By Kevin Canfield
(Tulsa, OK) November 23rd, 2025 – The city’s planned low-barrier homeless shelter northwest of downtown will serve 180 individuals and be operated by an Oklahoma City-based service provider, with the goal to open in late 2026, Crosbie Heights neighborhood residents were told Thursday night.
The Harbor, as the facility will be called, will operate out of Tulsa County’s old Juvenile Center at 315 S. Gilcrease Museum Road, after major renovations are completed.
“Your shelter is a container for doing work. It is not an end result,” Rachel Freeman, CEO of City Care, told a small audience gathered at WaterWorks Art Center.
“What we do in a low-barrier shelter is, any reason that you would say, ‘Oh, my God, you can’t access shelter.’ We say, ‘Yes, you can,'” Freeman said.
Among its many services, City Care operates the low-barrier WestTown day shelter in Oklahoma City and has 112 units of permanent supportive housing.
Low-barrier shelters serve individuals who, for a variety of reasons, cannot access traditional shelters. The Harbor will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
One difference between The Harbor and some other homeless shelters is that clients will not be required to leave the shelter during the day. There, they will have access to a variety of services intended to help them prepare to be rehoused.
“We do this: In 24 hours, you have an intake assessment where we get to know you. We know your name, we know as much of your story as you’re willing to share,” Freeman said. “And then on day 14 you start working on housing navigation.
“Why do you start on day 14? Because half the folks that enter our shelter self-resolve in 14 days.
“So we have finite resources, and some of the folks have enough relational margin, or they have enough income from their job, that they just need a place to stay for a very short time, and they can move out on their own. We can spend our resources on those calls.
“We’re here, you’ve got a meal, you’ve got showers, you’ve got storage, you’ve got safety, but if you’re here on day 14, we’re going to start working on housing solutions.”
Thursday night’s meeting was sponsored by the city, and speakers also included Emily Hall, the mayor’s senior adviser on homelessness, and Jeff Hall, senior program officer for the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation.
Emily Hall said that with nearly 500 people a night going without shelter, The Harbor will provide “much of the shelter bed space for many individuals as the city moves forward in decommissioning and ending street sleeping through Safe Move Tulsa.”
Jeff Hall explained the reconstruction work that will be done on the 5-acre property, saying plans call for erecting a privacy fence on three sides of the land. It will provide separation from the county maintenance facility, the county’s family shelter and the Katy Trail.
The only public access to the facility will be along South 25th West Avenue
“We have really natural, isolated areas for an outdoor dog park, as well as congregating areas that are not in public spaces,” Jeff Hall said.
Work on the site could begin as soon as January, but legal, financial and zoning issues must be finalized before the work begins.
County commissioners are expected to vote on the sale of the property to the city on Monday. After sometimes contentious negotiations, the parties last month agreed to a sales price of $500,000. The deal also includes security guarantees from the city.
The Harbor draws its name from The Harbor LLC, a nonprofit development entity funded by philanthropies such as the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation.
Once transferred, The Harbor LLC will be the owner of the property.
“The city of Tulsa is grateful for the partnership and generosity of The Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation who is providing a substantial portion of the $18 million toward the construction and initial operations of the low-barrier shelter,” Emily Hall said.
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