New beginnings for Tulsans brought in from the streets in pandemic, February's extreme cold

But months later, some Tulsans are still working behind the scenes to ensure these moments in time mark a new beginning for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.

Carl Powell’s title at the Tulsa Day Center for the homeless is housing stabilization case manager, but really, he plays the part of personal MacGyver to his 15-20 clients, helping them fix not only their living conditions but also their lives.

“It’s everything from making sure their rent is paid and they have food stamps, to personal hygiene items and other basic necessities, but also make sure they’re functioning – helping them make a budget, getting them help with mental health and substance abuse, vocational rehab,” said Powell.

The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 forced long overburdened, over-capacity shelters to impose occupancy restrictions, forcing many more homeless Tulsans out onto the streets. That prompted the dedication of new resources from local government for finding permanent housing solutions.

“COVID showed us what could happen,” said Mack Haltom, executive director of Tulsa Day Center. “With a unified effort to house people – we can do it. We can virtually end homelessness.”

Just through the Day Center’s efforts alone, 566 individuals were placed in housing in 2020, compared to 512 in 2019.

And even that surge in housing placements paled in comparison to what winter 2021 extremes brought about.

For comparison’s sake, 39 individuals were housed through the help of the Tulsa Day Center in the first quarter of 2020, compared to 122 in the same time period in 2021. And 36 individuals were recipients of the Day Center’s homelessness prevention services, including rapid rehousing and other supports to keep people in their homes, compared to 230 between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2021.

Homeless advocates across the city raised almost $1.5 million to put up the vast majority of the city’s unsheltered homeless people in local hotels and motels ahead of the region being plunged into frigid temperatures rarely recorded here.

Then case managers and housing navigators worked to connect those temporarily sheltered with services and apartments – and they’re still working to get those folks stabilized in their new homes and with whatever additional supports their circumstances may require.

In the case of Billy McGee, a man whose story was featured in the Tulsa World in February, it was a private citizen who stepped in to help when McGee kept turning away the desperate pleas of homeless advocates trying to get everyone in off the streets.

Today, McGee and his beloved chihuahua — unwilling to be parted with in February’s winter storm — are safely ensconced in a south Tulsa studio apartment they call home.

“I love this bed,” said McGee, laying on top of a plaid comforter on his freshly made bed, sharing his breakfast oatmeal with apple chunks with his dog Shucky Ducky, named for McGee’s favorite comedian.

Tulsa art gallery owner Royce Myers stood with Powell a few feet away, both men having arrived to check in on McGee at the same time by coincidence.

“That’s my boy! He’s like my father,” said McGee, breaking down in tears as he spoke of Myers. “We’re two peas in a pod.”

When Myers first began calling on McGee, McGee was curled up on a wet piece of cardboard on the porch of an abandoned house – in February’s sub-zero temperatures – across the street from Myers’ art gallery.

Myers put up McGee and Shucky Ducky in a local motel and kept him there with the financial help of friends, until he was able to enlist long-term help from the Day Center.

McGee had nothing but a duffle bag and that tuxedo-colored old dog he treasures. So once an apartment was secured, Myers and some of his interior design friends and other business associates fully furnished and decorated McGee’s new home.

“After my wife died, she’s all I had left,” McGee said of Shucky Ducky.

Above his new bed hangs a massive painting of a bald eagle soaring through an electric blue sky.

“He loves eagles,” Myers said. “I learned that from the walks me and my wife sometimes go on with Billy and Shucky Ducky in River Parks.”

Powell calls frequently and shows up at least once a week. He draws on his own circle of professional contacts and friends – or his own resourcefulness – to find basic necessities his clients need. For example, he has reached out to local hotels to inquire about when they might be disposing of bed linens because most of his clients lack even the most basic necessities for setting up a home.

“We go from now. We don’t care about their past,” he said.

Myers, who said he has extensive work experience on sod farms, has expressed an interest in job counseling. That’s also something Powell can help arrange.

“He’s proud, he wants to work,” Powell said. “We try to empower them.”

Clients in the Day Center’s rapid rehousing program can get support from a housing stabilization case manager for 18 to 24 months – if they can get a spot.

The Day Center only has funding for two of those workers, but the demand is much higher, especially because so many of the city’s most vulnerable homeless people are newly placed in housing.

“We’ve got to get them sustained and self-sufficient, but it’s challenging. These are high-acuity individuals, who need more attention and oversight,” said Haltom, the Day Center executive director. “There is also still a big need for affordable housing and housing vouchers. We are sometimes placing people in housing that is a stretch for them. Homeless providers can’t do all of it – the city, the county has to step up. Landlords need to step up. Not just our agency, but other agencies are housing people.”

He added: “But the big picture is if we put our minds to something, we can do it.”

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