OU’s PRIME program paid for future school counselors, behavior analysts and social workers to get graduate degrees in exchange for serving two years in a rural high-need school for every year they received funding. PRIME stood for Project Rural Innovation for Mental Health Enhancement.

The program was funded with a $5.6 million federal grant through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It was supposed to last from 2023 to 2027, but the grant was not continued and funding ended in December. It is one of more than 200 mental health training programs across the country whose funding ended.

According to a July 2025 analysis by StateImpact, 53 of Oklahoma schools considered “rural” by the National Center for Education Statistics have no counselor. In Oklahoma, the school counselor ratio is 1:361. The American School Counselor Association recommends at least one counselor for every 250 students. Only three states meet this threshold.

OU’s PRIME program aimed to chip away at the shortage of mental health providers in Oklahoma schools — more than three-quarters of which serve rural communities.

Brittany Hott is the associate director of the Institute for Community and Society Transformation at OU and oversaw PRIME. She said the program’s three years of work are being felt across the state.

“Our schools saw reduced suspension, reduced time out of school,” Hott said. “Their attendance went up. We saw preliminary reading and math gains.

“Our administrators have hope. By implementing some of the cost-effective or no-cost behavioral support strategies and counseling strategies and services, we saw a quick impact. And hopefully we’ll continue to see it.”

Due to PRIME program support, 49 students have received school-based mental health training in counseling, applied behavior analysis and social work.

To date, 31 students have earned degrees, seven students are completing internships or practicums and are on track to complete degrees in May, and 11 students are currently enrolled in school counseling and applied behavior analysis programs.

Before news of the funding ending reached Hott’s desk, the program had already accepted its next round of students — 10 counselors, 12 behavior analysts and five social workers. The PRIME funding had a long waitlist. For behavior analysts alone, there were 56 applications for 12 slots.

After being notified, Hott said she told the upcoming cohort. While some decided to continue with their degree self-funded, others did not.

“It has created a hardship, because it is hard to do your studies and work full-time and take on a second job to get through,” Hott said. “So there were definitely students who could not [self-fund their degrees], who were well qualified, who would have been amazing practitioners and served in areas that are hard to staff.”

Hott said, though the federal funding to grant the tuition waivers no longer exists, she is hopeful the mission will continue — one that now relies on potential donors or grants.

“Any [funding] source. We would welcome the potential to partner to continue this work, because it’s critical for our kids and families,” Hott said.

After graduation, PRIME participants are tracked in their employment, Hott said. According to their data, program graduates are still working in rural Oklahoma schools. She said the first three years of cohorts will “pay dividends” to provide mental health support to students who need it most, and so far, the data say those providers are staying put.

“These are communities where our practitioners have lived, played, worked, graduated,” Hott said. “It’s very much by Oklahomans, for Oklahomans. Our students and graduates are dedicated to the communities that we’re serving. They don’t want to move out of Oklahoma. They want to serve their communities and their kids and families where they are. And that’s the strength of, quite frankly, rural America and rural Oklahoma.”

Backpacks filled with bug nets, nature journals and other activities are available across Oklahoma as part of the Rural Library Backpack Program.

The Oklahoma Forestry Services launched a Rural Library Backpack Program in 84 of the state’s libraries outside of major metropolitan areas. Kids of different ages can grab a backpack from their local library and get outside to learn about the state’s forests and the invasive species creeping in.

This is the first round of backpacks. Oklahoma Forestry Services education coordinator Tony Pascall said there will be more rounds focusing on other topics. But this initial round hits home with the agency.

“I think it’s something that captures students’ interest, you know?” Pascall said. “I think it’s also something that’s really important to us at Forest Service about how we want to make sure that our forests and ecosystems are kind of protected.”

A U.S. Forest Service grant funds the program, and the state services held a pilot project this past summer. Pascall said, given the opportunity, kids will go outside.

“They’ll take their nature journal, they’ll take their bug net, they’ll go explore and they’ll go learn and they’ll come up with great ideas,” Pascall said. “They’re our future stewards, and they’ll come up with great ideas for how to solve some of these difficult problems.”

There are invasive species problems in the state. Species like redcedars have spread throughout Oklahoma, outcompeting native species, providing prime wildfire fuel and slurping billions of gallons of water along the way.

In the backpacks, which are meant to be kept, are actions for kids and families to take to help curb invasive species. Pascall said it was important for the service for children to bring home activities they can do in their communities.

If a library is not in the program, the state forestry service can send supplies. But he said the grant is specifically for rural libraries, and the agency has enough funding for every library outside of Tulsa and Oklahoma City.

