Oklahoma
Oklahoma City volunteers conduct day-long homeless count for annual survey
At 3 a.m., I joined a group of more than 100 volunteers at the Homeless Alliance for one final round of instructions. Then, groups gathered drawstring bags full of supplies and started splitting up to canvas as much of Oklahoma City’s 600 square miles as possible.
The city was still dark, illuminated only by streetlights, city signs and the glow of our flashlights.
May Anchondo, the leader of my seven-person volunteer team and Director of Support Services at the Homeless Alliance, guided us through our assigned locations in southeast Oklahoma City.
“We have different sites that the community identifies, and so we’re walking towards a campsite so that we can see if anyone who might be experiencing homelessness is willing to take a survey with us,” Anchondo said.
She and the other members of my group were bundled up in multiple jackets, attempting to ward off below-freezing temperatures.
Throughout the morning, we approached various shelters and encampments, talking to whoever was willing. We surveyed about a dozen individuals, gathering demographic data and asking questions about their experiences.
People shared stories of domestic abuse, mental health struggles, job loss after the pandemic and even “not wanting to be a burden” as reasons that led to their homelessness.
The results from the surveys are added to data from local homeless shelters and transitional housing programs to provide a “snapshot” of what homelessness looks like on a given night in Oklahoma City.
To receive homeless assistance grants, the results have to be reported to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development every two years. Oklahoma City has been conducting the count annually since 2003.
But the count is about more than just numbers — it’s also a pathway for outreach. We handed out supplies like toothbrushes, hand warmers, gloves, snacks and bus passes to everyone we met.
Volunteers also asked people they encountered whether they needed information about nearby shelters or support services.
“The Point in Time count is really a look at the human aspect of homelessness,” said Erika Warren, who helped organize this year’s effort. “It’s about understanding what our neighbors are experiencing and how we can show up for them.”
Warren works with the city-led Key to Home initiative. Made up of more than 50 organizations, Key To Home is Oklahoma City’s way of streamlining and connecting various efforts to end homelessness.
Last year, the Point In Time count reported a total of 1,838 people, an increase from the previous year’s 1,436.
According to Warren, this year’s count is expected to be higher, reflecting the ongoing challenges posed by a lack of affordable housing. She said a significant drop won’t be seen until the city’s housing stock increases.
In the meantime, there are still a lot of people who resort to living outside.
Anchondo from the Homeless Alliance says the count helps her imagine what that must be like.
“It also just really brings perspective on why we do what we do, right? Cause it’s cold out there … Even though I work with folks who are experiencing homelessness, and families, and youth, doing Point In Time is a really good opportunity to also just really solidify why the work that we do is really needed in our community.”
During the count, my group came across three people in their early twenties. Last year, 19 of the people counted living outside were between the ages of 18 and 24.
It’s impossible to say whether my group’s numbers translate into any broader trends, but they will contribute to the broader picture of what homelessness looks like in Oklahoma City.
Homelessness is complex, Anchondo says, and solutions the city pursues must serve the people going through it.
This report was produced by the Oklahoma Public Media Exchange, a collaboration of public media organizations. Help support collaborative journalism by donating at the link at the top of this webpage.
OKLAHOMA CITY (KSWO) — Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond has announced a settlement between his office and the Public Service Company of Oklahoma.
According to Drummond, the proposed residential rate increase will now drop from 15% to 1%. Instead of a $25 increase, the average PSO customer using 1,100 kilowatt-hours per month would only see a $2.45 increase per month.
The amount is also below the $11 interim increase set to go into effect Wednesday, July 1 for PSO customers.
“This is a major win for Oklahoma families, businesses and ratepayers,” Drummond said. “With inflation through the roof, consumers are already paying too much for goods and services. My office will continue fighting to ensure utility customers receive safe, reliable service at rates that are fair, just and reasonable.”
The latest proposal is also subject to review by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
There is no word on the settlement’s impact on Wednesday’s interim rate increase.
7News has reached out to PSO for comment and is awaiting a response.
Copyright 2026 KSWO. All rights reserved.
Watch OKC musicians play before Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C.
The longtime Oklahoma friends and global music ambassadors are set to perform July 2-3 on The Great American State Fair’s Legacy Stage.
