A team of volunteers, flashlights in hand while trekking alongside railroad tracks in foggy 4:30 a.m. darkness, stopped once a shopping cart stationed in the corner of an industrial building came into view.
A man underneath layers of blankets was lying outside on the pavement in the entryway of the building. Careful to avoid stepping on glass shards mixed with the pebbled gravel and slippery mud, two of the six volunteers crossed the tracks and walked over to the man, asking him if he could answer a few questions.
The man, who said his name was Delbert, told volunteers he was about to turn 60 years old and that he’d been living on the streets for 14 years. When asked what led him to experience homelessness, he said, “After I lost my house in Norman.”
There were a lot of answers like that — some from tents and encampments hidden by tall grass and trees, others from parked cars in empty fields — as the volunteers canvassed different parts of Oklahoma City on Thursday, gathering information for the annual Point In Time count of the city’s homeless population. The survey is meant to help local agencies and nonprofits better identify demographics, coordinate services and develop housing initiatives to continue addressing the problem.