CHICKASHA — Homelessness is a challenging problem not only in a megalopolis such as New York or Los Angeles, and in large metropolitan cities such as Oklahoma City and Tulsa, but also in small-town Oklahoma.
Four speakers who addressed the Chickasha City Council recently discussed issues arising from homelessness.
Kathy Tibbets, who owns and manages rental property in Chickasha, said she was accosted by a homeless woman on March 24.
“She demanded I call the cops. I dialed 911” but the woman left a few minutes before the police arrived. “I was terrified,” Tibbets said. The same woman entered a bank “and acted in the same psychotic manner,” she added.
“I have since been down to the police station and worked my way up to the chief” to report the encounter, Tibbets said. The strange woman has amassed “two pages of incident reports” with the local police department.
“Let’s find a way of determining why and how these people are arriving here,” Tibbets suggested.
Mentally ill homeless people are “creating damage,” Chickasha hairstylist Alison Schindler told the council. “We have to lock the door after each customer” enters the store “so that they will feel comfortable,” she said. “This happens all the time.”
The city needs “some rules, mandates or funding to solve this problem,” she said. “We cannot afford to lose business because of this problem.”
Steve McClain, manager of Legendary Bicycles in downtown Chickasha, said homeless individuals are not “creating a nuisance” for the store.
“The biggest problem I have – and I’m looking for guidance – is where I should send these folks,” he said. Some of the homeless people who enter the bicycle shop “are obviously troubled,” he said. “I know there’s the Resurrection House, but I’m not sure about how to send them there.”
Interim Police Chief Goebel Music told the city council that individuals who claimed they were homeless constituted 7% of all Chickasha Police Department arrests in 2022, but that percentage doubled to 14% during the first three months of this year.
The Community Alliance, a group that meets each month and is spearheaded by the Salvation Army, “is trying to address the problems,” Mayor Chris Mosley told Southwest Ledger. “The majority of the issues are mental health, and Chickasha is no different than anyplace else; we just don’t have the finances nor the programs to handle it.”
The Ledger left a message for the Alliance via the Chamber of Commerce but received no response.
Research performed in early 2022 indicated Oklahoma’s homeless rate was 9.34 individuals per 10,000 residents.
Providers of services for the homeless, interested citizens and others who live within the Southwest Continuum of Care service area – including the MIGHT Community Development and Resource Center in Lawton and the Southwest Oklahoma Community Action Group in Jackson County – are invited to a focus group and “input session” for the 2024 Emergency Solutions Grant program.
The event is scheduled for noon April 13 at the Lawton Public Library, 110 SW Fourth Street.
The ESG program is a component of the state’s Continuum of Care system designed to address homelessness in Oklahoma. ESG programs provide emergency housing, support services, and housing assistance to enable homeless individuals and families to move toward independent living.
ESG funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is administered by the state Commerce Department.