The City’s Unsheltered Homeless Task Force presented its final report to the City Council on July 6, concluding nearly 18 months of coordinated work to address the rise in unsheltered homelessness and its impact on public spaces. Established in October 2024 as part of the Bartlesville NEXT strategic plan, the committee began meeting in January 2025 and devoted its tenure to gathering data, strengthening partnerships and developing recommendations that balanced community safety with compassionate outreach.
The task force united a broad range of expertise — elected officials, service providers and professionals with firsthand experience — to help homeless neighbors move toward stability while safeguarding the broader community.
“As we established in the beginning, a lot of these individuals are from Bartlesville or the surrounding area, and so they really and truly are our neighbors,” said Vice-Chair Rachel Showler. “I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done.”
Across 22 meetings in 2025 and early 2026, members examined nonprofit operations, service gaps, transportation barriers, identification challenges and agency needs. Their work produced several initiatives: informational signage in parks and along the Pathfinder trail, updates to the Bartlesville Helps webpage, the launch of the “Text to Give” program, hosting a Helping Organization Summit, creation of a digital Community Services Directory and adoption of CharityTracker across more than a dozen local agencies. The committee also advanced housing stability by promoting OHFA’s rental‑assistance program, which began in January and has already provided more than $294,000 in support to dozens of Bartlesville applicants.
Showler and task force member Tom Gorman highlighted key data points as evidence of progress in their council report. In January 2024, the annual point‑in‑time (PIT) count recorded 58 unsheltered homeless individuals in Bartlesville; by January 2026, that number had dropped to 39. In 2024, City code enforcement staff cleaned up 15 homeless camps; in 2026, none have been reported. The Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Response Team logged 684 homeless engagement calls in 2024; so far this year, only 114.
“What we’ve done here is something that I didn’t think could be accomplished, and it’s something that we should all take a lot of pride in,” Gorman said. “We’ve had a real impact on our city … and at the same time we’re having a great impact on the city, we’ve really helped a lot of people.”
As the committee approaches its final meeting on July 10, its work stands as a testament to months of collaboration and a unified commitment to long‑term, community‑wide solutions.