City of Norman Oversight Meeting - August 14, 2025
City of Norman Oversight Meeting - August 14, 2025
The meeting began with an update from CityCare on the operations of the emergency shelter and then moved to a discussion of public restroom facilities at the transit center and Andrew's Park. Council members and staff discussed challenges, data, and potential solutions.
Discussion Items
- CityCare Shelter Update: Mallory Lee, Shelter Director, and Sean Lloyd, Senior Director of Homeless Services, presented data. The shelter provided over 10,000 nights of rest, with a nightly average of 54 guests and 52 guests per night (leaving one bed for emergencies). They served 297 unique individuals in the past year, while the point-in-time count for Norman was 213 people experiencing homelessness, with 74 unsheltered. Housing connections: 16 individuals housed, including 6 of 18 veterans served; 14 chat assessments in July (128 year-to-date). The shelter faces barriers in obtaining IDs and documents for guests (cost ~$100 per person for ID, birth certificate, Social Security card). Funding for vouchers is running out; partnerships with McFarland and First Presbyterian Church are helping. Discussion included a suggestion to engage Norman Rotary Clubs for ID fairs and coordination with quarterly resource fairs. Shelter also tracks gender (188 men, 102 women, 7 non-binary), age groups (largest 35-44), and disabilities (37 SSI, 33 SSDI). Provider referrals: 38 to DHS for SNAP, 36 to Norman Community Health for mental health. Shelter acquired the Norman Shelter Plus Care Permanent Supportive Housing Program (12 formerly homeless clients). Volunteer platform launched; furniture donations needed. Council requested tracking of guests' prior location (e.g., jail, out-of-state) via a survey. Also discussed coordination with Cleveland County jail agreement with OKCPD.
- Public Restrooms Update: Jason Olson, Parks and Recreation Director, reported on issues at the Transit Center (opened Oct 2023) – problems with grinder pump, clogged pipes from flushed items, lobby door repaired and reopened Aug 14. At Andrew's Park, the restrooms (added in 1973) were closed permanently in May 2022 due to severe vandalism (explosive device in 2019, human waste, needle issues, safety concerns). Temporary porta-potties were removed after three vendors refused due to unsafe conditions. Line of sight is poor (80% blocked), creating safety hazards. The Andrew's Park Master Plan (approved early 2023) envisions a new restroom location with better sight lines and stormwater detention. Options presented: QR code entry systems (GoodToGo, Throne) to monitor usage and reduce vandalism; a mobile restroom (Portland Loo style) costing $200,000-$250,000 plus $50,000 for utilities. Council expressed interest in demolition of the existing structure (which is not historic) and using salvaged stone. Councilmember noted that demolishing the building would improve line of sight immediately. Staff confirmed no cost for demolition (Parks crew can do it). Discussion of advancing stormwater work (redirecting channel) to build new restroom near skate park first. Proposed temporary signage directing to police station restrooms (open Mon-Sat, closed Sun). Council also discussed a QR code system that requires a phone, noting that most homeless individuals have phones but staff suggested it could be a barrier for some; however, parents would need to accompany children.
Key Outcomes
- Shelter: Council directed staff to work with CityCare on a survey to track guests' prior location (incarceration, out-of-state) and to explore additional funding for document vouchers. No formal vote.
- Andrew's Park Restrooms: Council gave informal direction to proceed with demolition of the existing restroom building (at no cost) and to explore a mobile restroom (Throne/Portland Loo) and QR code systems, with cost estimates to be brought back within 30-60 days. Staff will also evaluate advancing stormwater detention and grading work to enable new restroom construction near the skate park. City communications will update the public on current restroom availability via social media and signage.
- Transit Center Restrooms: Staff will include replacement of the sewer line with a 6-inch PVC pipe and industrial grinder in future capital projects.
- Next Steps: City staff will return with information on QR code and Throne solutions at a future meeting.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Welcome to the City of Norman oversight meeting for August 14th, 2025. The first item on the agenda is an update from CityCare on the operations at the emergency shelter. Hello, everybody. It is a pleasure to be here. My name is Mallory Lee. I'm the shelter director. And to my left is uh Sean Lloyd. He is the senior director of homeless services for city care. Um I'll be presenting the slides today. So if you could just follow along with me, I think everybody has slides. Um we'll go ahead and start. We take a look at the table. Um here. Um, this shows the nights of rest, our nightly average and the individuals that we've served over time. Um, our nights of rest, as you can see, was over 10,000 nights of rest. Um, our nightly average is 54. We have 52 guests nightly. We do leave an open bed for if the police have an emergency, if there's a domestic violence situation, and we also had the large capacity of numbers during the time that we had the winter storm for a certain amount of time. So we do have some times we go for a little over on the uh limit, but we usually stay close to 52. Um, the unique individuals um identifies the unduplicated number of people that we serve the shelter. The point in time count I like to um kind of bring to the front this year for Norman was 213 experiencing homelessness with 74 unsheltered. We've recorded 297 unique individuals coming through our shelter, which indicates you know potential need for increased capacity down the road and just kind of shows that the need is still there for this shelter being present and in place here in Norman. This also kind of shuts down a little bit on the interactions when they're off the street when they come into our shelter at night, can even from interactions with the police and local business owners and stuff as well. On the next slide is our housing connections year to date. Can we get it stuck? Um, we are looking to expand our housing opportunities here in Norman. We've successfully housed 16 of the individuals that we've had with us. 18 of the veterans that we've served has been um kind of a primary focus. We've housed six of those individuals, and we are actually in the process housing and transitioning six more of those individuals into housing. We've used resources such as a VA and HUD Vash to get those um partnerships going, as well as other community resources like the COC and partnerships with other community entities. We also have implemented the tracking system and HMIS business objectives, which allows us to monitor all the incidents, referrals, number of individuals transitioning into housing, and various points of advocacy. In July alone, um we had 14 chat assessments done, which in total would bring us to 128 assessments for the year. Can I ask I don't know the acronym, but what does chat stand for? They're coordinated housing assessments. They let us know the vulnerability of the person to prioritize who's gonna get the housing resources first. It's like a triage of me, basically. Yes. Um I'd also like to add that the documentation uh resources, barriers that we have when we have our guests come in. A lot of them don't have documents, they don't have IDs, birth certificates, you know, driver's license, tribal IDs, things like this. And so we try to build partnerships with local entities. Right now we have a partnership with McFarland and First Presbyterian Church in regards to helping with vouchers to get IDs for our guests. And because of the vouchers for housing is kind of shut down. It's a long waiting list. They're served still serving people from last year. This has become kind of a barrier. So getting these documents and having the funding available to receive these documents to move forward to get these people into housing is a big barrier for us because we don't have the funds at the moment to provide as many birth certificates and social security cards and things like that that we need for these guests. A lot of them come in, they don't have any of these things. They've been lost, they've been stolen, or they never had them to begin with. So we want to make sure that we have this kind of funding down the road.
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