"It's very humbling": Oklahoma City's homeless community surveyed during 2020 Point-In-Time Count

Oklahoma City service providers and volunteers on Thursday administered the 2020 Point-In-Time Count, an annual survey of people experiencing homelessness in the city.

Throughout the day, volunteers visited shelters, hot-meal programs and local encampments to locate and survey individuals to gain a better understanding of homelessness in the city.

Overall homelessness in Oklahoma City has been on the decline during the last several years, but the 2019 count saw a slight uptick in numbers with 1,273 individuals counted. The 2020 count results will be released later this year.

“(The count) is so important to us,” said Dan Straughan, director of the Homeless Alliance, which helped organize the count. “You cannot solve a problem you can’t define.”

About 250 people volunteered throughout the day, and 80 of those met in the early hours of Thursday morning to locate unsheltered individuals sleeping in tents or encampments around the city.

Here is a look at one group’s experience:

3:46 a.m. A crowd of volunteers from across the metro area fills the Homeless Alliance lobby. Voices are surprisingly chipper for the early hour, and boxes of doughnuts are soon empty.

Individuals find their small team groups, gather supplies of surveys, dog treats and bus tickets and head out to vans.

4:04 a.m. Team 9 follows a map, walking over a grassy clearing toward a line of trees where a homeless encampment was recently seen.

“Outreach workers,” calls out Bob Mann, the team lead who works with the VA to house veterans. “Good morning!”

A few dogs start to bark, and then a tent comes into view.

“We’re sorry to wake you up,” said Amy Newberry, a mental health clinician who volunteered to participate in the morning count. “Would you mind taking a survey?”

Questions range from how long a person has been homeless to any disabilities or mental health issues to the cause of their homelessness.

The hope is to get an idea of how large Oklahoma City’s homeless population is, the demographics of that community and the issues or barriers preventing those individuals from finding and staying in housing. With that information, service providers can better address the overall issue of homelessness.

Another man staying in the area declined to be surveyed, so Team 9 trudges back to the van.

4:27 a.m. Another area thick with trees has multiple tents and structures, but the people they belong to either aren’t home or don’t want to wake up for the survey.

Kelli Lynch, who has done the count for the last five years, said she always looks forward to it.

The best part for Lynch is hearing stories from individuals experiencing homelessness and seeing up close the resiliency and ingenuity it takes to make it on the streets.

“I enjoy it,” she said. “When I tell friends, they say ‘Aren’t you afraid?’ and I say ‘No, I’ve never been scared. These are some of the kindest people.’”

4:44 a.m. Five volunteers make up the team, and no one knew each other before the count.

Newberry tells the group that she had experienced homelessness in Oklahoma City as a child, and Mann said he also experienced homelessness earlier in his life.

“Thank you for sharing your story,” said Theresa Seitz, a volunteer who runs IT for a local company.

Seitz said the count is vital for knowing how to set up appropriate services and connecting with community members.

Oklahoma City has started to focus in on homelessness, dedicating over $100 million of taxpayer dollars through MAPS 4 to address affordable housing and diversionary programs aimed at mental health, substance abuse and domestic violence.

“When I think about community and think about helping, I usually say something along the lines of ‘It’s important to desire for others that which we desire for ourselves,’” Newberry said.

“The momentum is building. We are at a place where we are actively pursuing difficult and unending issues and saying ‘Let’s do something about them.’”

5:06 a.m. Two men are sitting outside a gas station, so Mann pulls the van over.

He hangs back to watch from a distance as the other volunteers do surveys and offer care packages.

“We’re all a couple of paychecks away from being homeless, really, for the most part,” Mann said. “There is a lot of stigma to homelessness … but these are our neighbors.”

5:37 a.m. The light misting outside stops, but a slight breeze chills the air.

The team has gotten nearly 10 people to take the survey, which is a “respectable” number, Mann said.

The unsheltered homeless population can be difficult to find, which is why volunteers head out so early in the morning hoping to catch people before they leave their sites.

“I was aware there were people experiencing homelessness, but going into the camps was very eye opening and makes me want to do more,” said Tamara Steele, who hadn’t participated in the count before. “I know I can contribute more in some kind of way. And it’s very humbling. It makes me thankful for what I do have.”

6:49 a.m. Team 9 is on its last loop, driving around to find people walking who may have not yet taken the survey.

Just an hour before, many individuals experiencing homelessness were leaving overnight shelters and walking toward other locations around town that serve breakfast.

It was still quiet and dark with few cars on the street then. Now, morning traffic has picked up. The small glimpse of Oklahoma City’s somewhat “invisible” population is gone quickly, Mann said.

“When people think of homelessness, they think of people who just hang out in a tent all day and maybe smoke weed or drink,” Mann said. “But really, a lot of people are on the move, trying to find day labor or other ways to get by.”