Finding Safe Harbor: A 24/7 homelessness shelter off of Gilcrease Museum Road will add 180 additional beds to Tulsa’s sheltering capabilities

By Tiffany Howard

March 24th, 2026

A new low-barrier homelessness shelter with 24/7 access is coming to 315 S. Gilcrease Museum Road, on the site of the former Tulsa County Juvenile Detention Center. Called The Harbor, the state-of-the-art facility (designed by GH2 Architects) will have 180 beds and also feature a kennel with space to house 38 dogs. The $16-million project is made possible through the Ruth Nelson Family Foundation and The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, in partnership with the City of Tulsa.

“The crisis of homelessness, and our housing crisis, it started off as a much quieter disaster, something that happens in people’s everyday lives, in these small disastrous events that seem personal to them at first — maybe a job loss, a hospital bill, domestic violence —and then it escalates into a wave of a disaster that we’ve seen in our community,” said District 4 City Councilor Laura Bellis during the March 24 press conference. “And here we are, (saying) ‘We’re Oklahomans, we have a standard of care for one another, and just like for any other disaster, we’re going to come together and address it.’”

Currently, Tulsa has approximately 544 permanent emergency homeless shelter beds for adults and families, with an additional 145 permanent emergency shelter beds restricted to youth, veterans or those experiencing domestic violence. If shelters are at full capacity, typically 500 individuals will still lack shelter on any given night. But with the addition of The Harbor, more Tulsans can sleep safely off the street.

Owned and managed by The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, the project is guided by an advisory board that includes representatives from Housing Solutions, the City of Tulsa, Ruth Nelson Family Foundation, Tulsa Day Center, and City Care — an Oklahoma City-based organization dedicated to seeing lives restored through addressing the root causes of poverty and homelessness. According to Bill Major, president of the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation, the two nonprofits were instrumental in recruiting City Care to operate The Harbor’s services.

“I’ve seen transformation over and over and over again,” said Rachel Freeman, the president and CEO of City Care. “When you have a place where someone can be safe, and basic needs can be met, then you can start working on that housing focus, with housing navigation, and getting them back into a situation that is affordable and stable for them for the long run. Then what we will see is transformation in the city of Tulsa and in the lives of everyone who enters The Harbor.”

The Harbor is expected to be completed by December.