Lawton, Oklahoma
A city of 90,000. An estimated 350+ people without housing. Three shelters. Zero dedicated storage.
What Lawton is facing
These numbers come from MIGHT Community Development, Comanche County District Court records, and Lawton Public Schools — and every local source acknowledges the real count is higher than what any single number captures.
Lawton's poverty rate is 16.4%, three and a half points above the national average. Over 2,000 eviction hearings were held in 2024 alone. The pipeline from housed to unhoused runs through this city at a pace its service infrastructure was never built to handle.
Three shelters. Limited capacity. Hard choices.
The C. Carter Crane Transitional Shelter, operated by Embrace Hope Center, has 28 beds — with an average nightly occupancy of 15 and an average resident age of 55. The Salvation Army is undergoing renovation and opened adjacent tent camping after the anti-camping ordinance, pulling 34 people off chronic homelessness. Family Promise serves 16 beds for families with children only.
A fourth shelter — MIGHT Community Development's conversion of the former Roosevelt Elementary School — is in development with $404,302 in HUD funding and $1.1 million in ARPA funds. It still needs $2.5 million more.
As one Lawton resident told City Council during the anti-camping ordinance debate: “We only have three shelters operating right now. One is for families. One is for youth only, and one is only for domestic violence. So what are we going to do with those people who don't fit those criteria?”
No one answered that question. We're trying to.
The anti-camping ordinance
On October 22, 2024, Lawton's City Council unanimously approved an anti-camping ordinance with an emergency clause — effective immediately. The ordinance bans camping with any form of shelter on public property. First offense triggers a warning and an offer of assistance. Subsequent violations are misdemeanors carrying up to a $50 fine or 15 days in jail.
In September 2025, the council expanded the ordinance to cover private property and amended CDBG/HOME fund eligibility to require a connection to Lawton.
Outreach to a tent city of 21 individuals found that 14 couldn't access existing shelters. Two-thirds had addiction issues. Half had mental health conditions. Fourteen percent had criminal records that created additional barriers to services.
The city's primary response has been one-way bus tickets out of town. Captain Bryan Brinlee of the Salvation Army stated it plainly:
"We're not going to bus-ticket our way out of this."
The Fort Sill connection
Lawton-Comanche County holds the second-largest concentration of homeless veterans in Oklahoma after Oklahoma City. Fort Sill draws military families and service members from across the country, and not every transition out of service ends where it's supposed to.
The Lawton VA Clinic provides primary care and mental health services. The Lawton Vet Center offers readjustment counseling and HUD-VASH referrals. Oklahoma's 2024 point-in-time count identified 304 veterans experiencing homelessness statewide. The VA housed 367 homeless veterans last fiscal year with a 98.8% success rate in preventing returns to homelessness.
The system works — when people can reach it. A veteran who loses their DD-214, their VA health card, or their service records during a camp clearing or a night without shelter faces weeks of replacement processing. Weeks during which they cannot access the benefits they earned.
Secure storage is a bridge to the front door of every service that already exists.
What Lawton doesn't have
Zero
dedicated secure storage bins, lockers, or programs for people experiencing homelessness in Lawton, Oklahoma
The city's official resource page for homeless services lists shelters, food banks, and service organizations. Storage is not mentioned.
Lawton deserves better. So do the people living through it.
Help us bring the first secure storage program to this city.