He was this really tall dude who came up, and, in a desperate voice, told me he needed shoes that fit. Stacy introduced himself politely and said he couldn’t find a size 19 shoe. His feet hurt.

Being in the middle of winter, he also needed a good hoodie to keep warm. So, I told him I’d help him out — buying some shoes for him to pick them up at the front desk at John 3:16 Mission.

I ordered a really cool Adidas size 19 shoe on Amazon, which was not easy to find. I also bought him that warm hoodie and a new pair of my favorite socks, Darn Tough, with a lifetime guarantee. Sadly though, his lifetime did not last very long.

Stacy only had a chance to wear those socks and shoes for about four months, as I just learned he passed away on the streets on April 21. Living without a home is so tough. I can only imagine, as I’ve not experienced it.

Mental health professionals have told me that one cannot live on the streets for just a few weeks without developing serious trauma. Can you imagine what years of dealing with the daily struggle for food, water, clothing and shelter will do to a person?

Tulsa has more than 3,000 people without a permanent home. Many are on the streets with a daily struggle to just survive. Some don’t make it. The average life expectancy for someone on the streets is about 20 years less than most of the people reading this now, who are under a roof with their basic needs met.

While my gesture in helping Stacy get good shoes may have been nice, it takes more than just shoes to solve this homeless problem. In my over two years in volunteering, learning and getting to know more people experiencing homelessness, I’ve seen many good people and organizations showing compassion for folks on the streets, which is great. I’ve supported some of these organizations, and they do great work.

As a community, we have to do more to really make an impact to decrease the upward trend in the number of homeless people.

We have to find these folks a decent, sustainable and affordable place to call home. They need an address. And, just having a home does not guarantee that they will improve their lives, recover from their many issues and get a job.

However, I can assure you that their chances for those go way up when they have a home and are not living in daily trauma while on the streets. Only then can they really begin to heal physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. Without this, we’re just continuing to just kick the can down the road.

I learned later that Stacy played college basketball and even professionally. He had a promising future. But, for whatever reasons, life on the streets took him out.

So, come on Tulsa! While it’s challenging and complex, it’s pretty simple at the same time. We have to first find a way to lift these folks off the streets and into a place where they can be safe and heal from the trauma they’ve been living with.

We’re doing that with Eden Village of Tulsa in northwest Tulsa, and City Lights is doing the same in north Tulsa. To meet the need for 500 housing units just for the chronically homeless, these need to be developed.

People like Stacy just need a home along with help from many sources in dealing with their many issues. This is what will give them some real hope for their futures.

Hope is a powerful thing. And with that hope, they can begin to heal and become the productive, self-sufficient citizens that many have the potential to become.