in our continuing coverage of Tulsa's mayoral election candidates Karen Keith and Monroe Nichols are gearing up for a November runoff election after receiving the highest amount of votes in yesterday's election now at the front of both of their campaigns is addressing the homelessness issue in Tulsa Fox 23's Deon ly is live in the FOX23 Newsroom breaking down what both candidates are saying about the issue and Devon what they plan to do as mayor if elected yeah both of the candidates were in studio today for an interview and as always homelessness was brought up and although they both agree it will be a top priority for them if they're elected as mayor of Tulsa they kind of disagree on how they want to solve it I think it is the biggest individual challenge faced in Tulsa it is my top priority the two remaining Tulsa mayoral candidates buckling down on what they want voters to know are their top priorities as would be mayor and homelessness is at the top of both of their lists I mean obviously homelessness is a challenge that now has gotten about 8% worse year-over-year there are 900 kids at Tulsa Public Schools alone in one of our school districts that are homeless today so I'm well aware of a lot of the issues and as a county we've invested more in that point in time count because we understood there were people not really being counted that were behind the levies so we're you know we've been leaning into that more it's no secret in Tulsa there is an issue with homelessness and we see it continue to grow throughout the city and even the county behind me at the Tulsa day Center I've seen dozens of people go in and out today seeking the services that they provide the same thing to my left over at the Salvation Army we've brought you coverage of the current administration's progress in addressing homelessness with a program called path to home announced back in April and how the city is working with the more than 50 nonprofits in Tulsa according to a report released by the City of Tulsa back in April the city had spent over $125 million on homelessness since 2023 Keith and Nichols both claim to have plans to help this issue to make uh a better permitting process so that developers can get affordable housing out of the ground and that missing middle housing that's so important because you have to when you lean into some of our issues with the homeless that's part of the problem and so we've got to fix that uh just takes too long costs too much money so some of the stuff isn't even affordable anymore we have to commit ourselves fully to get in the low barrier shelter done and making sure we're getting really good care coordination with all the wonderful service providers in this community whether it is for m health or substance abuse abuse or physical uh healthare these are all the needs that people have now for those of us who are not a mayor or Canada what can be done to help meet those needs right now well I spoke with the Tulsa day Center who's just one of several shelters they say they're experiencing some of their highest numbers ever of people struggling with homelessness seeking their services they told me what we can all do to help I'll have that part of my story ready for you on Fox23 News at 10 live in The Newsroom covering news that matters Deon lion Fox23 News you can find our full interviews with both Karen Keith and Monroe Nichols on fox23.com just click on the ud tode 2024 tab