Although the backpack program does not include school libraries, there are other resources available through the services for educators, such as educational trunks.

“We do workshops, and the teachers themselves get a whole lot of the activities that I use to build these backpacks,” Pascall said.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Rosetta Stone teamed up last summer to create a resource for current and future generations to utilize to preserve and protect the Choctaw language. This ongoing collaboration is part of Rosetta Stone’s Endangered Languages Program to combat the effects of assimilation in the U.S. and loss of Indigenous languages around the globe.

For the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, assimilation has shown itself in the decline of language speakers. Anjanette Williston, the tribe’s language program director, is worried the Choctaw language is on the cusp of falling asleep.

“To see that our elders — they’ve aged,” Williston said. “And then the younger generation, there’s just not any younger people that really speak the language. So seeing that firsthand, teaching it, it’s just like, ‘Wow, this is really, we’re here at the decline.’”

Like many other tribes across the country, COVID-19 took a devastating toll on fluent Choctaw language speakers. Williston estimated that it took the lives of about 75 elders, leaving about 300 fluent language speakers, all the more reason why a partnership with Rosetta Stone is needed now.

“In order for our language to continue long term, we’re going to need anyone that is willing to learn the language to keep it spoken,” Williston said. “Because our sovereignty is at risk without a language. … And so if it’s not only our tribal members, but others that are willing to learn and keep it going for many generations to come.”

Researchers estimate that almost half of the world’s 7,000 languages are considered endangered.

Miranda Weinberg, the curriculum designer for the Endangered Languages program at Rosetta Stone, acknowledged that the statistics of declining Indigenous languages can be overwhelming. But her team is trying to leverage the resources they have, along with those of Indigenous communities, to reverse those trends.

“So what we can provide with Rosetta Stone language learning software is a way to amplify their voices,” Weinberg said. “So that instead of teaching one classroom, their voices in audio recordings — their knowledge in the curriculum we’ve put together, their acting in videos — can all be used in many classrooms simultaneously, and it can be used in the future.”

The new Rosetta Stone resource will build on the curriculum that the Choctaw Nation utilizes in public high schools on its reservation. For each lesson, there will be a video component — created by Choctaw Nation’s media team — interwining the culture, said Weinberg.

“Most of those will follow a Choctaw family,” Weinberg said. “So they’ll be going to school. They’ll be going to the Labor Day Festival in Tuskahoma. They’ll be doing things as a family cooking wild onions. … But as we do that, we’ll be introducing Choctaw language vocabulary and culture and grammar concepts.”

Weinberg said the partnership means that both the tribal nation and her team work closely together, and that the ultimate authorities on the language are members of the Choctaw Nation.

More information will be released about the new learning resource, Williston said, before its scheduled release date next June.

Providers say they won’t survive cuts made by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) to child care subsidies for school-age children. Oklahoma’s largest trade association for the child care industry is suing the department to stop it from enforcing the directive it made during the federal government shutdown.

The suit was filed by the Licensed Child Care Association of Oklahoma in the Oklahoma County District Court, over a month after DHS sent a letter at 5 p.m., Oct. 30, to child care providers.

The department announced the removal of a $5 per day “add-on” to providers’ subsidy rate schedule – implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic – for children ages six and older. It also halted new applications and renewals for these children, with exceptions for those in foster care, with disabilities and who are unhoused. Subsidies expire on a rolling basis.

Both policies became effective Nov. 1.

What are providers and DHS saying? 

Kelly Gomez is the owner of Our House Learning Center in Norman. The child care center is licensed for 87 children and works at full capacity. All of them receive subsidized child care, with school-age kids making up the largest portion of her enrollment.

She said the $5 per day enhanced rate drastically impacted the quality of care her center could provide by allowing her to pay her teachers better and not worry about purchasing extra activities for her kids.

“They started us on this idea that this funding was going to be there, that we were going to be able to receive good pay for the children and the hard work that we were doing,” Gomez said.

“How can I go to a teacher and say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m going to pay you $2 less an hour now.’ You can’t do that to people.”

Following the department’s Oct. 30 directive, Gomez said families have shown up at her door in tears, saying they can’t get their older children’s cases renewed and don’t know what to do. For now, that won’t stop her from serving them.

“As these kids fall off, and DHS isn’t paying, I am still going to provide care to these families. I’m not turning them away,” Gomez said. “A lot of facilities won’t do it, and I’m not saying that I can do it. I’m going to do it until I can’t make the rent anymore. And that’s scary.”

In a press release, DHS argues that factors like the expiration of temporary federal COVID-era funding, rising enrollment and continued uncertainty following the government shutdown resulted in the need for action.

