Tulsa's Downtown Coordinating council has targeted homelessness as a problem to address in 2014.
The area's homeless population was identified as downtown Tulsa's most difficult security and safety concern in a meeting Wednesday afternoon because of the potential for property damage and intimidated visitors.
DCC Manager Tom Baker said the solution isn't just to move downtown's homeless somewhere else.
"We need to make sure everybody's provided the opportunity for housing and then can get into a system that educates them, that trains them, that provides them the opportunity to be self-supporting," Baker said.
The council will look at what other cities are doing right and it will work with social services agencies. Baker said that cooperation should help them make real progress this year.
"We're going to do everything we can in a very collaborative way," he said. "The chamber's downtown vice president, Delise Tomlinson, and I are working together, representing downtown with all of these agencies, and we've had three meetings on different areas, topic areas, and we have one more to go."
The city's role could involve policy making to help agencies accomplish their missions.
