Thousands of youth lacking permanent housing in Oklahoma don’t qualify for many services funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
To be eligible for most housing services funded by the federal housing department, people must fit into the agency’s definitions of being at risk of homelessness or homeless, which generally includes only those sleeping in a shelter, outdoors, or in a place not meant for human habitation, like an abandoned building.
Most school-aged youth that schools report as lacking permanent housing don’t meet these criteria. Federal data shows more than 85% of unhoused youth in the state were sleeping “doubled up” with another family or in a hotel or motel during the 2022-23 school year. The figures reported by schools also include people living in trailer parks.
The federal housing department counted 707 unhoused youth under age 18 in 2024 using figures from surveys conducted each January across the state. But Oklahoma schools identified over 26,600 students lacking permanent housing from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade that same year. Both counts show youth homelessness has increased and is the highest it’s been since 2018. According to housing department numbers, youth homelessness has grown by over 61% between 2021 and 2024. School numbers show an increase of over 18% from the 2020-21 school year to 2024.
The disparity between the counts is consistent. A Frontier review of federal and state data found that each year since at least 2014, schools have counted on average nearly 40 times more unhoused youth in Oklahoma than the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Schools use a broader definition of homelessness that includes anyone lacking “fixed, regular and adequate nighttime residence” that comes from the federal McKinney-Vento Act. The law was passed in 1987 to ensure students’ can enroll and attend school, regardless of their housing situation.
”The homeless response system is not designed — and is not funded — to also house those who are precariously housed or living with a friend couch surfing,” said David Delgado, performance manager for the organization Key to Home, which coordinates strategies for addressing homelessness in Oklahoma City.
There are only 225 transitional and permanent housing beds for youth in the state, according to the latest housing inventory report. Many of them require a youth to meet the housing department’s definition of homelessness, including most of the beds in Oklahoma City, a Key to Home spokesperson said.
Many youth struggle to access services
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is one of the primary federal agencies working to address homelessness nationwide. The department awarded over $20 million in 2024 to organizations in Oklahoma through two grant programs for homeless and housing services, but only for those who meet the agency’s definitions of homelessness.
Youth who don’t meet the federal housing department’s definition of homelessness have fewer options to get services,” said Kalyn McMahon, senior director of shelter and housing at Pivot, an Oklahoma City shelter that serves youth ages 12 to 24.
If a Pivot client is couch surfing or staying in temporary housing the shelter provides, McMahon said they don’t qualify for some housing vouchers for federally funded rental assistance and the waitlist for a regular voucher can be years long. Housing authorities in Norman, Oklahoma City and Tulsa have closed their waitlists to new applicants.
Pivot has 41 tiny homes where youth ages 17 to 24 can live, along with transitional housing apartments. The shelter is meant to be temporary, but youth are staying longer in the programs because it’s harder for them to secure permanent housing, staff said. The programs provide youth with a safe place to live, but it also means they are no longer considered literally homeless by the federal housing department’s standards, McMahon said.
”That can hinder their ability to receive some services, too,” McMahon said.
Operating in the gray
The walls of the nonprofit Sisu Youth Services are covered with motivational posters, crayon drawings and canvases painted in vibrant colors by the shelter’s young clients. The building acts as a shelter and drop-in center for unhoused youth, with showers and laundry machines in the back and occasional classes to learn life skills like applying for a job or how to be a good neighbor.
It’s a safe space where youth ages 15 to 24 in Oklahoma City can access resources and connect with a case manager. But because of how the center is funded, Sisu staff said those who don’t meet the housing department’s homeless definitions technically don’t qualify for the services.
Sisu was nearly 60% funded by government dollars in 2024. For youth to qualify to use the shelter’s drop-in center, they have to be literally homeless, at imminent risk of being homeless or fleeing domestic violence, said Rachel Bradley, Sisu’s executive director.
”If they are couch surfing or they have somewhere that they can stay overnight, they’re not supposed to access these services at all. We’re not supposed to serve them,” Bradley said. “Luckily, we have a mix of private and public funding for this space, and so we can kind of get away with a few things.”
Providers are already trying to stretch their limited funds to support a growing number of unhoused youth. The more restrictions placed on funding, the harder it is to put that funding to use, Bradley said.
Some providers told The Frontier they can usually help youth with immediate needs like shelter or clothing, even if they don’t meet the federal housing department’s homeless definition. The bigger challenge comes with helping youth secure housing, they said.
Raven Wade, the youth homelessness demonstration program case manager for the Oklahoma City-based Homeless Alliance, works with transition age youth — those ages 18 to 24 — to help them secure permanent housing. It can be difficult, Wade said. To be eligible for certain public housing, an individual has to secure a Homeless Verification Form certifying they’re staying in a shelter or sleeping in a place not meant for human habitation. In other words, the housing department’s “literally homeless” definition.
Wade sometimes has to ask her clients to sleep at a shelter for a night so they can obtain a verification form to access public housing services, she said.
”It is really tough,” Wade said. “You don’t want to tell somebody to go into an unsafe situation so that they can keep services, but we want them to keep services at the same time.”
But staying at a shelter isn’t always a possibility. Many shelters are at capacity and several don’t accept families or minors, making it difficult for youth to secure a homeless verification form from a shelter.
For others, staying at a shelter poses a safety risk. Wade said one of her clients had been living at a shelter with their significant other, had a homeless verification form, and was in the process of getting on a list for public housing. Then the client’s partner became abusive, Wade said.
The client began staying with a friend to protect their own safety, so they no longer met the housing department’s “literally homeless” definition. Wade’s not supposed to provide services to people who are couch surfing, she said, but homeless verification forms are typically good for 30 days, and if a client has a date Wade can work with, she’ll do her best to put them on the list for public housing.
”I kind of try to live in the gray area,” Wade said. “But if they can’t provide any homeless verification form, or if they haven’t stayed at the shelter recently at all, it’s really tough. I would say, at least for our program, it would exclude them in most cases.”
Aligning the definitions
Efforts are ongoing in Congress to align federal definitions of homelessness for children and youth. The bipartisan Homeless Children and Youth Act would allow youth and families with children experiencing different kinds of housing insecurity to qualify for services.
The measure has been endorsed by over 50 national organizations and hundreds of state organizations, including Oklahoma’s Sisu Youth Services, the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, Youth Services of Tulsa and the Lawton Housing Authority, according to the national homeless youth advocacy organization SchoolHouse Connection.