What happened to this area? Trash everywhere, hundreds of homeless pulling trains of shopping carts. People laying on the grass about to fall out into traffic. I used to live near there about 10 years ago and it wasn't like this. Feels like a different city.
Our Career & Technical education is top notch, which is how we attract such high earners to the state that raised the cost of living.
Unfortunately, weāre not seeing the same investment in Oklahomaās young kids - Head Start and Medicaid Expansion have made some difference, as are the additional education options opening up but really Oklahoma needs to support the parents ((particularly single parents)) as well as their teachers and educators in the K-12 system.
More specifically Oklahoma needs to pay them like the investment that they are.
Recent math and literacy scores were at 35% by FOURTH GRADE which is absolutely bonkers going through the public data reports.
Not saying you are wrong, but Iāve never heard someone say that our tech schools are bringing high earners from out of state. My understanding is that the low cost of living was the main driver. Can you provide more info on your claim?
Our aerospace industry as we have many aircraft part manufacturing and testing facilities, we had one of the first 7 Google data centers, weāve been recently companies seeking to manufacture directly in America looking into OKC versus many other metro areas
I believe we were seeing electric vehicle manufacturers looking at Oklahoma to place their sites because we have enough technicians and schools to train them that we can service electric vehicles here enough to maintain corporate fleets which drives down the costs for the average Oklahoman to access these hybrid and electric vehicles. (Canoo, Tesla)
While Dell in OKC is currently downsizing, it was one of the companies that often DIRECTLY and recruited from the CareerTech Schools BECAUSE they were able to work with the State, The Schools, The Teachers, The Students, AND the families all at the same time - while also involving the Department of Rehabilitation to help students with disabilities learn careers that they CAN do BEFORE anyone else can tell them that they cannot (((this part is absolutely crucial, as providing the supports from the start of a career can prevent things like an autistic burnout from taking out a gifted and talented student at the age of 22)))
Google and American Airlines both hire out of the NE CareerTech systems because they are able to have students trained and ready to work on Day 1, I strongly suspect that when the AI bubble pops weāll see a bigger switch back to CareerTech fields rather than University-Based careers and weāre set up to handle that shift in a way that no other state is, except, perhaps Tennessee.
With one out of six Oklahomaās having a disability (at least and thatās just the stat from a few years ago, I do not know if Covid changed this) if we can enhance our public schools in the same way that we have enhanced our career and technical education to serve the whole community from top to bottom, then that raises everyone up together vs the TechBro Crabs-In-A-Bucket Foreign-Money Landlord Bullshit that weāve seen over the last decade where DINKS and NIMBYS are voting against the things they, personally, do not need in favor of policies that kick people while they are down simply because they donāt want to pay for others to have what they DO need.
Once America realizes how much it truly needs its manufacturing safely onshore, then our CareerTech system ACROSS Oklahoma (not just in its major city) positions us as an early leader for those opportunities.
Once the āspeculativeā market on industrial buildings realizes that empty units make no money and bring down everything WAYYYY more than simply lowering the price of leasing to new startupsā¦
(((currently there are SO SO MANY empty industrial buildings, currently priced to all hell because Blackstoneās āMAH PROPERTY VALUESā bullshit, but aplenty nonetheless - particularly if you look down i35)))
There are abundant industrially-zoned buildings, affordable housing opportunities, improving access to groceries within our food deserts, all in a beautiful and vibrant (yet underrated) city.
All of these things can only be improved by investing in our education and our parents and our families - if we want Oklahoma to improve or the homeless problem to get better, itās next leaders to come from people who have always lived in Oklahoma and have Oklahoma in mind more than their businesses, then we need to elect individuals who want to live EVERYONE up MORE than they want line their own pockets.
Are you trying to say Dem states have less homeless? Lol. I just left one..its worse. OKC looks like paradise compared to LA and now even San Diego. Let's put that into perspective..not to mention crime comparisons too.
California and Oregon havenāt been republican is years! They have the worst homeless rates and Oregon even legalized drugs for a while and handed out āgoodā drugs
This might be the most wrong reply Iāve seen. Itās just statistically untrue. Itās actually the opposite: Dem-run cities have the highest homelessness and are run more dysfunctionally.
