Tulsa’s Clarehouse Still Needs Help Paying for Renovations After Sewage Leak

Clarehouse welcomed the community to its newly-reopened hospice facility Tuesday.

Staff, board members and volunteers were at the open house event and tours of Clarehouse and its campus were available.

When people go inside Clarehouse, they'll be walking on new floors, through new doorways and may even see some new furniture. If they've been to the campus before, they may not notice the changes at all.

"The kind of running joke we've all had is, 'It's like it never even happened.' You know, it was so traumatic, but, it's home again,” Clarehouse Executive Director Kelley Scott said.

Home is what Scott wants her guests to feel when they're at the facility, after a sewage emergency forced everyone out and caused extensive damage back in August.

"Remediation was a long process. Making sure that it was completely cleaned and environmentally sound. We went through testing to make sure everything that needed to be done was done.” Scott said.

She said the work cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Insurance and donors helped cover most of that. Scott said one donor stepped up and paid for a back flow preventor, to help avoid another sewage leak from happening in the future.

"Pay it forward is a big part of our culture here. And the community came through for us when we needed it most,” Scott said.

But Scott said they still have some outstanding bills. Plus, they have to keep daily operations going while up to ten guests at a time spend their final days at the facility, without their families worrying about paying a dime.

"It's still been a hit for us, as a non-profit,” Scott said.

While they are overcoming this "crisis," Scott said, they are thankful for any generous Tulsans who want to help keep their mission going. 

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