Tulsa Police See Increase In Number Of Homeless On Drugs, Mentally Ill

Tulsa's population of transients has surged and downtown property owners and homeless service groups have noticed. They've also noticed that the face of homelessness has drastically changed too.

There's a lot of people trying to figure out what's happening and why, but it's clear there's a new group of young people, many of them with drug or mental issues.

The Centennial Green in downtown Tulsa has become a new crossroads for transients, and despite an increase in police patrols and arrests, most nights there are 25 or more people living, sometimes bathing, or using the bathroom in the park and around nearby buildings.

During the day they scatter to get a meal or find some shade, but they are also leaving an unsanitary mess in alleys and corners all over downtown.

They are many more transients than usual and they're younger than before.

“A bigger demographic for us than we have seen in the past are homeless or unsheltered youth and young adults,” said Connie Cronley with Iron Gate.

The soup kitchen at Iron Gate is now serving 800 to 900 people every morning and the ministry is looking for a new, larger location.

Besides just the numbers, police are finding more people who are mentally ill or on drugs.

John 3:16 Director Steve Whitaker believes most of the new crowd is young people using K-2; the synthetic marijuana.

"So all the shelters have pushed out all the people using K-2 out. I think we've got a whole lot of young, new people out on the streets right now and we're just now finding out what's going on,” Whitaker said.

The problems are scattered: at 15th and Denver, QuikTrip removed outside tables and hired extra security because of transients harassing their customers.

At 3rd and Detroit, the First Baptist Church Caring Center has been vandalized by the people they're trying to serve.

Downtown property owners are complaining about transients relieving themselves and leaving bedding and trash scattered.

Police are getting more calls about aggressive panhandlers.

"We can absolutely corroborate there's a younger group of people who are aggressive, that are out there causing problems out on the streets,” Whitaker said.