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"Volunteers for the Homeless Alliance hit the streets this week to survey the homeless and find out what\u2019s standing in the way of getting them help.There are currently about 1,400 homeless people living in Oklahoma City, but many people are hoping they can lessen that number and get them help.\"Our hope is that we get those folks straight off the street, right into housing, and then wrap them around with the services that they\u2019ll need in order to sustain that housing,\" Homeless Alliance Executive Director Dan Straughan said.The survey is part of the national 100,000 Homes Campaign, which got more than 200 Oklahomans off the streets in 2013.The movement is especially important for Cathy Cummings because she\u2019s been in their shoes.\"I was bankrupt and broke, and my house was in foreclosure, and you know, I was just like her. I was reliving my story through her eyes,\u201D Cummings said.Cummings said if it wasn\u2019t for the support system she had, she would never have recovered. She\u2019s now working to help the least fortunate among us and make a great city even better.\"This is probably the most incredible experience of my entire life,\" Cummings said.The group surveyed more than 300 people over three days.According to data collected so far, a housing-first initiative like this one could save the city $3 million every year.\"Their (the homeless) public service utilization -- police, fire, EMSA, county jail, prison, ERs and hospitals (cost) $4 million in the last year,\u201D Straughan said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.koco.com/article/group-works-to-lessen-okc-homeless-population/4298476>