Transportation

It seems like every meeting I attend and we start talking about barriers to accessing services for the people we serve, the issue of transportation is brought up.  It continues to be a barrier for homeless folks in our community.  I travelled to NW 39th and Penn yesterday and spent the night in that area. 
Be The Change has conducted outreach there for the past couple of years and that is where our Ground Floor Youth Resource Center is located.  I took the bus there and forgot that there is no bus service in Oklahoma City on Sundays.  I had to be back at Reno and Shartel at 10:00 this morning.  That was a very long walk.  Since I started this undertaking, I have developed a number of blisters on my feet and I have shin splints.  I have probably walked 30 miles in 2 days.  The folks I have met walk everywhere.

This is not an indictment of the transit system in Oklahoma City.  Metro-transit has recently undergone a rebranding as Embark and they have changed some routes and have some smart phone apps that make it easier to track location of buses, arrival times, etc. (most of our folks can't afford smart phones).  They are certainly working on addressing barriers related to transportation in out community.  Oklahoma City is very large and spread out.  A vast majority of people drive in our city, so there is not as big a demand for public transportation as there might be in comparable cities.  However, limited operating hours and routes can be crippling for people that rely on the bus system for work and other transportation needs.  If you work after 8 in the evening or on Sundays you are pretty much out of luck.  Not sure what the answer to this conundrum is, I just needed to rant a little.

The other issue that I find interesting is that it seems like EVERY organization has a van to transport people; every church, mosque and temple; every social service agency; every government agency.  But many of those vehicles remain parked and not in use for large parts of the day.  All these vans and still unmet transportation needs.  Hmmmm.  Be The Change relies on other agencies (Homeless Alliance, Expressions Community Center, etc.) to meet some of the transportation needs of the folks we serve, but it seems that we could figure out a way to use the transportation resources we already have to meet the community's transportation needs.

Kyle Pettit, who works for City Care at the Oklahoma City Day Shelter shared a situation that illustrates the issue.  He was working with a person who was homeless living on the streets.  The gentleman applied for, interviewed for and was hired for a job some distance from where he was sleeping.  He was going to have to take a bus to get to work.  On the first day of work, he got up extra early to shower at the Day Shelter and put on his uniform for his new job.  He was ready in plenty of time to make it to work.  He made it to the bus stop, bus pass in hand.  However, the bus was late and there was a problem with his transfer to another bus and he was 15 minutes late for his first day at work and was fired on the spot.  Very frustrating for someone that has worked so hard to try and improve his situation. 

I have talked with folks who are addressing the transportation problem.  I know we can figure it out.

More later,
Jonathan