7 minute read
We care about our neighbors
City of Norman collaborates with nonprofit for strategic plan to curb homelessness, examines additional approaches
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BY ARI FIFE
When Ward 7 councilmember Stephen Holman was first elected to the city council in 2013, he said his father didn’t have permanent housing and was living at the Jesus House — a Christian nonprofit that offers food, shelter and resources to those experiencing homelessness — in Oklahoma City.
Holman said he remembers making the drive from Norman to pick him up to attend his swearing-in ceremony. His father ended up working for the Oklahoma City Jesus House, then worked at the Jesus House in Jacksonville, Florida, and moved back to Norman — where he now has housing — over a year ago.
“Having dealt with it from a personal standpoint, that makes it important to me, but also just general care of our city, of our community and all the people that live here — whether they live in a structured house, or they live on the streets,” Holman said. “We are all citizens of Norman, so I think it’s in the best interest of everyone if the city government is doing everything we can with our resources to try to address the issue of being unhoused.”
On Jan. 12, the Norman City Council approved a $100,000 contract to develop a strategic plan addressing homelessness in collaboration with Homebase, a San Francisco nonprofit dedicated to “building community capacity to prevent and end homelessness,” according to its website. To create the strategic plan, project members plan to meet with focus groups consisting of individuals experiencing homelessness, providers and stakeholders.
Holman has often referred to homelessness as one of the biggest problems facing Norman, including in his recent campaign to retain his city council seat. He supports the plan, as he said it can provide a more holistic view of the contributing factors.
Norman Mayor Breea Clark said the plan is needed, especially as homelessness is increasing across the country.
“We have to do better, and I think the best way to tackle such a big issue is to have a good plan,” Clark said. “I know Norman does a lot of plans, but this one, I wholeheartedly think is the right thing to do. Oklahoma City did it, Tulsa did it — and so we just want to come up with the best long-term solution possible.”
Nationwide waves of evictions caused by COVID-19 threaten a “catastrophic housing displacement,” according to Reuters. As increasing pressure is placed on city infrastructures, some experts say the $4 billion provided in March 2020 through the CARES Act bailout and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is running out.
Holman said efforts in Norman to curb homelessness began in the late 1990s, when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development demolished a decaying apartment building and sold the property to the city government for $1. City leaders were able to sell the property to a developer and have been using the proceeds from the sale to help the local unhoused population since.
Holman said several initiatives to provide more consistent housing have been passed during his tenure on city council, including approval and zoning for a new Food and Shelter campus. The campus includes 32 tiny homes that are currently in use, he said, and the project anticipates a second phase with 32 more tiny homes soon, although fundraising efforts have been hampered by COVID-19.
Holman said the council has also approved funding for the purchase of a building on North Porter Avenue, which it plans to convert into a permanent overnight warming shelter to operate during inclement weather and a centralized hub for local nonprofit service providers. Despite these efforts, he said a strategic
The Norman warming shelter on Feb.12.
plan is still needed so the city can make the best use of its “limited resources” to address these issues, citing the payoff long-term planning will present.
“It can be much more costly down the road when a city like ours or other organizations do not have a roadmap or a solid plan of action for what to do,” Holman said. “You end up doing stuff that may not be the right thing —, and may not be the best use of your resources —, and then you’re not helping as many people in the long run.”
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, a “chronically homeless person” costs taxpayers an average of $35,578 a year. Costs, on average, are reduced by 49.5 percent when an unhoused person is placed in supportive housing — which pairs affordable housing with case management and supportive services.
In August 2020, Norman voters turned down a “GO Norman” bond package that included a proposition allocating $5 million for one or more homelessness structures. That proposition was defeated narrowly, with 11,579 “No” votes to 11,212 “Yes” votes.
Clark said though Proposition 2 was close to passing, she believes it failed because there wasn’t a clear plan from the city.
“Norman has a big heart, we’re a wonderful city, we care about our neighbors,” Clark said. “I know that some people, I think, have forgotten that a little bit with some of the things that have happened over the past year in our community — but I certainly haven’t. And that vote reminded me of that. But we need a plan.”
Homebase Deputy Director Carolyn Wylie said though her organization knows some best practices, it doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution to issues of homelessness.
“It’s people within the community that are really going to best understand,” Wylie said. “What we can bring is the ability to help facilitate a process that will help bring that community conversation, and then help to bring some of the knowledge and ideas that they need to maybe consider throughout that process.”
Wylie said Homebase’s general roadmap to creating a strategy starts with an assessment, where they gather data and try to identify gaps in services. After this, the Homebase team fosters community engagement with focus groups, surveys and interviews with stakeholders working through the local system of care, as well as people with lived experience of homelessness. The team then looks at the data it has gathered with the community and sees what’s accurate and what’s missing.
Homebase will then present a gap report that includes findings from the data, what they learned from community members and key recommendations, Wylie said. At the request of Norman leaders, plan developers will take their recommendations to the public to ensure they make sense.
The strategic plan will overlap with resources that address immediate needs and will have the ability to address long-term issues, including policing, Clark said.
“I think once we do a better job of addressing the overall issue of homelessness, it will actually lighten the burden on our police officers,” Clark said. “But they need to know what resources are out there, what the big-picture game plan is, so we can all be on the same page.”
Point-in-time data from January of the past four fiscal years indicates that 174 total members of Norman’s homeless population were counted in FY 2017, 364 were counted in FY 2018, 347 were counted in FY 2019, and 266 were counted in FY 2020. Of these, 76 members were unsheltered in FY 2017, 227 were unsheltered in FY 2018, 215 were unsheltered in FY 2019, and 146 were unsheltered in FY 2020.
Holman said though collecting point-in-time data this year has been hampered by COVID-19, he believes the immediate needs of Norman’s homeless population have been amplified by the pandemic.
The city has offered a temporary warming shelter at the old city library for the past few years, Holman said, and though that location was unavailable in 2020, city leaders were able to find a vacant building to temporarily house the shelter. He said creating a permanent warming shelter remains a top priority for local leaders, especially considering harsh winter conditions.
The city council also plans to deal with an encampment in Ward 4, which Holman said presents a dangerous situation for the people living there. He encourages Normanites to get involved in addressing issues of homelessness, either by attending Continuum of Care city hall meetings or by helping local nonprofits fill immediate needs.
Though he said he doubts homelessness — and the issues associated with it — will ever be eradicated, Holman said past and current initiatives indicate the level of care local politicians have for their constituents.
“I think what we do have is nonprofit organizations and a city government that cares about this population of people in our city and understands that the issue exists, whether we like it or not, and whether we want to address it or not, it’s going to exist,” Holman said, “and so we should be doing everything we can with the resources we have to try to address it the best way we can.”