It said the state was given additional, one-time federal incentives, which allowed more families to access care, supported school-age services and increased reimbursement rates for providers.

“When those federal funds were fully exhausted, Oklahoma Human Services used Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as a short-term bridge to help families continue receiving care,” the press release said. “No replacement appropriations have since been approved to sustain those emergency-level expansions.”

The agency has asked for $70 million to “stabilize the child care system and prevent future funding cliffs.”

“The system cannot continue to swing between emergency funding and emergency cuts,” said DHS Director Jeffrey Cartmell after a Wednesday Child Care Advisory Committee meeting. “Oklahomans need reliable, high-quality child care access for working families, and stable funding is the only way forward.”

What does the lawsuit entail? 

Tammy Maus, president of the Licensed Child Care Association of Oklahoma, said the lawsuit originated out of an effort to support the group’s members.

“We really evaluated it, we reached out to legislators, and we honestly felt like we had reached a dead end on every single avenue,” Maus said.

The lawsuit argues that DHS treated the $5 per day add-on as a standard component of its reimbursement structure, representing it as a measure “to promote stability, improve quality, expand capacity and support Oklahoma families and providers.”

“Providers reasonably developed reliance interests based on this stability, structuring staffing, budgeting, enrollment, facility operations, and long-term financial commitments, including loans and banking arrangements, in accordance with the reimbursement rates OKDHS itself established and maintained,” the lawsuit reads.

It states that DHS “reversed course,” characterizing the add-on as “temporary, unplanned and COVID-dependent.” The association argues that because the Oct. 30 decision alters eligibility, reimbursement and access for providers serving school-age children, it should require a statewide policy change with formal rulemaking. The lawsuit adds that DHS did not satisfy the requirements for emergency rulemaking.

The association also maintains that, under state law, an agency “may not adopt, amend or repeal a rule by internal policy, memorandum, bulletin, guidance document, directive or letter.”

“DHS’s use of an internal directive letter to impose sweeping statewide policy changes violates this statutory prohibition,” the lawsuit reads.

It also suggests DHS acted beyond its statutory authority, and “arbitrarily and capriciously.”

The lawsuit asks the court to reinstate the $5 per day add-on, resume school-age applications and renewals and refrain from implementing policy changes absent compliance with state law.

Gomez, the child care owner from Norman, said this year has proved difficult for providers. Facilities also navigated new DHS rules based on the Quality Rating and Improvement System, known as the Stars program. It awards different ratings to early childhood programs based on their abilities to meet standards related to curriculum, child outcomes and learning environments.

DHS assigns programs a quality rating between one and five stars, which are tied to reimbursement rates. To maintain the highest level of reimbursement, non-accredited five-star programs were required to get nationally accredited. They were given months to complete a process that typically takes one to two years, or face a star reduction.

Gomez met the moment, getting accredited in three months only by working late into the night and returning to work early the next morning. She said she has done everything that has been asked of her.

“But this last cut, this facility will not be able to survive,” Gomez said.

Gomez worries facilities won’t be able to wait for a $70 million appropriation to get approved.

“We’re hoping, and we’re praying that this judge sides with us, that they pause it, and that they at least have to continue to fund it for the time being, which also gives us more time,” Gomez said.

StateImpact Oklahoma is a partnership of Oklahoma’s public radio stations which relies on contributions from readers and listeners to fulfill its mission of public service to Oklahoma and beyond. Donate online.

Copyright 2025 KGOU

It was the cuts to federal child care subsidies that landed Eboney Mitchell in eviction court. 

Mitchell said having daycare for her two children allowed her to work and keep up with her monthly rent. Her rent was $1,300 a month, she said.

“Then they cut day care off,” she said. 

Mitchell had to take time off to care for her two children while she scrambled to make other arrangements. She lost her job. She got behind on her rent. Eventually, she found two part-time jobs to replace the one she lost. She got the money, but the property company told her it was too late. 

Sitting outside the Oklahoma County’s eviction courtroom, she paged through the fees stacked on by her landlord. Quickly, her $1,300 rent ballooned up to more than $3,000 as her landlord tacked on charge after charge, including late fees, attorney’s fees, and $200 for an unapproved pet charge for her son’s service animal. 

“My son is autistic,” she said. “I have the paperwork for that dog.”

Mitchell isn’t alone. The recent government shutdown, which included would-be cuts to the federal child care subsidies, Head Start and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, along with furloughs, has created such crises throughout Oklahoma among low and middle-income families. 

According to the FAQ on the Oklahoma State Department of Human Services website, SNAP benefits returned to normal Nov. 13, but many child care subsidies for school-age children will not, due to federal budget cuts enacted during the shutdown.