In the three decades since they started making music together, Kyle Dillingham and Peter Markes have taken their Heartland acoustic sound from their Enid hometown and southwest Oklahoma’s Quartz Mountains to China, Kuwait and Kosovo.
“Thirty-one years and over 40 countries later, representing our state and our country, then being selected to be there in an official capacity in performing for the 250th anniversary of our country … this is perhaps the most important and special honor of our careers — and personally in our lives,” Dillingham said.
The longtime friends, bandmates and global music ambassadors have been selected as official performers for the ongoing Great American State Fair, an event continuing through July 10 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It is part of Freedom 250, the White House-backed celebration of the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
The Oklahoma City musical duo is set to perform July 2-3 on the Legacy Stage at The Great American State Fair, billed as a “world-class exposition and modern-day World’s Fair celebrating the people, traditions, innovations, and spirit that make America the greatest nation on Earth.”
“It is really special,” Markes told The Oklahoman. “As we’re representing our country in our country, I think it’s important that we represent Oklahoma and, really, the Heartland … of America.”
Who are OKC musicians Kyle Dillingham and Peter Markes?
Although they have known each other their entire lives, Dillingham and Markes — who are distantly related — didn’t really start making music together until they were both Enid High School juniors attending the Oklahoma Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, an intensive, nationally recognized two-week residential arts academy at Quartz Mountain State Park and Lodge near Lone Wolf.
“We loaded up in my car and headed down, and those two weeks when we were down there … we just jammed every break, before and after dinner and every meal and every night,” Dillingham recalled.
“That’s really where we started playing (together) and crossing our styles, when Kyle taught me how to hold a guitar pick — at that time, I didn’t even know how to do that,” added Markes, who grew up in nearby Waukomis until moving to Enid in middle school. “He had never heard of James Taylor, and I’d never heard of Bob Wills.”
After they graduated from Enid High School in 1997, Markes and Dillingham were roommates at Oklahoma City University.
“The summer after our freshman year at OCU, we started traveling for our university as student ambassadors, and that first summer, amazing things happened, like an impromptu performance for the king … of Malaysia,” Dillingham recalled. “We were two boys who play guitar and fiddle acoustic. … So, there was a flexibility and ease of working with us, because we could fit in the back of a taxi, and as long as they kept shoveling the food in, we were happy.”
By the time they both graduated from OCU, Markes said the duo had already performed across the globe, from North Africa and Central Europe to East Asia and points across South and Central America.
A 2009 Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award recipient, Dillingham has continued to play around the world as a full-time musician, with Markes often touring with him as part of Dillingham’s Americana band Horseshoe Road.
For 15 years, Markes also worked as orchestra director for Edmond North High School. He was named Oklahoma Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014, and he subsequently retired from full-time teaching to spend more time making music.
Oklahoma duo won’t let politics get in the way of musical ambassadorship
In 2013, Kyle Dillingham & Horseshoe Road, including Markes, were selected for the American Music Abroad program and dispatched on a 35-day world tour, traveling to South Korea, Taiwan, Myanmar and Russia.
The Oklahoma band was selected again for the U.S. Department of State-sanctioned program in 2019, performing in Kuwait and the Republic of Kosovo.
Also in 2019 — the same year Dillingham made his official Grand Ole Opry debut, seizing the historic Nashville stage on a skateboard while sawing away on his fiddle — he, Markes and Horseshoe Road bassist Brent Saulsbury took their 10-day “Silk Road and The Fiddle Sister State Tour” through China.
“They want me to bring the skateboard … to Washington, D.C.,” Dillingham said with a grin. “When I was invited to make my Grand Ole Opry debut, I was like, ‘This has been a journey, and I don’t want to do this without Peter there.’ So, we debuted at the Opry. … But this is really something, to be in the recorded history of the 250th anniversary of our country — and for our kids and our (future) grandkids to know that we officially participated.”
Last year, Dillingham was selected as a cultural performer at Expo 2025 Osaka in Japan, where he played on the USA Pavilion stage. He said that led to him being invited to apply to become a performer on The Great American State Fair’s Legacy Stage, which is presented by the Meridian Center for Culture and Sports Diplomacy in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and Leading Authorities Inc.
