David Nichols drives through his trailer park on the southeast side of Oklahoma City surveying the seemingly constant buzz of activity. Men toil under the blazing July sun, patching the leaky roofs of trailers, while others try to fix an old car parked in a makeshift garage. Several of the trailers were donated to the park after they were beaten by tornadoes in Moore, and it shows.
Broken windows and siding that bears the scars of extreme weather dot the park. Not only do many of the trailers look ramshackle, they are crammed together. Like tents in a refugee camp, there is hardly more than a few feet separating many of them. Despite the dilapidated condition of the park, demand to live here has never been higher. The challenges are compounded by a law passed in That law, authored by Sen.
Clark Jolley, R-Edmond, added manufactured homes to the list of living quarters where two or more sex offenders could not live together. After the law passed, Nichols was forced to evict more than men living in the park. Two other men forced out of the park and onto the streets took their lives by stepping in front of a train, he said.
Sometimes, he feels alone on that mission. Everyone who works at the park, whether as a mechanic or a carpenter, is a sex offender.
Even the guys who work in administration. Everyone is required to attend weekly ministry services and seek counseling. Those who can work are encouraged to do so. Nichols boasts that in an in-house study of the residents found a less than 1 percent recidivism rate on sexual crimes.