“The federal government shutdown has paused funding for many programs nationwide, including child care assistance,”  the announcement states. “Because nearly 75% of Oklahoma Human Services (OKDHS) funding comes from federal sources, we must adjust the Child Care Subsidy program to preserve available resources for as long as possible. The change takes effect on November 1, 2025. Eligibility for children 6 years of age and older who do not fit within one of the exceptions will be closed or removed at the next renewal.”

There are other cuts. SNAP, once known as Food Stamps, is a subsidy that provides money to the needy to buy food. In Oklahoma, the more than 600,000 who receive SNAP benefits were told theirs would be cut by about 35%. That would mean a family of four, expecting to receive $994 for food, would instead receive $646, a loss of $347 to the household budget. 

For families already struggling to keep up with rising rent costs, that is enough to push them over the edge, said Brad Senters, the director of eviction prevention for Shelterwell, a housing advocacy group in Oklahoma. Senters regularly acts as a mediator in eviction hearings in Oklahoma County.

“ If you’re in eviction court, it’s probably not the only adversity you’re first facing that week,” Senters said. “Especially if you’re on a really tight budget, $50 can mean a lot.” 

Senters said that a $50 shortfall — or more, in the case of a larger family — means $50 that was supposed to go toward rent is instead spent on food for the family. 

Senters said the political wrangling that led to the government shutdown has real effects on people at the street level, often with very hard outcomes for those struggling.

“ One bill comes out of nowhere and it’s a snowball effect of just destroying a budget that’s already really tight anyway,” he said.  “I honestly don’t come across a lot of tenants that are getting their hair done or who are buying cars. I know a lot of people want to think that that’s what it is, but I just don’t see it. It’s people struggling, doing their best to get by. And, you know, one hiccup can lose your house.”

By Nov. 13, the federal government announced a return to the full, pre-shutdown SNAP amounts, but that means the hiccup happened for thousands of families.

While November saw partial payments of approximately 65 percent of the full amount for SNAP normally sent to needy families, such projections may not have panned out equally to his clients, Senters said. 

“Even that first payment they got back was partial,” he said. “I talked to somebody who was normally getting a couple hundred bucks and their first payment back was, like, 25 bucks.”

Senters said other cuts have had as bad, or worse, effects. 

“Then there was a furloughed worker I had a mediation with a few weeks ago,” Senters said. “Luckily, the landlord was willing to work with her because of that. They didn’t have to, but she was still working, but not getting paid. Hopefully, that kind of catches back up.”

Landlord’s Choice

In a recent, packed eviction hearing in the Oklahoma County Courthouse, property manager Trey Parker stood before Oklahoma County Special Judge Trent Pipes to cite evictions he filed, referring to them from a sheaf of paperwork in his hands. In a number of them, Parker only named “occupants” of a given address. 

Pipes smiled slightly at Parker. 

“You’re suing for rent?” he asked Parker. 

Parker smiled and nodded. 

“ I’d like to talk to you about all these cases where you just list ‘occupants,’” Pipes said. “I’ve got questions. If you don’t name a person, how do you get a judgment against them for jurisdiction?  I know it’s a technical question that lawyers and judges worry about. But it’s never done anything to slow you down, right?”

“Right,” Parker said. 

Then the judge returned to calling the docket, which included about 200 cases that day.

Outside the courtroom, Parker admitted to intentionally leaving some occupants’ names off the filings. He only wanted to get his renters’ attention, he said. He said he didn’t want it to go on their permanent record. Renters who are defendants in an eviction filing find it very difficult to arrange for another place to live because many landlords will not rent to someone with an eviction record. Parker said that cutting them a break by not including their names will help them out down the line, but it also means he has no recourse if they don’t pay.

“No one wants to file an eviction.”

Trey Parker

“Typically, we always try to strike a deal,” Parker said. “No one wants to file an eviction.  Ideally, a contract is a contract, you know. Rent is due on the first and late on the fifth, and that’s how that goes. And then some people fall short. Some people are habitually short, and then some people just hit hard times.”

He said that some of his renters were coming up short because the cut in SNAP benefits was forcing them to choose between rent or food for their families. 

Indicating the papers in his hands, he said he had to file 45 eviction notices in court that day. While a few did have the names of the renters on them, many didn’t. He said he would be able to make a deal with most of them.

“This month’s a little more than usual just because of the holiday,” he said. “And I’m certain it’s also because of the food stamps.” 

SNAP Cuts Are Only the Beginning

A recent Oklahoma Watch story profiled a family with limited income who fell short of SNAP benefits and had to pay out of pocket for food, leaving them unable to pay their rent. They faced almost immediate eviction. 

