Tulsa sees 'revolving door' with homeless encampments as new sites pop up when others are cleared

Authorities are responding to complaints from businesses and residents who say the encampments are spreading crime, driving away customers and hurting property values.

“As part of this effort, certain encampments are cleaned of trash and debris,” a city spokesman told the Tulsa World last week. “But not before those who reside there are connected to safe housing and vital resources.”

When authorities clear a site, however, housing officials don’t always have time to connect campers with permanent housing or even temporary shelter.

Outreach teams can spend weeks or months working with campers only to lose track of them after encampment is cleared, setting back efforts to get people off the streets, said Becky Gligo, executive director of the nonprofit Housing Solutions, which meets with city officials monthly to discuss the encampments.

“They’re camping somewhere else,” Gligo said. “The important thing to acknowledge is: The sweeping of a camp doesn’t eliminate that person’s homelessness. Housing does.”

Nonetheless, she agrees that the encampments are a problem, not only for nearby neighborhoods and businesses but also for the campers themselves.

“We should all be horrified as a community that we have neighbors who have to sleep outside,” Gligo said. “And I certainly understand the tension between homeowners or business owners.”

More than 2,300 people were experiencing homelessness in Tulsa last month, including nearly 300 people were new to homelessness, according to Housing Solutions. That’s up from 1,700 who were homeless in February 2021.

The problem won’t subside until the city addresses a long-term shortage of affordable housing, Gligo said.

“We need to look at the reasons that we have so many people who can’t afford to live and are having to be outside in these conditions,” she said. “It’s going to take all of us to figure out how to fix this.”

Gallery: Homeless camps in Tulsa, May 2021