Oklahoma City center helps some families begin to heal

A new population of people who had comfortable lifestyles before the recession cost them their jobs are now adjusting to life in local homeless shelters as they struggle to regain work.

Area shelter workers and homeless advocates said they have seen a significant increase in the number of people seeking help during the last year. Many have degrees or decades of work experience, but downsizing cost them their jobs and eventually their homes.

Oklahoma City received about $2.2 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for homeless services during the next three years. The funding was targeted at people who were affected by the recession. Only people who had been homeless in Oklahoma City for less than 90 days or were at risk of being homeless could apply, said Dan Straughan, executive director of the Homeless Alliance.

About 300 newly homeless or at-risk people have been re-housed through the program, Staughan said. He said the response has been so great that workers had to narrow the focus to just families with children. The city froze the program in late January because agencies that were providing case management services became overloaded, Straughan said. He said agencies won’t accept new clients until they are sure that clients already in the program are receiving the services they need.

Salvation Army shelters in Oklahoma City had 50,150 new clients in 2009 — more than 14,000 more new clients at the charity than the year before.

Many of those were part of the middle class and didn’t struggle with finances until the family’s major breadwinner lost a job, said Heide Brandes, spokeswoman for the Salvation Army.

"We have families who come in just stunned to find themselves at a homeless shelter,” Brandes said.

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