OKC MAPS PROJECTS – 25 YEARS
In addressing the long-run concerns over homelessness, the city maintains a consolidated plan to address the needs of the homeless. 37 Significant efforts remain underway to provide permanent supportive housing, particularly for those with disabilities who are experiencing homelessness. The results of a city-sponsored Cost-of-Homelessness Study in 2010 reinforced the cost-effectiveness of efforts to provide permanent supportive housing. 38 For more than a decade, the Homeless Alliance along with more than 40 nonprofit, faith-based and government agencies have collaborated on an initiative called Journey Home OKC with the goal of housing veterans and others who are chronically homeless. 39 Since 2013, these agencies have housed more than 1,500 veterans and chronically homeless people, and over 250 additional permanent supportive housing beds have been added in Oklahoma City. Most recently in 2018, the group of agencies provided supportive housing for 282 veterans and approximately 180 persons who are chronically homeless. 40 Downtown Workforce The employment base in the downtown study area can be characterized from two markedly different points of view – that of the residents who live there (place of residence) versus those who work there (place of work). These views can overlap, as some workers both live and work in the same area. In this section, we review the composition of the workforce based on residents who reside in the downtown study area, or by place of residence, regardless of where they work. The underlying question is the worker characteristics of the residents who choose to live downtown. This mostly demographic view contrasts with the economic view by place of work, or those who work downtown, regardless of where they live. The composition of the downtown labor force by place of work is discussed in detail in a later section of the report. Resident Workers . Approximately 4,850 residents in the downtown study area were reported as actively working in 2017. Census data in Figure 29 provides an overview of employment across the five major categories of occupations as well as detailed occupational sectors within each major group for the civilian population ages 16 and over. Across all tracts in the downtown study area, more than half (58%) of workers are employed within the single category of management, business, science and arts occupations. Downtown has a significant overweighting in the group relative to the nation (37.4%), state (34.1%), and county (36.5%) and reflects a largely professional and white-collar labor force living in the study area. The remaining residents in the study area are distributed more evenly across sales and office occupations (19.6%), service occupations (10.5%), natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupations (6.4%), and production, transportation, and material moving occupations (5.8%). Relative to the county, state and nation, the overweighting of jobs in management, business, science, and arts occupations results in far lower shares in the other four major occupation groupings. In comparison, both the county and state closely match the overall national occupational mix for most major and detailed occupation groups. A high share is present in most every detailed occupation within the broader management, business, science, and arts occupations group. However, much of the difference relative to the county, state and
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