LAWTON – Homeless men who have aged out of the state’s foster care system now have a place where they can live.
The MIGHT Community Resource and Development Center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony Feb. 11 to celebrate the completion of the McMahon Foundation S212 Guest House, located on the MIGHT campus at 714 SW 45th St. in Lawton. The shelter offers men ages 18-24, who have aged out of the foster care system and have no other home, a place to stay.
“We have finished the building, and now the work starts,” said Bernita Taylor, founder and CEO of MIGHT. “We are going to need all of your support to help us to change lives to better our community.” ‘Seeing a need’ The guest house sprang from the vision of Lawton resident Spencer Brown, who founded the Sanctuary 2012 organization while he was still in high school. Sanctuary 2012 is now under the umbrella of the MIGHT CDRC.
Spencer was unable to attend the Feb. 11 ribbon- cutting ceremony due to illness, but his father, Mike Brown, told the story of Spencer’s vision.
The story began when Spencer was a junior in high school with his f irst truck, Mike said. Spencer frequently gave one of his friends a ride home after school, and Spencer noticed that his friend always went to a different place.
Mike was riding with Spencer one day, and they took Spencer’s friend to a boarded-up house. The friend reached around one of the boards, unlocked the front door and went inside.
“I’m like, ‘Dude, what’s up with that?’” Mike said. “And Spencer’s like, ‘Dad, I don’t think he really has a place to stay.’ That was the beginning of him seeing a need.”
Helping students That incident prompted Spencer to launch Sanctuary 2012, a nonprofit whose goal was to build a shelter for homeless teenagers. Early on, Spencer raised enough money to buy food and other items for students.
Spencer’s other projects included installing a washer- and-dryer set at Lawton High School and providing gift cards for students at Christmas.
When he finished high school, Spencer went on to play baseball at Cameron University. After college, he moved to Texas to start his career.
Spencer later moved back to Lawton to work at the family’s construction management company, CDBL Inc. That was when he met MIGHT’s CEO, Bernita Taylor, who was also interested in helping homeless students.
That meeting led to a partnership between MIGHT and Sanctuary 212, the Southwest Ledger reported in May 2024. Their first Summer Night fundraiser generated about $60,000 for the S212 project, and an anonymous donor contributed another $50,000.
In April 2024, the project received a $500,000 grant from the McMahon Foundation to remodel the gym on the MIGHT campus into a dormitory-style shelter for young men.
The shelter is named for the McMahon Foundation and Taylor’s father, the Rev. Willie Guest.
Lawton’s leaders want to make the city a gr eat place to raise children, Mike Brown said. He said he hoped people in the audience shared that vision.
“It’s a huge step in the right direction, the S212 House,” Mike said. “So I say, scan your hearts. Consider being a part of what we are growing here by also giving that extra degree of effort, which will make all the difference.”
Changing focus Taylor said she and Spencer originally wanted to help male students ages 12 through 17, and they applied for a license from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. But an administrative change led DHS officials to decide they could not open another shelter for students in that age range.
“Spencer and I had a building, and we didn’t have funds or the legal right to take kids that age into the building,” Taylor said. “So we had to shift.”
The shelter will now house young men ages 1824 who have outgrown the foster care system.
Taylor said statistics show that more than 26,000 students will age out of the United States’ foster care system every year, and 97% of those students will immediately experience chronic poverty. She said 20% of those children will be instantly homeless after leaving foster care, and 40% will be homeless within 18 months.
“We have decided to take on those boys who are aging out of foster care,” Taylor said. “However, there is no fund source for that. We’re taking it on b y faith, and we’re believing that we can do it.”