A group of volunteers squeezed into an eight-seater van and slid the door shut. They were assigned Zone 15, a slice of Oklahoma City on the northwest side where homeless encampments had been reported in an abandoned warehouse and train tracks.
They were out in the predawn hours that January morning to survey the city’s unhoused population, and I was in the van with them.
As we walked through brush at one of our stops to search for encampments within the clusters of trees, I talked with Meghan Mueller about trends she’s seen throughout her time as CEO of the Oklahoma City shelter Homeless Alliance. Homelessness is up almost 20% since 2020. And Oklahoma’s speedy eviction process isn’t helping, she said.
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🔶 Donate NowBack in the van, I sat beside employees from the local youth shelters Pivot and Sisu. My conversations with them inspired me to look deeper into youth homelessness in Oklahoma — an issue often referred to as the “hidden crisis” due to its lack of visibility.
I reported how the number of unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma has increased by nearly 40% since 2019, yet the resources available to them are dwindling. One of the youth I spoke with said they feel stuck with nowhere to go.
I also reported about how thousands of youth lacking permanent housing in the state don’t qualify for many federally funded services. Narrow eligibility requirements and a lack of resources in the state make it harder for 2-1-1 resource hotlines to connect callers in need with vital housing resources.
And when Gov. Kevin Stitt launched Operation SAFE to clear homeless encampments from state property in Tulsa, I had already begun contacting law enforcement agencies to see if the state’s anti-camping law was being enforced, and which agencies were responsible for enforcing it. The operation later moved to Oklahoma City, and I spent weeks requesting records and wrangling answers from government agencies on who would pay for housing for displaced people. I discovered the state is negotiating a contract for up to $800,000 with the City of Oklahoma City to cover the costs.
It takes time and care to report on these issues and to build trust with vulnerable communities. At The Frontier, we aim to bring to light the overlooked and uplift voices too often ignored.
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