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SERVING NORTHEAST OKLAHOMA SINCE 1905
City seeks grant for Riverside project KEVIN CANFIELD
World Staff Writer
INVISIBLE KIDS Kyle Kirk walks to the eye doctor last month. Kirk, 20, was left homeless when he aged out of the foster care system at 18. Most of Kirk’s day is spent walking. Photos by MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
Former foster kids sometimes lack the skills to live on their own and wind up on the streets.
K
FIRST IN A TWO-DAY SERIES | BY GINNIE GRAHAM | WORLD STAFF WRITER
yle Kirk is a foster care kid who fell through every hole of every safety net to become one of Tulsa’s 1,500 homeless youths. ♦ He was saved from an abusive and neglectful household at age 4. ♦ Since then, life has been a rough road of at least 30 placements in foster and group homes and several episodes of running away.
INVISIBLE KIDS: HOMELESS TEENAGERS IN TULSA
Kirk, 20, aged out of foster care and has been couch hopping and living on the streets for the past three years. “I see the steps that brought me here and the choices I made,” he said. “It’s a journey you have. You can’t tell how strong someone is by appearances. The only way to know is by talking to them.”
TODAY: After foster care, many teens find themselves without permanent homes. SUNDAY: She’s 16, pregnant and homeless, yet most people don’t see teen homelessness as a serious issue, one local expert says.
‘Independent living starts at birth’ During the past five years in Oklahoma, the state Department of Human Services has decreased the number of foster children becoming adults while in care by about For more New programs 200 teenagers, going from promise bright- 500 to 303 last year. This means more perer future. A4 manent homes are found before they turn 18. Transitional living programs are getting more community and inter-agency backing. But despite these supports, a population remains of foster-care teenagers who
Kyle Kirk entered foster care with his two sisters at the age of 8 when his mother died. He was separated from his older sister when he was 10 and from his younger sister at 13.
have trouble finding stability. That’s the group that will be getting more focus as programs are evaluated and refined in the next few years, said Cathy Connelly, program manager of the DHS Oklahoma Independent Living Program. “We want to design programs that impact youth who may have acting-out
behaviors and mental-health needs, but also look at the kids who have physical challenges as well,” Connelly said. “We are trying to begin to design programs to impact those youth in a positive way.” Many of the programs for transitioning into adulthood are set up to complement a youth’s efforts in self-sufficiency, Connelly said. “There is a period we are ready to intervene and get them there, but they aren’t ready yet and walk away,” Connelly said. “Then, there’s a last-ditch effort to get to them before 21. “We are working on ways for kids to SEE KIDS A4
‘I see the steps that brought me here and the choices I made. It’s a journey you have.’ — KYLE KIRK, on how he became homeless
The city of Tulsa has applied for a $14.8 million federal TIGER grant that would be used to help fund $40.1 million in improvements along Riverside Drive from 24th Street to 33rd Place. The proposed work would coordinate planned city enhancements to the roadway with privately funded projects envisioned as part of the Gathering Place for Tulsa park. As part of the 2008 Fix Our Streets package, Tulsans approved $4.7 million in improvements along Riverside Drive between 31st and 41st streets and another $2.8 million to upgrade the Crow Creek bridge. Those improvements have been put on hold as city officials work with the George Kaiser Family Foundation — which is paying to construct the park — to coordinate the city’s infrastructure needs with those of the park. The city’s TIGER grant application states that other funding for the project will come from the following sources: $4.2 million in 2008 Fix Our Streets sales-tax revenue; $1.1 million from the Tulsa Metropolitan Utility Authority; and $20 million from the Kaiser Foundation. SEE GRANT A14
Christiansen supporters likely to hold sway in vote BY RANDY KREHBIEL World Staff Writer
Bill Christiansen may not win this year’s mayoral election, but his voters likely will decide who does. An allocation of Christiansen voters based on Oklahoma Poll questions suggests current Mayor Dewey Bartlett and former Mayor Kathy Taylor begin their campaigns for the November election virtually even. Taylor finished first in Tuesday’s primary with 42 percent, followed by Bartlett at 34 percent and Christiansen at 23. That result eliminated Christiansen and left the field to Bartlett and Taylor. The Oklahoma Poll, in a survey conducted June 1-5, asked the 81 self-identified prospective Christiansen voters who their second choice for mayor would be. Almost half named Bartlett, with Taylor getting 16 percent. Twentyeight percent didn’t know. The small sample size has a relatively large margin of error and the general election is still five months away, but a reallocation of ChrisSEE VOTE A3
Memo: Official ordered videos purged
• Owasso’s city manager called the files showing the vice mayor’s traffic stop “unnecessary.” BY RHETT MORGAN World Staff Writer
OWASSO — Suspended Owasso City Manager Rodney Ray ordered the deletion of two police videos showing the field sobriety tests of the city’s vice mayor during a traffic stop in February, an internal memo shows. City Councilor Chris Kelley, the vice mayor, was driven home by an Owasso police officer after initially being told that he was under arrest for driving under the influence of
alcohol early Feb. 1, police said this week. Kelley, 42, never was charged or jailed in connection with the early morning traffic stop, during which he said he had “had a few drinks.” In a memo to information technology Director Teresa Willson dated April 25, Ray cited police policy relating to video and directed Willson to “purge the files listed below from our video files. There exist no case and no case reports relating to these files, thus they are unnecessary to maintain.”
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The memo lists two file numbers, which City Attorney Julie Lombardi confirmed are police officers’ lapel camera videos of the Kelley stop. A Feb. 1 police incident report details the police response to a call about a reckless and possibly intoxicated driver received by Owasso dispatch at 2:08 that morning. Through an Open Records Act request on May 22, the Tulsa World asked for video of the stop in an email to Lombardi, who responded that the video had been purged as allowed by police policy. Lombardi said Friday that at
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SEE VIDEO A3
ORDER Owasso City Manager Rodney Ray: He ordered the IT director to “purge the files listed below from our video files.”
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View the Owasso city manager’s written order to the information technology director and see the videos.
O K L A H O M A
POLL
Tulsa Mayor
Asked of those who said they planned to vote for Bill Christiansen. Who would be your second preference for mayor? Dewey Bartlett ........................ 49% Kathy Taylor .............................16% Other............................................7% Don't know/refused............... 28% (Numbers have been rounded)
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