Once wary of apartments for the homeless, Forest Orchard adopts a more welcoming attitude.

When the residents of a midtown neighborhood first learned that an apartment complex in their area was housing the chronically homeless, they became concerned.

"Our first attitude toward it was negative," said Kimberly Norman, founder and president of the Forest Orchard Neighborhood Association.

Pastor Dean Maas of nearby Trinity Ministries echoed that sentiment.

"Your first reaction is, 'I don't think so,' " he said.

Then they started learning more about the program, and about their own neighborhood. It already had a psychiatric residency program, a youth services program and homes from other social organizations that had not been causing problems.

They realized that embracing the programs and working together would fit in with their efforts to clean up Forest Orchard and make it a socially and economically diverse neighborhood that was, above all, welcoming.

"It's the education that is so vitally necessary to make social change," Maas said.

Michael Brose, executive director of the Mental Health Association of Tulsa, said he admired the neighborhood's approach. The association operates the complex that houses formerly homeless people as well as others of mixed incomes.

"Rather than being a neighborhood that excludes people, they're trying to be a neighborhood that's inclusive,"

Forest Orchard's attitude is unique for a neighborhood association, and helpful for the city overall, he said.

The apartment complex is part of the Building Tulsa Building Lives initiative, which is working to end chronic homelessness in Tulsa with a housing-first approach.

"If people have a safe, affordable, decent place to live, they thrive as citizens," Brose said.

Eric Sachau, director of business development at Parkside Psychiatric Hospital, said the hospital has worked with the neighborhood association and appreciates its methods.

The hospital capacity is 32, and it has a residency program for 40 children. The organization has been in the Forest Orchard neighborhood for almost 50 years and always has made efforts to be a good neighbor, Sachau said.

"We want to work with people around here to improve this area," he said. "Although Parkside is a business, it lives here, too."

Norman and others started the neighborhood association about two years ago in response to rising crime rates that were scaring even longtime residents.

"They were afraid to sit on their front porch," she said. "The criminals had taken over. Basically, we've taken a stand and said, 'Hey, this is our neighborhood.' "

Most of the crime was related to drug-dealing and prostitution, but incidents have decreased dramatically since the association began working with the Tulsa Police Department and creating a network of concerned residents.

The neighborhood had seen other attempts to organize, but getting area stakeholders together to address issues that affected all of them had not yet been accomplished.

"You had a lot of people that were talking, but nobody was doing anything," Norman said. "That was making a lot of people frustrated."

The association had high membership numbers when it first started and now operates with a core group of about 25. They meet regularly and use e-mail to organize festivals, cleanups and other events throughout the year.

Maas said that through the association's efforts and willingness to embrace the social organizations already at work in the community, crime has gone down, and cooperation has gone up.

"We can't afford to operate separately anymore," he said.

The association also aims to foster economic and social diversity in the area, Maas said.

Trinity Ministries operates senior housing and has plans to acquire more property for that purpose. Hillcrest Medical Center has considered working with area apartment complexes to house its interns, he said.

Maas said he can sense that the neighborhood and all the groups who have an interest in its well-being are ready to set an example.

"That's why, I think, there's all this excitement going on," he said. "It's just the idea that we're all coming together at the same time. It's so simple, but at the same time, it's so revolutionary."

Shannon Muchmore 581-8378
shannon.muchmore@tulsaworld.com