I invited local Salvation Army leader, Captain Bryan Brinlee into the KCCU studio to discuss the ongoing Lawton Unhoused Initiatives. I wanted to better understand the role and involvement of the Salvation Army, and CPT Brinlee himself, as the self-proclaimed responsible party for the encampment.
In this interview above you will learn the timeline that brought the encampment known as Tent City about in Lawton. How we got to this point today — with the lot is abandoned and fenced off, and the inhabitants having disbursed within the city. I wanted to understand why the only low-barrier shelter in town was shut down in 2024, around the same time the short-term solution of the encampment was established, and why we still don't have a better solution more than two years later.
Through my coverage of this situation, across the multiple Community Action Forums, City Council meetings, and keeping up with the other press releases and overall discourse around this, one word continues to be mentioned and stressed....collaboration.
Collaboration is a subjective term, and clearly there is a lot of confusion and lack of clarity when it comes to why the City of Lawton's municipal government isn't doing more to help facilitate a unified and cohesive effort across the entities who are all involved and actively working on addressing homelessness within this community.
In this interview, CPT Brinlee discusses the Salvation Army's collaboration efforts and why he believes Lawton's Tent City was a successful endeavor with the circumstances we were facing here.
As far as the future of the Lawton Unhoused Initiatives are concerned, one of the immediate next steps is for the community to stay involved and continue to propel the momentum of this movement into better long-term solutions.
If you want to get involved you can attend one of two public meetings coming up for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding, where you can speak or hear from others with input on where this money should go to best serve our community.
The two CDBG Meetings are:
City Planning Commission Public Hearing: at 1:30 p.m., on Thurs, Aug. 27, 2026 in City Hall's Wayne Gilley Auditorium (212 SW 9th, ST)
City Council Public Hearing: at 6 p.m., on Tues, Sept 8, 2026 also in City Hall
I will have a full story regarding local services in the Lawton community, and some of the misconceptions regarding the availability and application of the resources we have. I am corresponding with a local resident who has repeatedly sought help here, and is currently on the verge of homelessness. She has identified many pitfalls within our system which I hope to shed light on, in a effort to improve the process for others.
Stay tuned, and thank you for supporting your local public media and KCCU!