A survey published last week by Mental Health Association Oklahoma showed how severe the problem is shaping up to be. According to the account published on its website, between November 12-26, the association, along with support from Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma, surveyed 79 households facing eviction in Oklahoma County. The survey found that 57% had SNAP benefits but lost access to them on Nov. 1, and that 73% believed the loss of SNAP benefits directly contributed to their eviction.

“The shutdown’s ripple effects did not stop there,” the survey stated. “Twenty-four percent of all surveyed households lost a job, hours, or pay because of the government shutdown. And 84% of those households told us that the unexpected loss of income directly led to their eviction.”

The survey concluded that stability for many Oklahomans is fragile.

“ I think that the fact that so many of them had not experienced an eviction prior to this really reinforces that it was the loss of SNAP benefits that led to this particular eviction,” said Amy Coldren, the director of advocacy and communication for Mental Health Association Oklahoma. “So these are not families that are routinely falling behind on rent that are often finding themselves in eviction court. These are families that were getting by. They may have been barely getting by, but they were getting by. They were able to pay their rent, they were able to stay housed. And then this particular event, this loss of SNAP benefits or this loss of wages or hours, it really did send them into a crisis.”

The benefit cuts are falling disproportionately on single mothers and their children, on the disabled, and on the elderly, to whom even a $100 shortfall can lead to an eviction. Coldren said one of the survey respondents was an elderly disabled woman whose disability payments were approximately $900 a month, and the SNAP benefits were her lifeline.

“That leaves her with this tiny margin, and she loses snap benefits,” Coldren said. “If you only have less than $200 of disposable income, it’s not actually disposable because she’s having to use that for her utilities, for any medications that she might be on, any other expenses, all has to come out of that. A hundred dollars? She doesn’t have anything extra. There’s no extra.”

Sabine Brown, the housing policy analyst at the Oklahoma Policy Institute in Tulsa, said many Oklahoma renters were facing hardship before the cuts started. 

“ Oklahoma renters were already struggling to make ends meet,” Brown said. “They were not in a position to absorb any lost income subsidies or childcare. Half of Oklahoma renters earn less than the annual income needed, which is nearly $44,000 per year to afford a two-bedroom rental.”

With many cuts set to continue or worsen with the coming year, as well as another possible government shutdown in January, the problem is about to get worse, Brown said.

“ More than seven out of 10 extremely low-income families who rent in Oklahoma are severely cost burdened,” Brown said. “That means that they’re spending more than 50% of their income on rent. For those families, one emergency, like a missed SNAP payment, missed wages, or missed childcare, can lead to missed rent and put them at really high risk, for eviction, housing instability, or even homelessness.”

Brown said the convergence of cuts are combining into a maelstrom of effects that will sweep over many Oklahoma families as the winter sets in.

 “All these things are happening at the same time,” she said, “That is going to put a lot of people in the position of having to choose between food, medical care or rent. If we continue down this road, we’re going to see rising evictions and homelessness.”

When and if such cuts start hitting in the coming months, don’t expect that the state’s food pantries, homeless shelters, and other aid organizations can keep the blow from landing, Brown said. They are already overstretched. 

“The direct service providers of homeless shelters are doing as much as they can,” Brown said. “But they are at capacity. We can’t continue to rely on nonprofits to pick up the slack when we make these massive cuts.  We’re going to need to find solutions beyond continuing to put more and more on our nonprofit community.”

The post Federal Benefit Cuts Push Oklahoma Families Into Eviction Crisis appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

Editor’s Note: This post is from our data newsletter, the Rural Index, headed by Sarah Melotte, the Daily Yonder’s data reporter. We will be taking the next edition off as we head into Christmas. Subscribe to stay in touch with us during the New Year.

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Compared to their urban and suburban counterparts, a greater share of the rural population lives in states with the most restrictive abortion legislation, according to my analysis of data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that focuses on reproductive rights. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June of 2022, it became harder for women to access reproductive care, but the burden often disproportionately hurt rural women.

About 46% of nonmetropolitan, or rural, Americans live in states with either ‘most restrictive’ or ‘very restrictive’ abortion legislation, representing 21.3 million people. Approximately 35% of metro Americans live in these states, representing roughly 99.1 million people. 

State-level abortion legislation is complex; it’s rarely as simple as an outright ban or permit. Abortion policies can include stipulations like waiting periods, ultrasound requirements, gestational duration bans, insurance coverage bans, telehealth bans, and more. To deal with some of this complexity, the Guttmacher dataset groups states into one of seven categories that broadly captures the state’s access to abortion: 

• Most Restrictive
• Very Restrictive
• Restrictive
• Some restrictions/protections
• Protective
• Very Protective
• Most Protective

Click here for the interactive map.

