Housing Programs
Our ultimate goal is to end homelessness. We do that one person at a time. The Homeless Alliance operates housing programs for families with children, veterans, people who are HIV positive, people escaping domestic violence, people exiting the justice system and people who have experienced chronic homelessness.
Winter Shelter
The Winter Shelter provides a safe and warm place to rest for up to 300 people and their pets 7 nights a week from November 1 through March 31. This resource would not be possible without the support of the community, in particular the Arnall Family Foundation.
Sasquatch Shaved Ice
Sasquatch Shaved Ice is a nonprofit snow cone stand that offers youth - including those who are low-income, foster, or justice-involved - with a supportive employment opportunity designed to help build job skills, improve financial literacy, increase high school graduation and higher education enrollment, and provide a foundation for long-term financial stability and job readiness.
Database & Research
The Homeless Alliance operates the IT infrastructure used by homeless services agencies in central Oklahoma, called HMIS. HMIS tracks service utilization and measures client and program outcomes. The organization also conducts research, looks at national best practices, brings new strategies to OKC, and pilots new programs based on those findings.
Campus|Resource Center
We operate the Westtown Homeless Resource Campus, an entire city block that co-locates nonprofit and government organizations with services ranging from healthcare to legal assistance and housing to IDs - making services more accessible.
The Curbside Chronicle
The Curbside Chronicle is Oklahoma City's “street paper” created to provide both a voice and employment opportunities for people who are experiencing and at risk of homelessness. In addition to providing a source of income, the program works with vendors to break down barriers to traditional employment and develop time management, money management and social skills.
Curbside Apparel
Our newest supportive employment program is Curbside Apparel, a screen-printing company that produces custom shirts, posters, and more. Vendors working at the apparel shop earn a screen-printing certification and practice skills like inventory management as they transition out of homelessness.
Street Outreach
Not everyone is engaged in services or with overnight shelters. The Homeless Alliance street outreach program provides a team of trained case managers who go out into the community to connect with people who are on the street.
Day Shelter
The Day Shelter is OKC's only low-barrier day shelter offering showers, breakfast and lunch, phones, mail, lockers, a barbershop, classes, support groups, a kennel for pets, and access to services from a variety of organizations. We serve an average of 350 people each day.
Curbside Flowers
Building upon our employment wing, Curbside Flowers is a traditional flower shop providing supportive employment to people transitioning out of homelessness. You can purchase beautiful bouquets from our retail shop, order flowers for delivery, or work with us on your wedding or special events, enabling us to teach job skills in a more conventional work environment.
Community Collaboration
There are dozens of nonprofit and government organizations working to address various aspects of homelessness in OKC. The Homeless Alliance works to bring those organizations to the same table to collaborate and pool resources so that together, we can end homelessness.
Fresh stART
Fresh stART is an open-studio art program designed to provide people experiencing homelessness in Oklahoma City with a supportive environment for creating art. It operates twice a week at our Day Shelter.