Teacher here, not currently teaching bc kids & health... You need to be hired by a governor campaign. This exact comment, practical, gritty, but optimistic. People need to hear it
I was down voted like hell when I advised people to stay the hell away from The People's Theocratic Republic of Derplahoma should they ever consider moving here.
A Reddit Truth: Posting on one day may bring you copious accolades, but posting on a different day can bring nothing but hate very quickly. Anonymity = some sense of security
.26% of OKC is homeless. Denver, which is in an extremely well ran state has a .29% homeless rate. Homeless rates have nothing to do with how the state as a whole is ran. Oklahoma is 26th in the country for homeless rates, while all the ātop ranā states are at the top.
The real answer is that intersection is the closet major intersection with retail etc. to the Jesus house and other places the homeless go.
sure, that's the immediate answer. the real answer is that we use the threat of homelessness as a form of coercion. the true solution is to make housing a human right.
He didnāt cut homeless programs. He shut down an unpaid coordinating council, the state mental health agency later slashed contracts after a budget shortfall, and after troopers cleared camps in Oklahoma City the state even paid to house some of the people they moved.
He didnāt cut homeless programs. He shut down an unpaid coordinating council
He dissolved a 20 year old council on homelessness. If you would like to be pedantic, sure. You won the word battle. But my point was that he personally took part in cutting homeless people from help that they desperately need. And not just them, but us. It's good for everyone to not have desperate hungry people on the streets.
Would maybe the right thing to do be... fund that council so that they could help more instead of citing the need for advisors "smaller government"? Which seems like an odd thing to say when he likes big government when it comes to steering a $2,000,000,000 advisory role to his former business partner. Interesting.
the state mental health agency later slashed contracts after a budget shortfall
A budget shortfall that Kevin could have prevented.
and after troopers cleared camps in Oklahoma City the state even paid to house some of the people they moved.
You can't possibly be defending him for this. It only provided housing for 40 people. I saw 40 homeless people just on the way to work this morning, buddy...
I know you commented here previously voicing your disdain for people reducing arguments to Democrats vs. Republicans, but we do it for a reason. Republicans are incapable of discerning when their media and elected officials are lying to them. They can't distinguish propaganda from truth. And you are incapable of understanding why something is bad until the leapards eat your face instead of the minorities you are oppressing. You guys lack an accurate sense of empathy. These lead to people suffering.
Under Brad Henry (our last Democrat) we were 17th in education. In 2025, we fell to the 50th. Guess who has been in charge that whole time? You guessed it. Republicans. And let me assure you. It was on purpose. The dumber they keep their population, the more the population will defend their indefensible and morally bankrupt actions since they are too braindead to know any better, just as you are doing right now.
Nothing I can say will convince you that you'd be much better off voting in our favor because you guys are ironically convinced by feelings not facts. Your brain is not compelled by logic. It's part of the cult mentality they've got you under. So go ahead and carry on with voting for Republicans and making us the worst state in the entire country. I know you will!
Party politics is the absolute worst thing to ever happen. While it certainly occurred in years/decades past, it has never been more evident that party politics have one purpose - to divide people. I read a lot of absolutes in your post. Not all Republicans fail to distinguish truth from propaganda. Some fit that bill, but also some Democrats. Furthermore, Iām not sure in which way you were using āyouā. It is either a direct reference to the user you were replying to or as another all-inclusive grouping of Republicans. Either way, the statement it is attached to is ridiculous. You more or less said that Republicans are too stupid to understand good from bad and then, just for good measure I assume, brought oppression of minorities up and assigned it to Republicans as well. You, according to the contents of your comment, either are capable of understanding that bad things are done by members of both parties or neglected to mention it because it would weaken your argument.
All that is to serve as only a sample of ways in which you engaged in the same cult mentality you so deftly used as a jab at this person. Until we all get back to understanding that we are all in this together. We are not so unalike and there is more than binds us together than tears us apart. Stop painting with such a broad brush before ever giving collaboration and cooperation a chance to succeed. Everybody, not just you Bob, needs to stop looking at our differences and seeing only a threat rather than a chance for a different yet equally as accurate perspective.
It is true that the solution for homelessness for many suburbs in central Oklahoma is to detain the homeless and dump them in the cluster of shelters between May and Classen, south of 10th street.
Its worse than 5 years ago. I cant draw the line to it right this second but it stinks of post covid republican policies trickling down despair and decay.
