Tulsa Group Combats Homeless Veterans Rate

Each year, "Stand Down for Homeless Veterans" is held in downtown Tulsa.

The program helps homeless veterans find housing and get enrolled in number of assistance programs. It's also provides free necessities that we often take for granted.

It's difficult to think those who have fought for our freedom are out on the streets. But thanks to a program dedicated to ending veteran homelessness, that may not be the case much longer.

"We've almost had as many volunteers as we've had veterans come through," said Craig Prosser of the Veterans Treatment Court.

At the First Baptist Church, veteran support agencies from the community have filled booth after booth with free help and assisted more than 150 veterans from across Green Country.

"Really show the veteran community that we care, and that we want to help them,” Prosser said.

It's a one stop shop of haircuts, housing, hot showers and so much more.

"They've got me enrolled in my disabilities benefits,” veteran and volunteer Joshua Mayor said.

Mayor handed out free clothes on Saturday. He was wounded while serving in Afghanistan and said he was addicted to painkillers after returning home in 2008.

Mayor said programs like this helped save his life.

"If I wouldn't have got into the program, I definitely wouldn't be here today," Mayor said.

It's estimated that there are more than 62,000 homeless veterans nationwide.

But that number is dropping, and it is down 30 percent in just the last year.

"It means a lot, especially to me,” Air Force veteran Cortez Jackson said.

Jackson was in the Air Force during Vietnam, and he has been the benefit of the free services offered here.

"If you need something, a job, a place to stay, education,” Jackson said. "Each person has their own hang ups."

The VA hopes these events will wipe out veteran homelessness by 2015, which means the hundreds of homeless Oklahomans who have scarified so much for our country won't have to sacrifice the basic needs much longer.

"As a community we need to rally around those people, to be able to show them that we do care,” Prosser said.