Homelessness is “probably the most complex and layered issue a community can address,” Potts Family Foundation CEO AJ Griffin told Lawton’s Homeless Action Committee last week. “It affects individuals and families alike, and there is no simple cause or solution,” the former state senator said.
The Potts Family Foundation invests its “time, talent and treasure in results-based initiatives through education, advocacy, and collaboration” among nonprofit organizations across the state.
“You need to pull everyone together to address their piece of this problem,” Griffin advised.
Capt. Bryan Brinlee of Lawton’s Salvation Army concurs. “My only goal is to pull people off the street,” he told Southwest Ledger. “That’s our lane.”
Griffin encouraged those attending the meeting to “approach the root of this problem differently.”
“The system we’re using now doesn’t work,” Brinlee said.
The committee meeting was convened by Mayor Stan Booker in the wake of a City Council discussion about how Community Development Block Grant funds should be allocated. Homelessness is “the Number 1 thing we want to address” with Lawton’s CDBG, the mayor said.
A group met last month to review local efforts to alleviate homelessness. That session attracted 22 participants representing 17 organizations, according to Bernita Taylor, founder and chief executive officer of MIGHT.
Subsequently a team of outreach volunteers went to the ‘tent city’ set up across from The Salvation Army’s headquarters and contacted 21 individuals, she said. All were unsheltered, 38% were female and 62% were male. The majority were between 25 and 55 years of age, one was 24 and two were older than 55.
Of those 21 individuals, 14 of them couldn’t get admitted to a homeless shelter for various reasons: almost twothirds were addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, half of them had mental health issues, 14% had a criminal record, and some had no valid identification, had been evicted, or had a pet. One was put in touch with a local church to get assistance with replacing an ID, one was directed to a local ministry to get help in securing an ID, and three of them were provided with a bus ticket home to Texas.
Lawton sponsors bus ticket program The City of Lawton sponsors a bus ticket program for individuals who wish to reconnect with family, friends, or support networks in other cities. Funded by the City Manager’s Contingency Fund, this initiative provides bus tickets to destinations within the contiguous United States.
Code Enforcement Officer Joe Hankins said the program “got in full swing” in January, and during the first three months of this year “we purchased 78 bus tickets” for homeless individuals but had 10 cancellations.
“The vast majority” of the 68 recipients “were in desperate need to get back home to families and friends,” he said. “Most of them were on the street and were homeless,” he added.
At the beginning of April, $16,143 had been spent on the bus ticket program, city officials said.
Unhoused people number 200-plus in Lawton alone “We help people who’ve lost their jobs through a downturn, people who’ve been evicted because they couldn’t pay their rent for various reasons,” Taylor said. “These are not deadbeats.”
“We serve families and people you won’t see on the street,” she told the Homeless Action Committee.
Her organization, MIGHT, spent $7,226 in February, and $17,037 in March, “to keep people from being evicted and put out on the street.” She said 14 of the 84 individuals they have helped since September 2024 “have found jobs.”
She also said volunteers have counted 221 people who are in homeless shelters in Lawton and elsewhere in Comanche County, in The Salvation Army’s tent city, and on the street. A year ago that group numbered 251, she said.
Two years ago, Family Promise of Lawton, a public service organization that addresses homelessness, had space to accommodate only two homeless families, “but there was a waiting list for 25 families,” Taylor recalled.
Taylor is converting the former Roosevelt School at 1502 SW I Ave. into the Lawton Housing Resource Center. It will provide “a one-stop shop, p4 for individuals coping with housing issues,” she said.
It will have three one-bedroom units, each with its own bathroom, and six two-bedroom units, plus a respite care room. The center will serve families, Taylor emphasized. The center also will have 10 offices for use by local social service agencies, she said.
Taylor said she received a $2.6 million grant from the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency to remodel the building. Renovations will cost an estimated $3.5 million, she said; the other $900,000 came from COVID funds administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Taylor said she is still seeking donations to buy furnishings for the facility because the grants cover just the construction.
Her next step is securing a building permit to remodel the interior, she told the Ledger. She said she will appear before the City Council to request a “change of use” permit rather than a rezoning request.
Salvation Army focus is on ‘engagement’ In January and February The Salvation Army “engaged with 82 homeless people” who “relocated to our property to start a new journey,” Brinlee said.
• 11 were reunited with family members. “All were sober, and connection and pick-up were verified.” Three completed drug and/or alcohol treatment for addiction.
• 2 went to the Jim Taliaferro Center for “mental health support.”
• 5 entered assisted living facilities or Section 8 low-income housing.
• 1 family moved to the C. Carter Crane Center.
• 2 received assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• 4 were arrested for crimes.