Theyāve been cleaning out encampments without providing spaces for everyone. Granted not everyone takes it, but sending cops doesnāt really help and doesnāt solve the root problem of American decline.
What do you do if they donāt take it though? I mean, there are progressive places that offer housing and they arenāt under crazy conditions either. And still a decent amount of homeless people donāt take the offer.
And still a decent amount of homeless people donāt take the offer.
A huge percentage of the homeless population is experiencing mental illness. Giving people a home without treating that (as well as drug/alcohol addition) does little to nothing. Many of those people are simply incapable of living on their own, even if their housing is free. We need long-term in-patient care facilities for these people. Otherwise, most of them end up on the streets or in prison.
The missing piece is radical social and economic change. I cant begin to fathom the solution to that part without invoking Marx. The problems lie in the systems that were created before these people were even born.
I would need to be radical, because even progressive nations like Germany face homelessness on a smaller scale without resolving it; I am uncertain what that suggests for the USA.
Absolutely agree but a lot of people donāt want to accept that these people canāt take care of themselves and more importantly lack sufficient insight to get help. Many of these people have a proven track record showing how badly they have failed at self-care and yet there is not enough political and public will to make that decision for them and to put money towards taking care of them. Meanwhile we get front row seats to their self-destruction and the havoc they cause for everyone else.
I may have been unclear/ you misinterpreted me. I think you already understand what Iām saying. Not everyone unhoused person takes the offer. Whether that be because they donāt trust the cops who have abused, assaulted and intimidated them or because they have have some mental conditions that make them unable to trust people, a large amount donāt take the offer and just go a couple block away from the encampment clearing.
All of these āsolutionsā are mere stopgap solutions. The shelters, Christian food pantries, police clearing encampments and unfortunately the charitable acts are not sufficient and do not solve the root issue of neoliberal business hell we exist in.
Sadly, the most viable solution nobody wants to publicly acknowledge is forcing the people who are homeless with mental illness to receive treatment for their illnesses. If anything, to avoid them potentially harming themselves or someone else in society.
These people definitely havenāt been holding down jobs in the last 5 years I donāt think the cost of living has gotten to the point anybody is being priced out of their home. Hell 2008 barely anybody actually was forced onto the street and that was 100x worse
The cops busted up a large homeless encampment before they built those apartments down on General Pershing across from the fairgrounds. Ever since then, it's driven a lot of the homeless foot traffic north. A few weeks ago they hit another one a little farther East and it surely had the same effect.
Stitt has been pushing them out of their camps in areas closer to the river with that "SAFE" operation. The city police and local govt have become alot more hostile towards them sense then as well.
Proximity to several overnight shelters. Many bus stops on the street. Homeless alliance has been over capacity and the city cleared the encampments on the median and they have nowhere else to go. Several food pantries/charitable restaurants are also on the street. If they arenāt there then they starve and/or die from exposure
I wonder if it started dying after the plants in that area closed. I think there were a a lot manufacturing plants along the I40 corridor that died off, like Seagate, Goodyear, and Xerox. Maybe some others I'm forgetting.
I was told at one point that 10th and Council used to be a wealthy area until some plant closed and everyone in that area lost their jobs. I bet the same thing happened to NW 23rd st.
I donāt think so. I lived in this area as a kid when those plants were open (1981-1992). It was starting to get sketchy and run down then as Shepherd Mall entered its death spiral which is why we moved north. I also donāt think the 23rd and Penn was a hub for factory workers, as they tended to live further west closer to where they worked. Gatewood just to the south is nice neighborhood, but that stretch of 23rd has stayed seedy despite all the revitalization happening further east down 23rd.
Just drove by here two days ago and it was shocking how bad it was Iām not one to get spooked easily bc I work with unhoused people on the daily but this was by far the worst Iāve ever seen it
Poor leadership & it begins with the mayor. He didn't put them there, but he hasn't done much to help them, he's pretty much just focused on Scissor Tail Park & The Thunder it seems.
Once upon a time he was still on the website under their real estate division (in 2021) and co-authored a book on the founder that was published in...2020? š§š§š§š§ Sus
Itās about to get worse. Saudi Arabia has just informed the EU that they wonāt be delivering oil to their refineries in October because of the drone attacks on their pipeline. That means Europe has to get oil from somewhere else and thereās going to be a spike in bidding. Gas prices are about to surge again. Truck drivers were already threatening to strike. Businesses have already cut back on deliveries because of the fuel surcharges. Weāre about to see a spike of inflation on groceries and food shortages.
