From Hospital To Home: OKC Metro Hospital Helps Unhoused Residents Find Housing

Local community groups are working together to help those living without a home a chance to recover in a safe spot.

Cardinal Community House is partnering with SSM Health St. Anthony and Catholic Charities to be a direct service for people experiencing homelessness to go from a hospital visit to a home.

"We have accepted clients that receive services in their hospitals,” Cardinal Community House executive director Kelli Ude said. “They will be experiencing some sort of an emergency. They will go to ‘Saint’s’ (SSM Health St. Anthony) and will get the care that they need.”

The housing center is filled with warm beds, showers, a dining hall as well as ways to safely store medication, get a ride to an appointment and receive other counseling services.

"We do see a high number of vulnerable patients who come to us," SSM Health St. Anthony regional director of mission integration Andrew Ochs said.

Cardinal Community House can provide a patient advocate, a case manager and a housing navigator free of charge for the patient.

"It gives us space to live our mission effectively and faithfully," Ochs said.

"We will take care of them," Ude said.