Downtown residents concerned about encounters with the homeless
Frightening encounters with the homeless are something more and more residents in the downtown area are experiencing. If it comes as a surprise that the woman sitting on the porch swing doesn't live at this house, then you know exactly how Mary Loveless felt. "Yeah, it's been pretty scary," she...
ktul.com
Frightening encounters with the homeless is something more and more residents in the downtown area are experiencing.
If it comes as a surprise that the woman sitting on the porch swing doesn't live at this house, then you know exactly how Mary Loveless felt.
"Yeah, it's been pretty scary," she said.
With a home located just down the street from John 3:16 and about 50 yards from a homeless encampment, Loveless had to call the police three times last year for incidents just like this.
"Someone just kind of comes on to my front porch, they’re usually like a homeless person, might have some sort of mental disorder, and then I have to call the police to come and kind of get them off my property," she said.
"One time we arrested someone, one time we called an ambulance to come and assist this person cause they were having some medical issue," said Captain Richard Meulenberg of Tulsa Police Department.
The camp is located right next to the Inner Dispersal Loop, which could, if it is state property, basically tie the hands of TPD from doing anything.
"We can’t enforce certain ordinances that are like adjacent to the highway. That was always kind of an issue that we had because those are really state highways, and what is our jurisdictional level? So you’ll see, and look, people who are experiencing homelessness, they know where to go. That’s why you see them in the same place. People say, 'Well, why aren’t the cops doing anything?' Because that little piece of sovereign land that they might be on really falls in a weird area of who can go in there and force them out," said Cpt. Meulenberg.
Folks who choose encampments are also a challenge for the people who offer help through John 3:16.
"What can we do about it? We keep trying to outreach. In my case, I can’t come up and cuff people and make them stay at John 3:16, nobody can," said Rev. Steve Whitaker.
Loveless has lived in the area for two years and says lately the problem has gotten worse.
"There’s been a lot of instances lately of just more and more violence it seems like, more and more people kind of screaming, yelling to where myself, and I know a couple of my neighbors, don’t feel exactly safe," she said.
"What I would highly recommend is that this homeowner reaches out to us," said Becky Gligo.
One possible option is Housing Solutions, a coalition of 30 agencies working on homelessness that will send out a team to talk to the campers.
"We have an outreach request form, and we can generally get a team out there within the workday and a few hours or within 24 hours if it's overnight or on the weekend to engage with these folks, start working on a housing plan," she said.