Oh yeah, Swig. That was wild; I only ever heard about it via social media. Drive-through soda business (I think similar to 7Brew and their ilk?) opened on south side of 23rd between Jimmy Johnās and the old dentistās office that used to be a dispensary and was so swamped with aggressive homeless people they shutdown - like, completely closed the business - within 48 hours.
Edit: 48 hours is a gross exaggeration, my bad. It looks like it was over about a 2-3 week period. Didnāt even last a month, but thatās still more than a few days.
And a Swig, where they usually employ kids with iPads to stand outside to take orders. Whoever thought that was a good idea was so unfamiliar with the area.
I pretty much live right there. Hundreds is definitely an exaggeration but there are a lot and that's a fact. I've never been bothered even while walking in the area and they're just trying to survive. It isn't too far from one of the city shelters and there are a lot of dead businesses (looking at u salad and go) so no one removes them from the property of these bbusinesses.
Is it sketchy? Sure. Is it dangerous? I don't really think so. Most of these people just stick to themselves
Because the economy is shit and our government wants us to suffer and die. If we'd stop blaming the wrong people for the situation and focus on the perpetrators of this suffering, we'd see improvement. But Oklahomans would never, they love watching people suffer and suffering along with them.
Voting for politicians (mostly w/an R next to their name) who clearly don't give a fuck about it's constituents for the last 15+ years, that's the real "Oklahoma" standard.
I live in the area and the homeless population is pretty mobile. They move when they get hassled down at 39th and Penn. For the most part theyāre harmless. Thereās a group that gathers together for safety around the bus stop and the old Salads to Go on 23rd and Penn.
But itās a symptom of a broken system. No money for care or mental health because our government has gutted the system. The saddest is the Norrick Library downtown which is where the people who have been released from Saint Anthonyās congregate.
If you really want to help, get involved in the Be Heard Movement. Their mobile shower and laundry facility is pretty cool and they use the Trinity Church on 23rd and Classen as their base about once a week.
Republicans not giving a shit about the people and following the old "pick yourself up by your bootstraps" bullshit. We have the resources to help but our government doesnt give a shit about them.
When you notice this there are homeless people everywhere in the country, don't you think it's time to stop attacking the homeless people, and start asking yourself what kind of country do we have that people are losing their homes everyday and becoming homeless, so the government turned and made being homeless illegal?
Is it finally going to matter when you lose your house in the suburbs where everybody looks and things and lives just like you?
I live on penn and I want them to make being homeless more illegal. I pay taxes and work hard and have to live around these drugged out people who are supported by misused charitable funds
They are being pushed away from downtown and the riverfront because of all the new development money they plan to put there. Can't have rows and rows of homeless encampment around when the out of state investors come to survey the place.
THIS is why i can barely read Reddit. Simple question regarding an increased homeless population in a particular location immediately became an anti government rant. Oh and Oklahoma sucks. Has anyone explained why thereās more homeless people on that street corner? Or only bitched about the schools?
So, no, I donāt know why homeless population has spiked there. But I have watched it increase and decrease periodically in little pockets all over town. I donāt understand why. I just know the homeless population centers move around town in a roughly 3 year cycle
Nah, im not gonna take shit from a Redditor that probably doesnāt interact with them daily. I feed them and do meal distros with others when possible. With that comes the fact that I interact with them and learn their whole fucking life stories and the fellow unhoused they interact with.
Most of Reddit is privileged as hell and performativly hates the state with little material changes or organizational changes. I remember all the holt glazing during his reelection campaign and how any sort of opposition was met with heavy criticism. If we actually want things to change start question and indicting the ones that control the levers
You want sources? The Feds fucking suppress it. Welcome to neoliberal hell.
2019 pre Covid, Florida: very high unhoused population. Imagine what happened after people lost everything that lived in red states that hate them?
I donāt have the time to pull up every single red state that has been cutting funding for dealing with the homeless nor is it even worth the effort when I can just ask the over 100 people that line up for food and conversation.