Seventeen states make up the ‘Most Restrictive’ category, and 13 of those states have enacted full bans with few exceptions. Those states include Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. The rural population in those states equals about 15.8 million people. 

Rurality Exacerbates Access Challenges

In the Post-Roe landscape, pre-existing rural challenges are exacerbated by restrictive abortion legislation, a change that has led to increased maternal mortality, particularly for women of color. The new state of abortion in America means people often have to travel much further to get the care they need, often out of state.

An ABC special that featured women who had to travel for abortions highlighted the story of Idaho resident Jennifer Adkins, who was excited when she found out she was pregnant with her first baby. But a 12-week ultrasound showed that continuing her pregnancy would put her life in danger. With financial help from family and friends, Adkins had to travel to the nearest clinic in Oregon to receive the care she needed. 

My previous analysis of abortion data showed that rural travel to abortion clinics increased from 103 miles on average in 2021 to 159 miles on average after Roe v. Wade was overturned. But travel distance varies by state, with women in parts of rural South Texas having to travel up to almost 800 miles to receive care. 

In rural Louisiana, where all the bordering states have also issued abortion bans, the distance to a clinic has increased by almost 400 miles since Roe was overturned. The average rural Louisianan is about 492 miles away from the nearest abortion clinic. The data for that analysis came from the Myers Abortion Facility Database.

In 2024, approximately 12,000 Texans traveled to New Mexico to receive an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute data. Nearly 7,000 Texans traveled to Kansas, and another 4,000 traveled to Colorado. Texas enacted a near total ban on abortions in July of 2022.
In Idaho, which enacted an abortion ban in August of 2022, 440 people travel to Washington and 140 travel to Oregon for abortions in 2024. (Visit the Guttmacher’s interactive map of abortion travel by state to explore the topic in more detail.)

Abortion and Rural Voters: More Complex Than You Might Think

Every time I write something about how rural people suffer from GOP policies, I get comments and emails from readers saying some version of, “They voted for this.” I take issue with this response for many reasons. It’s unkind, and it erases the thousands of rural voters who don’t support these policies. While some people are going to say you get what you deserve, here’s another way to look at it.

In a previous analysis of voting data from the nine states that had abortion on a ballot measure in 2024, I found that support for Trump didn’t always line up with support for abortion restriction. In 2024, approximately 73% of rural voters supported Trump, but only 61% voted to restrict abortion access. 

While 61% is still a majority vote, the 12-point gap between support for Trump and support for abortion restriction demonstrates that abortion access is a complicated issue for many Americans across the geographic spectrum. This data shows a rural voting base that is willing to split with the broader Republican platform on key issues. 

“All voters are complex,” said Nicholas Jacobs, rural sociologist. “People voted for [Trump], even if they wanted more access to reproductive care or were disappointed that a national standard was lifted by the courts.” 

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The post The Stats on Abortion Access in Rural America appeared first on The Daily Yonder.

Nearly two years after McAlester Regional Health Center declined to renew its lease with a previous cancer treatment provider, a newly renovated center operated by the state’s largest oncology practice is set to begin seeing patients Dec. 15. Quelling community concerns over whether full oncology services would actually return to one of southeast Oklahoma’s largest […]

The post ‘Life-changing health care’: After contentious lease decision, renovated McAlester cancer center reopens appeared first on NonDoc.

More than 300,000 Oklahomans rely on the Affordable Care Act Marketplace for health insurance, and the vast majority of them receive advanced premium tax credits, according to KFF.

Oklahoma Policy Institute researchers say nearly everyone buying insurance through the marketplace will be affected if enhanced tax credits are not extended. Kati Malicoate, who works in communications with the institution, said the state’s rural residents will be hardest hit.

“In certain areas, for example, Texas County, they could see increases of up to $1,000 per month, and over 100,000 rural Oklahomans use the marketplace, which makes this a huge issue,” Malicoate said.

Malicoate said there are existing health access disparities in rural areas, making it harder for people to get care, and the higher cost adds another layer.

There’s less access to transportation, reliable internet and fewer insurance providers. She said many of the state’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing, and uncompensated care costs make things worse.

“So as people lose their health insurance, whether from the enhanced premium tax credits expiring or the recent cuts to Medicaid and work requirements, we are going to see hospitals have people come in who cannot pay their bills,” Malicoate said. “They have to absorb those costs.”

