News and Events
Downtown YMCA to end residency program
Friday, June 22, 2007
GINNIE GRAHAM World Staff Writer
6/22/2007
The Y is working with a city task force to transition down- town residents into permanent housing by 2010.
As part of a plan to provide housing to Tulsa's chronically homeless, the YMCA is working with a city task force to transition its downtown residents into permanent housing.
The YMCA has not announced a closing date for its downtown residency program, but it will occur before 2010, said Laura Hailey-Butler, the director of development.
YMCA officials have been participating on a mayor's Task Force to End Chronic Homelessness, which has endorsed the Building Tulsa, Building Lives program.
The Zarrow Families Foundation initiated the program last year out of concern for downtown's homeless population with the 2008 BOK Center opening and other improvements to the area.
The program would provide a basic housing unit to each chronically homeless person and then surround that person with support services to work on personal issues. Housing would be provided with no strings attached.
"Until the task force plan is in place, we will continue to provide services to the men who need it," Hailey-Butler said. "Our biggest concern is that there not be a knee-jerk reaction and fear that we are closing soon. If someone needs housing, they can still come to us.
"We are making sure each person will be transitioned into other housing. We will not leave anyone without a home. We will not add to the homeless population."
The 52-year-old downtown YMCA, 515 S. Denver Ave., has 168 housing units. About 140 men, many of whom have been homeless or trapped in a cycle of chronic homeless- ness, now live there.
Fire regulations that go into effect in 2010 would require the YMCA to invest heavily in renovations if it were to continue housing people.
The YMCA has no plans for the use of the residential side of the building, and no offers to buy the property have been made, Hailey-Butler said. However, the YMCA does plan to retain a downtown presence and will continue its health, family and youth programs.
"Since the downtown YMCA was built 50 years ago, there has been a complete change in the housing market," Hailey-Butler said. "We have donors who remember staying there as young couples until they got a job to afford a house. That's not what we are seeing now."
YMCAs across the nation have been ending their hous ing programs to focus on family and youth programs.
The Tulsa YMCA is building a facility at Pine Street and Peoria Avenue that will include a child-care center, health and wellness area, swimming pool and gym.
The Zarrow Families Foundation has provided funding for a full-time caseworker at the YMCA to locate housing options for the residents.
The Mental Health Association in Tulsa has been leasing a floor at the YMCA building to provide 25 units in its Safe Haven housing program.
Executive Director Mike Brose said the association is looking for other housing options, adding that "the closing provides the community an opportunity.
"That opportunity means finding ways to replace those units with housing that is not overly congregated -- more scattered sites and that will work much better and be more appropriate for individuals who stay there," he said.
The Zarrow Foundation asked the Mental Health Association and Tulsa Housing Authority's nonprofit Housing Partners of Tulsa to be partners in the program. The foundation has provided funding to staff the initiative.
Tulsa has about 600 chronically homeless people, not counting those who will be moved out of the YMCA, Brose said.
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Ginnie Graham 581-8376
ginnie.graham@tulsaworld.com
Reprinted with special permission from the Tulsa World.
Copyright © 2007, World Publishing Co. All rights reserved
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