While Americans hope, and many experts predict, that the recession is turning around and the economy heading upward, the head of one local agency dealing with poverty isn’t so optimistic.

Tom Lewis, CEO of Project O-Si-Yo, said demand for the shelter, which currently provides temporary housing for up to 15 homeless men, has grown more than expected. Based on preliminary reports he has seen from the latest U.S. Census figures, he expects more men to come to 118 W. Keetoowah looking for a place to spend the night, or a new start in life.

The new figures will be released shortly after Labor Day, Lewis said.

During the 2-1/2 years since Project O-Si-Yo began operating, more than 300 men 18 and older have found shelter there, spending more than 10,000 nights under its roof. The shelter began in a portion of the old Chickasaw Rooming House, moving to the building on Keetoowah in 2008.

The shelter was established because there was no temporary housing for single men in Cherokee County. Hope House provides space for families, women and children, while Help-in-Crisis shelters women and children who are victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse.

“We’ve had over a $2 million economic impact with the homeless population in Cherokee County so far,” Lewis said. “If it wasn’t for the participation of the community leaders, this would not be happening.”

Lewis said Census statistics show 17.8 percent of the people in Oklahoma’s 2nd District live in poverty, which amounts to 61,629 individuals. In Cherokee County, the poverty figures are even higher, according to Census estimates for 2005-2007.

Locally, 19.2 percent of all families have incomes under the poverty level. However, families in poverty with children in the household under 18 comprise 30.9 percent of the population; those with children under 5 amount to 42.3 percent.

And single mothers fare worse. Well more than half of all single mothers under 18, or 59.6 percent, live in poverty; counting mothers with children under five, those numbers exceed two-thirds, with 68.6 percent in poverty. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services poverty guidelines show income levels of $10,830 for a single person, $14,570 for a two-person household, $18,310 for three people, and $22,050 for four.

While Lewis deals with single men, he’s also concerned about the statistics for women and children. And he anticipates the reported number of people living in poverty will increase when the new statistics are revealed.

“We’re predicting that overall, there will be an increase of almost 50 percent in the amount of people who are living in poverty conditions in Cherokee County,” he said.

He said the number of men seeking help at Project O-Si-Yo has more than doubled since a year ago. And most aren’t transients, just looking for a place to spend the night before moving on.

“The vast majority of them are local individuals, people with family in the Tahlequah or Cherokee County area,” he said.

Lewis has compiled data from a number of sources, including the Census, Oklahoma Department of Human Services, and Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.

Before compiling this data, he was using statistics of 8,800 people in poverty in this area.

“The numbers are now over 15,000 and growing rapidly,” he said.

Most of the clients at Project O-Si-Yo are referred by DHS, by the Cherokee Nation, by local courts and by police. Lewis said he has a good working relationship with all these organizations.

He is a Cherokee citizen, and many of the board members also are Cherokee. He is pleased with the agency’s growth during its first three years, but not so pleased with the growth in the number of people needing service.

“I totally expected our first two or three years to be the time that people got to know us, trust us, and realize we weren’t a fly-by-night type of operation,” he said. “People are beginning to know us, to call us and ask what they can do to help.”

Project O-Si-Yo welcomes donations of clothing; shoes; socks and underwear; food; basic toilet items such as soap, shampoo, razors, combs; and such necessities as toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

The most recent free and reduced-price meal statistics compiled by Tahlequah Public Schools coincide with the increases Lewis has noted.

Child Nutrition Director Rhonnie Kerns’ report for the school year that ended June 30 shows 39.3 percent of all TPS students qualified for free or reduced-price meals last year, up 3 percent from the previous year. This total includes 55.8 percent receiving free meals, 13.5 percent receiving reduced-price meals, and 30.7 percent paying full price.

Kerns said these statistics are important because they enable the district to qualify for additional grants for programs due to the high poverty rate.

Lewis also would like to see Project O-Si-Yo receive more resources to provide food for those who need it.

But his immediate plans focus on expanding the local shelter, or lodge, with a dream of establishing four such lodges within the Cherokee Nation. He has requested help from the tribe in establishing lodges in Pryor, Muskogee and Tulsa.

Lewis said these cities serve as employment centers for the portion of northeastern Oklahoma in the Cherokee Nation. There is a need because closing or layoffs in factories in Pryor and Muskogee have resulted in more people without work and income.

“They’d be an intake area for determining if they need to have social services through the Cherokee Nation, or medical help we could take care of through the Cherokee Nation in this county and in Muskogee,” Lewis said. “We’d be able to shift homeless people to the shelter with the services needed for them, rather than warehousing them.”

Many of the men come in with the clothes on their backs, and Lewis tries to help them obtain housing, food stamps, or whatever other services they need.

Expansion is under way to turn the former Tin Shop, a part of the Project O-Si-Yo building, into a dorm that would house 20 men. It would include a more complete kitchen and two handicap-accessible bathrooms. Currently, the men cook in a home-style kitchen and share one bathroom. There is one toilet, one sink, and one bathtub/shower to accommodate their needs.

Lewis is confident the dorm conversion will be accomplished with donations from the community. But he continues to work on plans for serving the needs of homeless men in what he fears will be a long economic downturn.