She said this would also affect people outside the marketplace because it could lead to higher prices across the board, and some rural hospitals could close. For marketplace enrollees, Malicoate said to prepare and there are tools to help estimate premiums without the enhanced premium tax credits.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on a proposal to extend the tax credits, but NPR reports it might not have enough votes to advance.

“So even if someone thinks, ‘Well, I’m not on the marketplace, it’s not going to affect me,’ it’s absolutely going to trickle down,” Malicoate said. “I also think people need to keep in mind that this is not hopeless, and that you are able to contact your lawmaker and urge them to vote yes on this.”

For the first time, Ada is building a day center where people who are homeless have a place to hang out and to get resources, a reflection of a trend in rural Oklahoma of more people having a harder time staying in stable housing. 

Sarah Frye, director of Ada Homeless Services, views the center as a positive move by directly addressing a community problem rather than being in denial. It provides a safe shelter for vulnerable people and gives the nonprofit a central place for outreach. 

A bonus will be getting more accurate data on how many people are homeless in the city of about 16,500 residents. 

“We have a set amount of money for our homeless prevention programs and are seeing more applicants seeking more assistance each year,” Frye said. “Without a doubt in the last 12 months, we have seen more new people facing homelessness and new people falling into homelessness. 

“The problems are the same for urban and rural homeless people,” she said. “The difference is a lack of resources in rural areas. We’re hoping the day center will be the answer to failed street outreach. It’s hard doing street outreach. A tent may pop up but is gone by the time we can get there.”

Data about the depth of homelessness in rural areas is such a challenge that an accurate number doesn’t exist, according to frontline homeless outreach workers in rural Oklahoma. 

The federally mandated Point-In-Time Count from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development is a single-day count of homeless people held during the last two weeks in January. The first PIT report was produced in 2007 and involves asking a series of questions about demographics, health status and housing history.

In metropolitan areas, an army of volunteers is trained to do the census with partner nonprofits such as shelters, food pantries, meal centers and other outreach locations. Urban city officials use the PIT in public policy decision-making. 

That’s not the case in rural Oklahoma. 

To get the count, HUD divides the country into Continuums of Care based on population. The nation’s largest cities may have several Continuums of Care, while some rural areas span multiple counties. Ada is part of the Southeast Continuum of Care with 21 counties, totalling about 17,730 square miles that includes the dense forest of the Ouachita Mountains. 

By comparison, the Oklahoma City PIT covers just its city limits (621 square miles), and the Tulsa PIT includes the county of about 587 square miles. 

The 2025 PIT for the Southeast Continuum of Care shows 372 unsheltered people (24 of those younger than 18) and 329 in emergency shelter (89 of those younger than 18). 

“The Point-In-Time Count is completely inaccurate for rural areas,” Frye said. “It’s a lot harder to count 21 counties than a single city that can put out coffee and doughnuts to get a count. You could take the rural numbers, multiply by 10 and still not even be close to right. There are some counties that probably don’t get counted at all.

“With this being in January, during winter, homeless people disappear around here,” she said. “They tend to have a friend or family that lets them stay during the cold months. By the HUD definition, they aren’t homeless, but we know that they are.”

The HUD definition of unsheltered homelessness is sleeping overnight in a place not intended for human habitation, such as cars, tents, parks and streets. Sheltered homelessness is defined as adequate nighttime residence but supervised as public or private shelters, which could be emergency shelters or transitional living programs. 

Those definitions mean people who are couch surfing with friends and family or staying temporarily in motels are not considered homeless. Some towns have anti-homeless ordinances that make it illegal to sleep in public spaces. If those areas have no shelters, then people who are homeless tend to hide, making it difficult for a PIT census. 

The PIT results are reported to HUD, which considers that as part of a formula determining overall grant funding. This algorithm makes it difficult to know if, or how many, dollars are lost based on an undercount. Most rural housing and homeless advocates say other factors such as poverty rates hold greater weight, but it’s unclear, says Amanda Ewing, executive director of the Oklahoma Association of Community Action Agencies. 

“The Point-In-Time count is really more geared for urban and suburban areas and not well suited for Oklahoma,” Ewing said. 

Smaller populations mean fewer ranks of volunteers. Frye said she pulled in game wardens to let her know on the PIT day if they see any homeless people. Mostly, the census is based on volunteers and staff of agencies responsible for the count. 

The Northeast Oklahoma Continuum of Care has 11 counties covering about 6,840 square miles, including the Ozark mountains. Some cities, such as Vinita and Tahlequah, have concerted efforts, while counties such as Delaware are difficult to cover, said Lindi Conover, planner with the Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency, who is in charge of the count. On a strong year, she will have 70 volunteers, but it usually hovers closer to 45. 