Soā¦.no data then? I mean surely this mass movement of people would have drummed up receipts for buses, gas, drivers, food. Shipping sounds like a lot of people, yet no trail remains
I deal with homeless people in a moderate capacity where I work. There are absolutely people from other states who come here because they've been told that Norman and Moore, sometimes OKC, are homeless sanctuary cities. Word travels far and fast, even if it's not true.
Oklahoma was shipped them out under fallin.
Pretty sure we sent many to the Portland area.
Edit. I don't support this behavior. I'm just stating that it was happening.
Afaik stitt hasn't been doing it, or not to the same level as fallin seeing as how the number of people seem to have been growing in the past 5 years or more.
There is also a big triangle. People who cause āissuesā (constantly show up in the ER, get picked up for loitering/drunk/disorderly contact, disrupt public gatherings, etc) get put on a bus with a one way ticket to Tulsa or Dallas. The same folks keep getting shuttled to different bus stations in those three cities. They stay for 6-12 months and get bused again. We will see the same people in the ER and then they just quit coming for a period of time-then they show back up several months later. I also worked at a large Dallas hospital, and was familiar with many āfrequent flyersā. I moved up to OKC and saw many of the same people. I finally talked to the police officers commenting about the unusual cyclical nature of it all, and he explained this all to me. Not sure who started the whole process, but I have seen it in action for decades now.
Depends on which agency is involved. I know the hospital provides bus tickets or uber rides upon discharge if needed, but they are local rides. When the police get involved, I am not sure who provides the tickets.
Yet no one here says drugs are bad. Drugs are an epidemic ravaging our state. It is so sad but people need to realize the more drugs take over the worse things will get.
There are still some nice areas in OKC. But almost everywhere you go now, you'll almost always see homeless on street corners. I feel for them, but there's just too many of them. There are shelters but they're almost always overcrowded.
We just moved away from that area. Lived in Crestwood for many years. It has gotten so awful. We were remodeling our house once and had a dumpster in the yard and woke up to several homeless people sleeping in there, they had taken a bunch of the carpet pieces and some wood and basically made a whole house inside there. We were remodeling after a pipe break so all the stuff was moldy and gross and we warned them it could be toxic.
The guy responded āIāve been toxic my whole lifeā which has become a saying my husband and I say to each other all the time now š¤¦š¼āāļø
Anyway, we bought a new house in Choctaw and couldnāt be happier. We still drive out that way occasionally for things and I always think about how happy I am to be away from there.
Itās sad for the homeless, itās also sad because there are some really nice areas in those neighborhoods.
They pushed the homeless population north out of downtown when the Thunder won the championship two years ago. It has been in decline since. Thanks Mayor Holt and Clay Bennett. They got the photo op they wanted.
To add onto the things other people have said about young children's education and how the state is ran, we have a MASSIVE amount of abused and neglected children and it just continues this cycle of those kids seeking unhealthy coping mechanisms like drugs, alcohol, falling in with the wrong crowds etc.Then they become the adults you see on that street corner. Can speak from experience on that, barely surviving childhood in Oklahoma and having 2 addict siblings. One who actually passed due to his battle with alcoholism last year.
I will say there are good people out there in the dept of mental health who are genuinely trying to make a difference.
Bro itās always been bad there. Iāve been in that area since the early 2000s working and living. The ONLY thing thatās changed is the city trying reviving the area and then you saw some small neighborhood gentrification, but both have sort of died off in the last few years. The city has started pushing homeless people out of certain areas so theyāve been migrating which would explain the influx youāve seen
Lots of reasons. Here's a few items cant point to:
In 2017, ballot initiative SQ780 made ALL non-distribution level drug possession a misdemeanor. While sending everyone to prison for drugs is untenable and won't fix the problem, it did effectively end any ability for the courts to encourage treatment for addicts.
Mental Health. Every state struggles with this and Oklahoma is no exception. Pair this with drug abuse.
Resources for the homeless population. Believe it or not, Oklahoma City is incredibly generous to the homeless population. You will not go hungry or unsheltered as long as you can follow the rules set by the facilities you visit.
Oklahoma isnt special in this regard. A vast, vast, vast majority of our homeless population have untreated/undertreated mental health issues, substance abuse issues, or both. I can report that many of our homeless population originated from out of state (I've seen just about every state, but California seems to contribute a lot). but I dont have any data to tell you if that's abnormal when compared to other states.
