Key to Home Partnership houses 500, completes two-year plan

Published on December 23, 2025

Five hundred previously unsheltered people have been successfully housed as of today, thanks to the Key to Home Partnership. This key milestone marks the completion of Key to Home's two-year strategic plan to address homelessness more effectively, which includes the goal set in 2023 to house 500 people through Key to Home's flagship program, the Encampment Rehousing Initiative (ERI).

"When I took office in 2018, city government had a limited role in addressing homelessness," Mayor David Holt said. "Historically, the issue had largely been left to the nonprofit sector. But it was evident in 2018 that City Hall needed to provide a leadership role in order to keep us all on the same page and to ensure that our community efforts were focused on proven strategies. Task forces, strategic plans, staffing additions, and funding commitments have followed that original prioritization, and Key to Home is the ultimate reflection of this work. Everyone has lots of ideas for addressing homelessness, and at the end of the day, we want to do what is legal and what has been proven to be effective. Key to Home was adopted because it emulates the best national practices that have been proven to lower the numbers of those experiencing homelessness. And now, we've had the chance over the last two years to show what those proven strategies can do in OKC. So far, so good. This milestone we have reached of getting 500 people off the street—and not just for a night but in a sustained way—shows that Key to Home works. And it's a key contributor to the fact that the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness has declined four years in a row. I commend everyone who is leading this effort, especially the service providers, City staff and business leaders who have all collaborated closely to implement this successful initiative. The most important thing now is to take note of this success and continue the work."

Since its launch in 2023, ERI has:

• Addressed 30 encampment sites.
• Reduced chronic unsheltered homelessness by 43 percent, according to the 2025 Point in Time count.
• Achieved a 90 percent rate of encampment residents saying "yes" to housing and support.

ERI combines street outreach, landlord engagement and case management in an innovative way to house all encampment residents in an expedited four to six weeks. Before this housing pathway, people sleeping outside often waited months or even years before being matched to a housing program. Once in housing through ERI, tenants are paired with case management support for up to 12 months to help them set a foundation for success. After outreach teams have worked to house all encampment residents, the site is closed for future camping, cleaned to its previous condition and monitored to prevent repopulation.

ERI's success is the result of coordinated efforts of service providers and City departments.

• Outreach and Engagement: Homeless Alliance and Mental Health Association of Oklahoma.
• Landlord Engagement and Housing: City Rescue Mission and the OKC Housing Authority.
• Rental Assistance: OKC Housing Authority and Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency.
• Furniture and Move-In Kits: Focus on Home.
• Case Management Services: Catholic Charities, City Rescue Mission and Homeless Alliance.
• Cleaning and Securing Sites: City of OKC, Oklahoma City Police Department's Homeless Outreach Team, TEEM – SHINE and Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

"The achievement of this milestone is more than a box checked—it represents lives changed, public and private spaces reactivated, and a system reimagined," said Jamie Caves, Homeless Strategy Implementation Manager for the Key to Home Partnership. "We set out to collaborate in new ways to achieve something ambitious and transformative for our community, and thanks to the dedication of our service partners and support of our community, we were able to do it."

ERI is only one part of a larger effort to transform our City's homeless response system. In 2023, Key to Home identified four strategic priorities to lay the groundwork for change and has delivered on each one.

About the Key to Home Partnership

The Key to Home Partnership is a collective of more than 50 local agencies, service providers, funders, and government partners working together to address homelessness in Oklahoma City. By aligning efforts, sharing data, and investing in proven strategies, Key to Home is building a stronger, more effective homeless response system.

In 2023, the Key to Home Partnership set out to achieve four milestones by the end of 2025:

1. Establish new leadership and governance to support the system, align public and private partners, and get results.
   The Key to Home Partnership established a new governance system, including an expanded board of directors and a dedicated management team. Representation from the business sector, as well as influential decision-makers and people with lived experience in homelessness, were added to the Board of Directors. The City of Oklahoma City embedded staff members to implement the new strategic direction in coordination with service providers. Partnerships with the private and philanthropic sectors were forged to support the work further and fully leverage public funds allocated by both the City of OKC and the federal government.
2. Strengthen and standardize foundational elements of the system, including data quality and performance measures.
   Key to Home's next priority was to improve the system's infrastructure, including data quality and strengthening collaborative practices across the partnership. The partnership established 17 workgroups to test and refine new programs and to create feedback loops for continuous quality improvement for service delivery across the partnership. A performance management plan was established to monitor and improve system-wide performance over time.
3. Establish new targeted interventions for youth experiencing homelessness in OKC.
   The system established a goal to house or divert 100 youth from entering the homeless response system by the end of 2025 was set. Youth service providers leveraged a new Youth Homelessness Demonstration Project grant to expand services designed to meet housing, education, employment, and transportation needs of youth experiencing homelessness. Exceeding expectations, nearly 400 youth received these supportive services over the two-year period.
4. Target long-term and unsheltered homelessness.
   The partnership launched the Encampment Rehousing Initiative to create a new, expedited pathway to housing and support for those experiencing chronic and unsheltered homelessness. Since its launch in 2023, 502 people have been transitioned into housing with supportive services, and the 2025 Point in Time count saw a 43% reduction in the target population.

Key to Home is currently developing goals and milestones for the next five years. Priorities moving forward will include the continuation of encampment rehousing efforts, as well as new strategies currently being planned and piloted to reduce the number of people entering homelessness while expanding pathways to housing and supports.

"We're thrilled with the progress we've made over the last two years, but we know the work isn't done," Caves added. "We're going to continue to let data inform the strategy and keep driving toward a more balanced and effective homeless response system for OKC."

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