Tulsa is moving forward with a plan to add more shelter beds for people experiencing homelessness.
The City of Tulsa announced Monday that it’s reached an agreement with the county to buy and convert the former Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center into a low-barrier shelter. It’ll cost the city $500,000, along with ongoing costs for security and site management.
Tulsa itself won’t be operating the site but will instead look for a private partner to help with site operations. The renovation of the facility, located in west Tulsa at 315 S. Gilcrease Museum Road, is expected to add around 175 beds, operate 24/7 and be pet-friendly. The county has previously used the building as an emergency homeless shelter.
“I made a commitment to work with partners to make homelessness as we know it a thing of the past; this shelter is a major piece of making that commitment a reality,” Mayor Monroe Nichols said Monday in a press release.
The announcement comes on the heels of a tumultuous few months for Tulsa’s attempts to solve the homelessness crisis.
At the end of July, the city installed boulders along the sidewalk near the downtown bus station, where many unhoused Tulsans sought shade during the summer months. After outcry from advocates labeling the boulders as “hostile architecture,” Nichols called a meeting saying the rocks were a part of a canvas for community art.
In August, the mayor said the city would put $6 million toward finding a solution. Then, in September, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Operation SAFE in which state troopers began clearing homeless encampments on state property in Tulsa.
Nichols decried the move, saying Stitt’s plan would have been better “in any other year of his administration. But he did it when we are starting an engagement plan to get people help.”
There were 1,449 people experiencing homelessness in January, according to Housing Solutions Tulsa’s annual Point in Time Count. The city said it expects the renovation to take 12-18 months.
