Outgrowing Current Location, Tulsa’s Lindsey House Looks To Expand

A Tulsa charity that helps women on the verge of homelessness is expanding, and hoping to open a new location.

The Lindsey House program takes about 18 months. Women and some children live there as they recover from bad situations - drug abuse, domestic abuse or severe financial problems, for example.

The plan is to keep the current building and build another.

Nicole Eddy graduated from Lindsey House and had such a turnaround she's now the tour guide when city councilors want to take a look around.

“It was a wonderful opportunity, especially coming out of recovery, transitioning back into my children's lives, to have a stable environment here,” she said.

The program is housed in a brownstone downtown that's too small for a program with big plans.

The idea is to keep the 12 apartments and expand with 24 new apartments on a new site where an old domestic violence shelter stands.

The program plans to build new and open up more opportunities for women facing homelessness because of their circumstances.

Lindsey House CEO, Tiffany Egdorf said, "Typically, they're not coming out directly from domestic violence or substance abuse situations. These are women who have been through the acute process, been through therapy, a short transition or, perhaps, a recovery period."

Egdorf said the program helps women finish the transition to independence.

“They're doing it on their own. They're employed, they've worked on or paid off debt. They live within their means, they know how to budget their money and they're doing what the rest of us are doing every day,” she said.

That was the experience for Eddy, who said she now owns a home, has a job, and is debt free.

“I was one of those people, I got out there and didn't know what I was doing, and, before you know it, I fell into hard times,” she said. “Coming here I had a little hand holding to teach me, and, before you know it, I was doing these things, implementing them day to day on my own.”

Tuesday, the city approved the plan for Lindsey House to build on the new site.

The program, with significant support from the Zarrow Foundation, now plans to do some fundraising to get things going.