It’s been nearly a decade since Oklahoma has provided funding to the state’s 211 resource hotlines that connect hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans each year with critical services like housing and mental health support. 

The hotlines’ directors told lawmakers Oct. 15 that stable funding is needed to ensure stability of the hotline long term and meet a growing need for the resource. 

Oklahoma’s resource hotlines — HeartLine which covers the central and western half of the state and 211 Eastern Oklahoma which covers the east— received over 327,000 requests for help in 2024, nearly half of which were for housing and utility assistance. The two call centers each spend around $1.5 million a year to operate the hotlines. United Way has largely covered this cost since 2016 using donations from businesses and nonprofits. 

But the number of Oklahomans calling for help has only grown, and resources are spread thin.

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Directors at the hotlines and United Way asked Oklahoma lawmakers for $3 million in state money for 211 during a recent interim study hosted by Rep. Daniel Pae, R-Lawton, and Rep. Emily Gise, R-Oklahoma City. Pae and Gise said they’re aware of the need and would consider the proposal.

“United Way stepped in when the state of Oklahoma had a budget revenue failure and took this on. It was a wonderful display of public-private partnership,” Gise said during the study. But “you did not anticipate taking it for so long.” 

Other states like Idaho, Virginia, Indiana and Texas have state-run 211 hotlines that receive some state money, 211 Eastern Oklahoma Executive Director Wes Mitchell said during the study. Resource hotlines across the country have received a combined $200 million in state funding, according to officials at 211. 

Funding from the state would sustain hotline operations and allow philanthropic dollars to instead be used for improving and expanding services, said Alison Anthony, CEO of the Tulsa Area United Way.

“Oklahoma is a bit of an outlier,” Anthony said. United Way stepped in nearly a decade ago thinking it would be a temporary solution for funding the hotlines, she said. “But here we all still are.” 

Current funding is unpredictable

The Federal Communications Commission designated 211 as the hotline for information and referrals to resources in 2000. Before 2016, the Department of Human Services paid 30% to 40% of the hotline’s costs, while donations covered the rest, according to a spokesperson for 211 Eastern Oklahoma. But an economic downturn in 2016 pushed the state to reevaluate its investments, and the hotlines were removed as a line item in the state budget. Nonprofits have carried the cost ever since, with Tulsa United Way assuming operations of 211 Eastern Oklahoma in 2023. 

The system has worked. Local United Way affiliates raise millions of dollars each year, including from over 800 businesses and organizations in Tulsa. That money is used to run 211 and is sent to other charities. But rising demand for services has put a strain on donor dollars. 

Business and private donors are facing the same inflation and rising living costs as everyone else, which can limit how much they’re able to give, Anthony said in an interview before the interim study. Recent federal and local cuts and delays to some nonprofits’ funding have only heightened the demand for donations to support services like homeless shelters, food pantries and mental health support. The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services in August canceled over 300 contracts with organizations and nonprofits providing a wide range of mental health services, a funding gap many are hoping to fill with donations. 

“We hope that those donors will be able to continue to make those contributions, but also the needs keep continuing. The call volume keeps going up,” Anthony said. “And so I think at some point we really have to step back and say, ‘Can the state help us?'”

Nearly half of all Oklahoma households aren’t making enough to afford basic needs like housing and food, according to a recent United Way report. And the state’s homeless population has only grown. A record number of Oklahomans are calling the hotline, and more than half that call 211 Eastern Oklahoma are first time callers, according to numbers from 211 Eastern Oklahoma.

More operators are needed to handle the growing number of calls, said HeartLine CEO Margi Preston. There are currently 17 call specialists at HeartLine, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additional funding would support new hires and pay increases for operators to have a liveable wage. If the state covered 211’s operational costs, United Way could also lend more support to other nonprofits and expand services, Anthony added.

Gaps in the system

Housing assistance is the No. 1 reason Oklahomans call the hotline. But operators can only connect callers with what’s available, and housing resources in the state are limited. Many services have narrow eligibility requirements tied to the federal grant money that helps pay for them.

The 211 hotlines use a system from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to connect people with services. To be entered into the system, people must fit the housing department’s definitions of homelessness, which generally include only those sleeping outdoors or in a shelter. 

There’s few alternative resources for those who are couch surfing or precariously housed, said David Delgado, performance manager for the organization Key to Home, which coordinates strategies for addressing homelessness in Oklahoma City.  

The narrow eligibility requirements can make it difficult for operators to help those in need. Sydney Snow worked at HeartLine as a call specialist from 2011 to 2013. She said she could quickly tell on the phone if a caller was ineligible for housing services, and other than providing the numbers to food pantries or suggesting the individual contact their local church for assistance, there was little more she could do. 

“It was heart-wrenching,” said Snow, who now works as a therapist at Hope Community Services in Oklahoma City. “I would get this pit in my stomach of just knowing that I was going to have to tell them there was no help available.” 

Without housing resources, families are more likely to stay in unsafe situations to keep a roof over their heads, said Margaret Creighton, CEO of Positive Tomorrows, a school for children of families experiencing homelessness. Stable housing is one of the factors courts look at when making custody decisions, she said, and many parents will do everything in their power to keep their family together. 

“A lot of times, our families who are making it work and being really tenacious every single day are the ones that are being told to be able to qualify for housing assistance, you have to be more homeless than you are,” Creighton said. 

Operators are constrained by a lack of resources, said Mitchell, the 211 Eastern Oklahoma executive director. The state’s homeless population increased by over 38% between 2019 and 2024, but the shelter and housing bed supply only increased by around 17% in that same time. A vast majority of those beds are located within the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas, and many are only for those who meet the federal housing department’s definitions of homeless.

“Over the last couple of years,” Mitchell said. “I would say the demand for the services continues to grow at a faster rate than the supply of the resources.”

In an interview before the interim study, Pae agreed more needs to be done to expand and diversify housing resources in the state. He proposed an interim study on 211 to identify service gaps and discuss ways the government can collaborate with the hotline. There’s a compelling case to be made for investing state dollars into 211, he told The Frontier.

“You can’t fix everything in one session and one budget, I’m certainly mindful of that,” Pae said.