Claudia Armstrong thought she lost everything when her husband died, but she quickly learned there was more to lose.
Her husband of four decades, James “Bear” Armstrong, a long-time security guard, passed away only two months after being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2014. The day she left her house to bury her husband, an intruder broke in and stole “everything they could steal,” she said.
Her husband’s death put a deep strain on Armstrong’s adult family, and as bills piled up and support ran thin, eventually Armstrong could no longer keep her house.
“That began my journey to homelessness,” she said. “I started losing things. Things just started happening.”
Over the 10 years since then, Armstrong, 70, was diagnosed with lung cancer, which she had surgically removed.
Armstrong’s lack of a vehicle compounds the effects of her lack of housing.
“Because I haven’t had a car for quite a while, and I have to walk to wherever I go, I won’t take a place where I don’t feel safe,” she said.
She has tried to apply for housing vouchers, but they are rarely accepted, and Armstrong said she does not feel safe in some of the neighborhoods where they are.
She has spent nights on the street and stayed in shelters, aided by places like Catholic Charities in Oklahoma City. The nonprofit has eased Armstrong’s burden with support like meals, showers, laundry and counseling.
“They treat you with dignity and respect, and you know that’s really hard to find when you’re a homeless person,” she said.
But shelter space isn’t always available. And while more space would offer temporary respite, advocates for people experiencing homelessness say the real need is for more affordable housing.
Armstrong isn’t alone. This year, 1,838 people in Oklahoma City were counted as homeless during the 2024 Point in Time Count, the city’s annual “snapshot” survey in compliance with federal grant funding requirements. That’s up 28% from 2023’s total of 1,436 people.
Nonprofits offer emergency assistance to the city’s homeless, but space is an ongoing issue. According to the Point in Time report, emergency shelters were at 103% capacity, permanent supportive housing at 99%, and transitional housing at 90%.
More: Oklahoma City homelessness: 2024 Point in Time count shows 28% increase, yet progress made
The Sanctuary Women’s Development Center has long provided help to Armstrong. Newly rebuilt at 2133 SW 11 in the Stockyards City district, the shelter reopened July 23, offering more greenery, more space for the staff and more amenities for the women who use its services.
Patrick Raglow, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, said the point of the shelter is to minimize the effect of poverty and to make the time the unhoused person is experiencing homelessness as short as possible.
“We build fellowship and we build long-term support, and it makes a difference,” Raglow said. “People think, well, what can I do about homelessness? You can’t ‘fix’ homelessness, but you can help those who are in it.”
Meghan Mueller, CEO of Homeless Alliance, said emergency assistance alleviates symptoms but doesn’t solve homelessness.
This month, shelters across Oklahoma City are at capacity as they deal with summer heat and prepare for winter. But it’s not necessarily a rallying cry for more shelters, Mueller said. It reflects the need for solutions.
“Shelter doesn’t end homelessness, right? Housing ends homelessness,” Mueller said.
Shelters can offer resources like subsidies and employment to people staying there, said Ian Apfelbaum, assistant director at City Care. The trouble is finding a secure job that can pay enough to afford an apartment or house in the city, or finding an available unit that would accept a Section 8 voucher, he said.
In 2021, the Housing Affordability Study stated that the city needs to produce over 10,000 new units, and to repair and rehab over 30,000 already standing units within the city. This measure, however, could cost more than $1.3 billion in public funds, according to the document. MAPS 4 aims to add 3,000 affordable units.
Progress is still being made. Shelters in Oklahoma City collaborate with a public-private partnership called Key to Home to go to people in their encampments, create relationships with landlords and work together to place them in secure housing.
Currently, Key to Home works with landlords in a housing market where the federal minimum wage is at its lowest point since 1956, when adjusted for inflation.
Since September 2023, Key to Home has placed at least 153 people in permanent housing who had previously been living outside.
‘Nobody dies’: OKC groups urge people in homelessness to come to shelters during arctic cold
OKC shelters use diversion model to redirect
Oklahoma City shelters are working toward a model called diversion, which Mueller said has emerged as best practice nationwide.