“I think there’s a lot of tension on the main stage and with the big-name acts and all of that. But this is a stage that’s curated by the National Endowment for the Arts, and their purpose is to really display … a sample of the culture of America and the storytelling of America,” said Dillingham, who released a patriotic solo album titled “America the Beautiful” over Memorial Day.
The duo anticipates playing Wills’ standards, bluegrass-gospel classics and patriotic songs, along with their original acoustic music. They fly out to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, July 1, which is Markes’ 47th birthday.
With their long years of experience as global music ambassadors, the pair said they don’t get distracted by politics at any event they’re invited to perform — and they won’t focus on politics this time, either.
“Our belief is that, with music, it’s a very powerful tool, and it has the power to change lives positively. Specifically, our goals with our music would be to inspire, encourage and heal,” Dillingham, 47, said.
“We have been in so many varied situations with our music around the world, and what’s important is that no matter what the situation, we have to … make the most of where we are — and where we’re going to be is right smack dab in the heart of the 250th anniversary of our country.”
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — Pike Off OTA, a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing the development of two proposed turnpikes, has filed a federal lawsuit against the Oklahoma Turnpike Authority to stop the construction of the East-West Connector “EWC” Turnpike Project, citing environmental concerns.
In the lawsuit, Pike Off OTA says construction of the EWC Turnpike Project is negatively impacting critical habitats for endangered species and the surrounding environment.
The lawsuit also alleges OTA is violating the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Federal Transportation Act.
Pike Off OTA aims to stop further construction and prevent additional bond funding until the required permits and environmental reviews have been completed.
Other Defendants Listed in the Lawsuit:
- United States Army Corps, Tulsa Division (USACE)
- Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
- Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation
- United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS)
The East-West Connector Turnpike is part of ACCESS Oklahoma, a long-range plan to update Oklahoma’s turnpikes, bridges, and pavement and add three new routes in the Oklahoma City metro area.
Mission Statement from the ACCESS Oklahoma website:
This 15-year long-range plan has always been about motorist safety. OTA’s mission is to help facilitate traffic throughout the state by seamlessly connecting with the state highway system, thereby providing a choice for a safe, convenient, and efficient user-funded transportation network. OTA’s goal is to provide safe infrastructure while maintaining the lowest toll rate possible for our customers.
Pike Off OTA’s lawsuit is focusing on the EWC Turnpike, which Pike OFF said acts as a four-lane toll road expressway from I-44 Tri-City area (Newcastle, Blanchard, Tuttle) at SH-37. The turnpike will cross the South Canadian River, east to I-35 along Indian Hills Road in the Moore/Norman area.
The turnpike will also connect to the new Kickapoo Turnpike.
In the lawsuit, Pike Off OTA said installments and construction areas will permanently impact the Waters of the United States.
The EWC requires numerous installments and construction areas, including the building of temporary and permanent access roads, that will materially, and in some instances, permanently impact the Waters of the United States in the subject project area; notably the Canadian River, Lake Thunderbird, and Lost Creek. In sum, the EWC Project proposes the construction of approximately 30.5 miles of turnpike with two new bridges spanning the Canadian River, and other construction activities that will include the discharge and fill of materials into federally protected jurisdictions and waterways.
Pike Off OTA said that the OTA, USACE, FHWA, FWS, and the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation have all failed to uphold their duties to ensure the protection of Oklahoma’s wildlife, waterways, natural environment, and Pike Off OTA’s procedural rights.
For more local news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter by clicking here.
-
Maine2 minutes agoCooling centers to open in Maine as heat, air quality advisories take effect Wednesday
-
Maryland5 minutes agoTeen allegedly hits off-duty officer, crashes into Maryland home
-
Michigan10 minutes agoMichigan mayor’s 7-year-old nephew found dead in Menands, New York, authorities say
-
Massachusetts17 minutes agoMissing Massachusetts cat miraculously found underneath owners’ new bathtub — after disappearing for 30 hours
-
Minnesota19 minutes agoSt. Paul resident’s special connection to the Declaration of Independence
-
Mississippi25 minutes agoAmy Carruth named director of Mississippi State Hospital – SuperTalk Mississippi
-
Missouri32 minutes agoGov. Kehoe signs Missouri FY27 budget totaling $50.7B. What you need to know
-
Montana34 minutes agoNew health care system director appointed at Montana VA
