Homeless care reaches Tulsa Veterans

Eastern Oklahoma VA Health Care System is taking health care on the road for Veterans who are homeless in Tulsa.

Its mobile medical unit gives staff exam space, equipment and supplies so they can bring health care services to Veterans without homes, in shelters and in transitional housing.

“Our team provides primary care for Veterans and helps coordinate any specialty care they need,” says Homeless Outreach Supervisor and Coordinated Entry Specialist Alice Doyle. “We try to connect with Veterans from our first encounter, often when they’re staying outside or one of the shelters.”

Health and housing together

The mobile medical unit is part of Eastern Oklahoma VA’s work to help Veterans experiencing homelessness find permanent housing. Doyle says the homeless patient aligned care team works side by side with the homeless program.

“The homeless patient aligned care team provides the medical care Veterans need while they work through VA’s homeless programs to move from unsheltered to housed,” Doyle says.

The care team focuses on the Veteran’s medical needs while the homeless team wraps around housing, mental health and substance use support. 

That partnership helped Tulsa Army Veteran Stanley Gibson move from a truck stop to a shelter, then to transitional housing and now toward a permanent home.

Two months without a home

Gibson served in the Army from 1982 to 1989 as a mechanic on trucks, tanks and generators. In late 2025, after being evicted, he lost his housing and spent about 2 months on the streets of Tulsa.

“I wound up homeless,” Gibson says. “I spent a night behind a truck stop. I stayed at John 3:16 Mission, a shelter here in Tulsa. I stayed at the Salvation Army. It was a rough time.”

How the team finds Veterans

Gibson first connected with Eastern Oklahoma VA’s homeless program during a stay at Jack C. Montgomery VA Medical Center in Tulsa. After his discharge, he moved to John 3:16 Mission, then the Salvation Army, before an opening came at Yale Apartments.

Yale Apartments is a transitional housing site where Veterans can stay while they work toward more stable housing. The same care team followed him to each stop.

“They come to me, so I don’t have to go to them,” Gibson says. “They checked my blood pressure when I was homeless and made sure my vitals were good. They help me track my health care and medications.”

Getting to a VA provider can be hard for Veterans who don’t have transportation, a stable place to live or the money for a bus ride or rideshare. The mobile medical unit helps close that gap by meeting Veterans where they are.

Clinic on wheels

With the mobile medical unit on the road, the homeless patient aligned care team can turn parking lots and sidewalks into temporary exam rooms.

The van lets staff check vital signs, refill medications, order tests and connect Veterans to specialists while they are experiencing homelessness.

“Community outreach is crucial to engaging Veterans who may otherwise not seek VA services,” Doyle says. “The mobile medical unit helps us reach Veterans who have had a hard time getting to us in the past.”

For Gibson, that means he does not have to choose between keeping appointments and working on housing.

“If they didn’t come out to find me? I wouldn’t have the discipline, the rules,” he says. “I’d be in trouble because I know that they’re coming, they’re checking on me, which makes me want to do good.”

What changes with support

Gibson says steady contact with his VA team has changed more than his health care.

“It’s brought me closer to my son and my ex-wife,” he says. “I’m able to help both in ways I wouldn’t have been able to help them before. That means a lot to me.”

He also takes part in peer support groups with other Veterans, which he says helps him stay on track with his recovery and allows him to connect with other Veterans.

A home of his own

Gibson recently learned he and his son will move into permanent housing.

“It’s a big load off my mind,” he says. “We are both really excited about it.”

He calls VA’s support an example of his faith at work and says he has more faith now than ever. He also says he feels less alone knowing the team will continue to check on him after he leaves Yale Apartments.

First step forward

Gibson wants other Veterans to know services like the mobile medical unit and VA homeless programs are there for them too.

“You can get help,” Gibson says. “It’s going to take a first small step to reach out to somebody. That first step is the hardest one to take, but you can do it.”

Veterans who are homeless or at risk of homelessness can contact the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans at 877-4AID-VET ) or visit VA Homeless Programs to learn about housing options and other support.

Jesus Flores, writer and editor on the VISN 19 Creative Task Force and a Marine Corps Veteran