The PIT from this year showed 128 unsheltered people and 65 sheltered individuals.

“Most people hear that and say, ‘That’s impossible, that’s wrong, I can find more people than that right now,’” Conover said. “Our area is vast. We don’t have the resources, the organization or the volunteers to do this sort of thing. Homelessness is not visible in rural areas. We don’t have encampments like in cities or shelters where people gather. If people are in tents, it’s way off the beaten path where they can’t be found.”

Conover said the undercount hurts on grants specifically relying on PIT to gauge need, but she is more concerned about a recent HUD announcement that would limit spending on permanent supportive housing programs to only 30% of its allocations to agencies. There has previously not been any restriction. 

Permanent supportive housing programs offer indefinite rental assistance and supportive services for people with disabilities who are also homeless. 

“There are partner groups that use 100% of the allocation for permanent supportive housing because we know that’s what helps people here the most,” Conover said. 

Another consequence of inaccurate PIT leads to a lack of community awareness. 

In Atoka, City Councilor Erica Pogue, who is also the director of the Inca Community Action Agency, says it’s difficult to advocate for public resources for homelessness without facts to show the problem. 

“Too many people don’t think there are homeless people here,” Pogue said. “I’ve practically taken them to where homeless people live. We’ve turned a blind eye to our homeless in rural places. I’m not sure how many there are, but it’s too many. We do not have shelters to get a count. It’s hard to convince people about homeless issues when they can’t see it.”

Atoka is also in the Southeast Continuum of Care, and Pogue’s agency leads the PIT effort for Atoka County and three other counties. 

“The bigger issue we have is not having housing to get people into.”

Erica Pogue

“We will have people looking for homeless people, but you’re not going to find them in the daytime,” Pogue said. “We use staff to drive around and mark down what they see, but that’s not an efficient way to do this. You really need to go to where they are, but we’re not going to ask staff to go into some areas because it’s dangerous.”

In 2017, the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty released a report detailing flaws in the PIT method that mirror challenges faced by rural frontline workers. It recommended expanding the definition of homelessness and moving to a design that allows for follow-up surveys, estimations and other ways to input information. 

“The results of the PIT counts – and even the trend data – are not necessarily accurate indicators of the success or failure of programs or policies that address homelessness,” the report states. 

Pogue has been pushing for public investments into transitional housing programs because her agency’s hotel rental assistance program isn’t able to keep up with demand. It costs $1,000 to $1,500 to rent a three-bedroom home in Atoka, which isn’t affordable on a $10- to $15-an-hour wage, she said. That’s pushing more people into weekly rate hotels. 

“We spend money putting people in hotels, and if we had a shelter or transitional housing, it would be more effective and help a greater quantity of people,” Pogue said. “What we are currently doing works for our program, but transitional housing would provide long-term assistance and be better for the people to establish their lives sufficiently.

“Whether we get a better Point-in-Time count or not isn’t the pressing problem,” she said. “The bigger issue we have is not having housing to get people into. With the housing, there are too many restrictions, such as felony convictions, and not enough to go around for all who need it.”

The post Counting the Invisible: Why Rural Homelessness Stays Hidden appeared first on Oklahoma Watch.

The report analyzed the most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It notes that the violence discussed in their findings is the direct result of colonization and structural racism.

Among the most striking parallels between national and state data are the high gun suicide rates among Indigenous folks. Out of all 50 states, Oklahoma had the second-highest gun suicide rate among Indigenous people in 2023. Alaska was listed as number one, according to a Johns Hopkins report on gun violence.

Nationally, the Indigenous population has the second-highest suicide rates and firearm suicide rates, with Indigenous men particularly impacted. While those suicide rates remain high, they have lowered in recent years.

“The American Indian/Alaska Native population faces a continuing crisis of lethal gun violence that outside of impacted communities rarely receives the attention it demands,” Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center, said in a news release. “The goal of this annual report is to support the efforts of advocates, organizations, and policymakers as they work to reduce gun violence in this community.”

Public health recommendations from Johns Hopkins to help prevent firearm suicide include safely securing firearms away from those who may be at risk of self-harm and meeting with clinicians to develop healthy coping mechanisms during crisis events.

The report acknowledges the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples crisis, and the information utilized is most likely undercounted due to the high rates of Indigenous women impacted, as well as data misclassifications. The VPC findings showed that “since 2015, the rate of female AI/AN victims killed by males has been the second highest in the nation.”

The homicide rate caused by firearms for American Indians and Alaska Natives continues to increase across the country. The study acknowledges the need for ongoing work to address violence.