we're committed to trying,” Travis Hulse, Housing Policy Coordinator for the City, said.

For more information on the City of Tulsa's initiative, click here.

For more information about the study, click here.