Tulsa Day Center Offers Supplies, Resources To Those Experiencing Homelessness This Winter

As it gets colder, people without a home face one more hurdle.

“Because of their lack of access to resources being shelter, clothing, food, hydration, whatever,” said Shawn Burch with the Emergency Medical Services Authority.

Burch said the cold can sneak up on you.

"You don’t realize you’re getting Hypothermia, and then by the time you might be able to realize it, you might not be able to think about it, it's a very slow, unrecognizable process sometimes,” he said.

Tulsa Police said a person experiencing homelessness died at a park this weekend, likely from exposure.

But Josh Sanders with the Tulsa Day Center says people shouldn't have to die like this.

“It really doesn’t seem like there's an excuse to lose people to cold weather,” he said.

As the outreach director at the center, he works to keep people experiencing homelessness connected to the resources they need to make it through the cold weather. He believes the outreach program saves lives.

“Probably more frequently than we’ll ever know,” he said.

Sanders says many Tulsa outreach teams have something called the cold weather outreach channel.

“Everybody on that channel typically has gloves, they have hand warmers, coats, blankets, things like that,” he said.

Just last week, he says his outreach picked up a man, gave him clothes and connected him to resources.

“He said numerous times, he might not have made it, if they wouldn’t have found him," he said.