Adam Luck

Chief Executive Officer, City Care

Donation Recipient: City Care

Oklahoma City (OKC) native Adam Luck serves as chief executive officer at City Care OKC, where for 6 years he has been dedicated to helping the unhoused transition out of homelessness. Adam characterizes his work as building relationships, reminding others of their basic value as a human being with the goal that each person begins the next day with a bit more hope. Under Adam’s leadership, City Care targets critical community gaps with a focus on equity and access, often derived from the lived experience of those getting support. This includes operating the city’s only low-barrier night shelter, transportation services, permanent housing and more.

And it isn’t just a rooftop and support services. City Care staff recognized the need to create equity and level the playing field for those who may be housed but don’t have access to resources. Enter Whiz Kids, an after-school tutoring and mentoring program that serves 550 students at risk of school failure from grades 1-5 at 28 elementary schools. As of February 2023, Whiz Kids added a dental literacy initiative to help students understand the importance of good oral hygiene. Mentors also develop family relationships, offer referrals and services, and build trust working with the same student over several years.

The night shelter, built to address the needs of unsheltered people and provide an onramp to stability, was at capacity within days of opening in 2021 and has remained that way since. People experiencing homelessness can rely on City Care’s services, but also gain support within a culture of empathy and understanding, where those who serve and those who are being served share a common perspective

It's a lot more complicated to be unhoused – often times the stories we hear don’t fit into stereotypes we’ve grown up believing. Relationships break through the stereotypes, and it is my honor to walk along folks who need this support. Everyone should have an open door to start over.

Access to care is one of the most significant challenges individuals experiencing homelessness face. Night shelter navigators connect guests with referral services such as ID replacement, housing vouchers, employment opportunities, and medical and mental health providers. Understanding that so much about getting healthy is simple access, City Care in May 2023 launched a mobile outreach and transportation initiative – a fleet of vehicles providing no-cost daily transportation to referral agencies and wraparound services. Advocates are staffed on each vehicle as case managers for riders as they travel to their destinations.

Medical respite care is another very evident gap. Since opening, the shelter has made more than 1,000 calls to emergency services. Many shelter guests live with chronic illnesses complicated by mental health or substance use disorders that result in repeat hospital stays, frequent ER visits and high health care costs. When discharged, many lack access to a clean, stable home for recuperation. From 2020 to 2022, the number of hospital discharges that resulted in a patient returning to homelessness rose 45% in Oklahoma.

For Adam, a community issue deserves a community response, and that is just what he and City Care help facilitate. The collective lived experiences of those receiving support helped crystalize the organization’s next steps – building somewhere for people to stay and receive care when they aren’t sick enough to stay in the hospital but aren’t well enough to be discharged on their own. City Care is starting to plan for land acquisition and construction of a medical respite facility that will bridge a gap in the continuum of care and thus advance health equity.

City Care Stats

Night Shelter
- Served about 4000 people in under 2 years
- Served 75 different families
- Only place available where they can bring a pet
  - 5000 pets checked in
- Storage area – can bring belongings
- 120 units of permanent housing
- Staff estimate that, on average, they serve 10 unique individuals per month who require ongoing nursing care but do not have a viable environment to receive that care
Whiz Kids – Advancing reading skills in the context of health literacy
- Serve over 550 kids in grades 1-5 at 28 locations

Examples of Impact

Night shelter guests get the treatment they need, from stabilizing income to sobriety, as well as support to accomplish each task necessary to transition out of homelessness
Serves as the ground floor after people fall through all of the social safety nets
Practically, people experiencing homelessness face basic health concerns because their ability to maintain healthy habits almost disappears
Partnered with local dental clinic already providing free care to those in need and applied for new grants locally to scale and finance a dental care component of the supportive communities program
Raised over $50k to help pay for residents’ needed dental work from fillings to implants
Another partnership supported the oral health literacy component of Whiz Kids, supplying each child with hygiene kits and resources to learn lifelong healthy habits