• 1 died during a cold spell.
• 5 “returned to the street because they were unable to abide by the goals we set.”
• 51 people living in 47 tents “are still camping on Salvation Army property and not on the street.”
In summary, Brinlee said: 31 people were removed from chronic homelessness, eight returned to the street or have been banned from Salvation Army property, and one remained in jail on April 1. Thus, the failure rate was approximately 10%.
“None of this would have happened had we not ‘engaged,’” Brinlee said. “You can’t just drive by people on the street and expect them to change.”
In an unusual twist, Brinlee said “engagement” is more successful when achieved via a ‘tent city’ than in a typical indoor shelter.
Last year the Lawton Salvation Army provided 4,325 nights of shelter, which equated to an average of 11.8 people per day. In a traditional shelter, “People primarily spend their time sleeping,” Brinlee said. Consequently, 65% of engagement time was “while people were sleeping.”
However, “If we are able to maintain 42 people a day in tents,” he said, “that would be 15,330 days of shelter” and all of that engagement “would be while those individuals are awake.”
The annual cost of The Salvation Army’s shelter is $240,000, compared to $70,332 for the ‘tent city,’ Brinlee said.
By operating its “engaged program” in conjunction with its day center and volunteer training initiatives, “We aim to connect with 320 homeless individuals” this year, Brinlee said. “That’s a very realistic number,” he added.
“While it’s challenging to predict exactly how many people we can help transition off the streets, one thing is clear: Without fully committing our resources, the homelessness issue in Lawton will persist.”
Homelessness cannot be solved “by simply throwing money at it,” Brinlee said. “It requires a diverse range of relationships and widespread engagement.”
‘Money alone is not the answer’ As a general rule, he said, homeless people don’t use cash payments and food stamps to buy food or clothing or to pay rent. “That’s where their drugs come from,” Brinlee said. “Money alone is not the answer.
The Salvation Army’s main office at 1306 SW E Ave., a 13,000 square-foot, two-story building, will be abandoned and torn down. They’re moving to The Salvation Army Family Thrift Store and Donation Center at 1404 SW E Ave., and the thrift shop will move to a location on 11th Street.
The thrift store will house a new “warming and cooling shelter” for homeless people during summer and winter months. It will have a 4,100 square-foot “day center” where the homeless can use computers, recharge their telephones, socialize and conduct job searches, Brinlee said.
Little remains for The Salvation Army to do to the thrift store before moving its primary office there. “We have to build three offices and then we’ll be ready to move in,” he told Southwest Ledger on April 3. It will have an 800 square-foot social services pantry, a 3,360 square-foot warehouse, and the day center, plus a kitchen and restrooms.
The building will be “a hub” for social services such as the Health Department, Taliaferro Mental Health Center, etc.
“It’ll be a place to get people off the street,” Brinlee said.
The City of Lawton may acquire the site where The Salvation Army’s main office is now, he said. The property, which lies in a flood zone, is being appraised, Brinlee said. It was donated to The Salvation Army in 2005.
If the city took control of that property, perhaps it could be utilized for a homeless tent city if an Authority or a Trust could be structured to shelter the City of Lawton from any liability.
Someone named Daniel Quinn was quoted on social media as saying, “Don’t try to drive the homeless into places we find suitable. Help them survive in places they find suitable.”
Homeless people are still camping on Salvation Army property, although, “We’ve asked them to move” because of the liability issue if anyone gets injured on their property,” Brinlee acknowledged.
On a positive note, though, “We’re taking people off the streets; we’re helping veterans and individuals with mental health issues,” Brinlee said. “We’re headed in the right direction.”
C. Carter Crane offers job searches, training Another of the public service organizations is the C. Carter Crane Center, which operates under the umbrella of Embrace Hope, a 501(c) (3) tax-exempt organization. The center’s purpose is “to promote resilience, collaboration and support for families.”
Embrace Hope assumed management of a 28-bed homeless shelter last July from the Great Plains Improvement Foundation after its dissolution.
Residents of the shelter are provided with food, clothes, household items, transportation, and a new pillow, all at no cost to them, and they received gifts on Christmas Day, Director Brenda Spencer-Ragland said. In exchange, the residents have duties while staying there: finding a job or securing services they need. The center also sponsors church services and Bible study through a local ministry.
Twenty-eight of the center’s residents have transitioned into low-income housing, Spencer- Ragland told the council.
C. Carter Crane Center partners with The Salvation Army for job searches and training, and with Catalyst Behavioral Services for drug and alcohol recovery. Residents receive help with medical and dental care. In addition, “We work with the Comanche County Health Department, with Jim Taliaferro Community Mental Health Center, and with Comanche County Memorial Hospital.”