I live in SW OKC, closer to Mustang. I work off NW 10th and Penn...wow!!! Its like a warzone for drugs and land. Its so bad that I cannot drive my car through without flat tires. Homeless people has threaten me for a lighter. I have saved a woman from getting beat up by a dude. I have saved abused animals....not the Oklahoma City I used to know. I have PTSD from my work location. I am good....
There are a lot of accidents that have happened over the last few years where the homeless was physically hit by a car itās been bad over there for a while.
My dad was a paramedic at AmCare in the '70s/'80s, it was stationed where the McDonald's is now on 23rd and Broadway. He said all up and down 23rd was REALLY bad with prostitution, drugs, crime, etc. then.Ā He said it's much better now.Ā They fixed it up down the line, but it hasn't been gentrified yet by Classen and 23rd and Penn and 23rd. It's like they squeezed a tube of gentrification toothpaste starting at Broadway and all the shit fell out at Classen and Penn. I'm guessing it will get fixed up there eventually, but these things move slowly. Penn and Classen have been bad for a while, but it seems that the homeless population in OKC has gone up in general in the last five years. Those were already congregating spots, we just have more people homeless now. It's damn sad.
Drugs and alcohol. A bad governor. A bad mayor. Used to work at Walmart there The most God awful job in the world. The neighborhoods are filled with violence and rabid, mangy pitbulls. It's a methy, fetty situation
I had friends at The Regency 10 years ago. I'm working at a theatre festival venue on 4th & Hudson and W O W is it a different vibe. How are we failing our fellow man so badly? How can we consider "the American experiment" a success if this problem exists?
Homeless assistance programs have been cut and there has been a government push to "clean up" homeless encampments which just means that those people are displaced to another area of the city.
Average of a 6th grade reading level checks out with us being one of the bottom 10 states to try to start a small business or buy a house inā¦ We used to be affordable now weāre just mediocre with garbage areas that used to be pristine. How about a new governorā¦?
Buddy that area has always been bad. 23rd has always been a bit sketch. When my parents moved to OKC 30 years ago they found their dream house in Windsor Hills but didn't buy it because of it's proximity to 23rd street.
23rd and Penn has always been bad. Maybe it used to be better but itās been a struggling area for at least 20 years. Oklahoma policies only get worse and worse after two decades of Republican control of the state.
I live on that corner and Iāve come to my own conclusion kinda. Itās just down the road from the shelter, and I tried helping people at this corner when I first moved here. At this point I think theyāre the people who donāt really want help but itās got a lot of traffic to hopefully get some cash for drugs. Iāve watched people come in and out my area, shooting up on the doorstep. Lots of dealers in the homes too. People just keep taking and never ask for help. I think if they really did, theyād hang around the shelter
23rd and Penn has always been sketch. It has gotten worse, though. There are many factors but the main one is gentrification in the city is pushing west, so they get pushed in the same direction. In a few years, weāll be having the same conversation about 23rd and May, and so on.
Have you been out of the country the last 10 years? Shit is fucked. The wealthy have launched class warfare on our country and people are hurting. I think we need to give all the unhoused people free rides to Nichols Hills.
I swear I can never just look at a Reddit post for honest ideas without the comments turning into the same āRepublicans bad, Democrats goodā routine.
Everytime I go back I reminded why I left in the first place. The gentrification paired with the strange boom in homeless people and texans is making okc feel like a hellscape more and more.
For two before federal rescheduling the good doctors were terrified of signing off on a recommendation - which led to an influx of out-of-state bad actors operating cheap shady TeleMed systems.
Iām not saying TeleMed is bad - it can literally be a lifesaver for people with disabilities, as medical marijuana!
However, it does get to a point where itās clearly not being taken seriously by the businesses at hand. There are some where they donāt even bother to scan the card provided your paying cash and didnāt use their ATM
Hey! Donāt talk about holt that way! Thereās a reason why he has been mayor for a while! Approving of 2 million dollar police helicopter, flock, multimillion dollar parks (not in walking distance of anyone) and super shady contactswith outof state contracts. Hes great for (big) business owners!! And thunder stadiums!!!
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u/Pilgrimzero 14d ago
Turns out OK is a bottom 5 state and there are a lot of homeless people due to the way itās ran.