In practice, Mueller said diversion looks like “screening folks as they enter the shelter to see, you know, are there any other options?” These can include family, or short term assistance. Diversion is often cheaper in the long run, said Wendy Elliott, vice president of development at the City Rescue Mission.
“It’s a lot easier to keep someone maybe in their home, you know, maybe it takes $200 to keep them in their home,” she said. Otherwise, the process to rehouse can cost thousands.
Prevention is an important aspect to Periann Pulliam, CEO of Upward Transitions. “Let’s stop people from entering homelessness,” Pulliam said, citing the rising rent over the past five years.
“In 2019, the average payment that we made to prevent eviction was $550, which is what most people that we were helping were paying in rent. And now, it’s up to $850, and their income hasn’t increased, so people are struggling more to make ends meet,” Pulliam said.
“That’s why I think affordable housing is critical, and that takes time — it doesn’t happen overnight. And I know that the city and our nonprofit organizations are working on that to get more housing online, and it’s going to take some private sectors to pitch in and help with that, as well.”
Electricity costs are highest in summer, often most expensive during peak afternoon hours when air conditioners struggle to combat the heat. For people who may already be working long hours to afford rent, sometimes this means making a difficult choice, Elliott said.
“OK, it’s pay my electricity, well, pay my rent. You know, I can’t do both or maybe fix my car. It’s those kinds of decisions people are making,” Elliott said.
With prices high and wages low, the loss of a functioning car can put people at an even higher risk of experiencing homelessness. This is where diversion comes in. The population of people on the verge of homelessness is a higher number than the amount of people chronically living on the streets.
Erin Goodin, president and CEO of the City Rescue Mission, said over 60% of the people who come in have never experienced homelessness before and usually can self-resolve within a few weeks.
“So if we can help them at the door, self-resolve, then we open up more beds for those that are more vulnerable that have a harder time with self-resolution,” Goodin said.
Along with diversion, providers are working together to offer medical assistance.
“One of the things we were really surprised by last season was just how many people were coming to us with some really severe medical needs,” Mueller said. This year’s budget included funds to “contract with medical providers, so we can provide some triage services, some wound care, and meet some of those medical needs,” she said.
Shelter beds full, but housing initiatives in action
Shelter providers meet monthly to brainstorm ways to move people from unsheltered homelessness to permanent housing.
The City Rescue Mission creates relationships with landlords while The Homeless Alliance conducts outreach to physically meet people in their camps via The Encampment Rehousing Initiative.
Goodin said there is also great power in feeling seen and being loved.
“They come in, they’ve been ignored. They’ve walked past them. People have not seen them. And for somebody to look them in the eye and actually care about how they’re doing and what they need and their story — we all want people to care about us,” she said.
‘God’s there everyday, not just Sunday’: Day shelter serves as sanctuary for women
Building confidence is crucial to accessing the skill sets they already have, she said.
“They just needed the confidence. They needed somebody to believe in them so they can believe in themselves again, and that’s part of that being seen, just instills that level of confidence that they are somebody and they are important, that they can do things,” Goodin said.
For Armstrong, regaining that confidence has been hard-fought the past decade since losing her husband and the place they’d called home.
Though Oklahoma City nonprofits can offer numerous resources, gaps remain for people like Armstrong. She still depends regularly on a day shelter’s services, and even with her faith in God and the support and sisterly bond of a first cousin, she said her day-to-day situation remains unstable.
“Maybe it’s a little bit of pride,” she said, but she does not want to intrude on other people’s lives or abuse the kindness of others.
Instead, she rents a motel room with a Social Security check she receives at the beginning of every month, and then often spends the remaining weeks in parks and encampments.
Some landlords, she said, have been unwilling to accept the housing vouchers provided by the Oklahoma City Housing Authority, while some other apartment complexes also have reputations for being unsafe.
“You don’t have comfort for a while. You’re not surrounded by security. You’re exposed to the world, you’re exposed to whatever walks up on you,” Armstrong said.
“It’s a whole different situation a lot of people don’t understand,” she said, “and I never thought I’d have to experience it.”
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC homeless organizers see full shelters as need for housing solution
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