Stitt targets homeless camps in newest plan

The Oklahoman USA TODAY NETWORK

Alex Gladden and Jessie Christopher Smith

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt says he is directing state troopers to step up their law enforcement in Democratled Tulsa, a move that comes as President Donald Trump threatens other blue states and cities with similar action. Stitt announced what he’s calling Operation SAFE on Thursday, Sept. 4, ordering troopers to focus on removing people who are homeless from encampments on state properties. He also said the Oklahoma Department of Transportation would clear trash from the sites.

Stitt said troopers have started issuing warnings to people who are homeless, while ODOT workers a posting notices at encampments on state property ordering people to leave where they live. Stitt said he directed troopers to transport unhoused people living in these encampments to either jail, treatment or housing.

The plan drew widespread criticism, including from Tulsa’s mayor and service providers.

Arresting people because they do not have anywhere to live will only exacerbate homelessness, said Beth Edwards Svetlic, the assistant executive director of the Youth Services of Tulsa and the chairwoman of A Way Home for Tulsa, a coalition of about 60 organizations that serve unhoused people in Tulsa County.

She said shelters are full, and housing programs are maxed out.

“Anytime we disrupt people’s living situations without really coordinated support, it can cause a lot of undue stress, chaos, disruption for those individuals,” Edwards Svetlic said.

The governor’s decision to target homeless encampments in Tulsa comes after Trump signed an executive order in July meant to crack down on homelessness and make it easier to force people out of encampments. The president separately deployed National Guard troops to Washington, D.C. in August to address what he described as “out of control crime.”

The governor said Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers would target state-owned properties such as underpasses, highways and buildings, as well as state-controlled land. Patrolling those areas has long been a part of OHP’s duties.

Stitt said in a news release announcing the effort that he had talked with Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols about homelessness and other issues facing the city, but said Nichols hadn’t “met the level of action needed to keep neighborhoods safe.”

Rep. Melissa Provenzano, a Democrat from Tulsa, condemned the initiative, calling it “more for political gain than to help the city of Tulsa.” She said if the governor truly wanted to help, he would join forces with people working to create affordable housing in the city.

Provenzano also questioned Stitt’s decision to direct state troopers to clear homeless encampments in Tulsa, when OHP said earlier this summer troopers would stop patrolling metro area interstates. Attorney General Gentner Drummond declared the plan unlawful.

Stitt contended Thursday that Tulsa, where he lived before becoming governor, is unsafe, with “homeless people on every corner, trash piling up, and Oklahoma families are being forced to live in fear.”

Nichols disputed Stitt’s claim and pointed to the city’s falling crime rate and the fact that fewer people are becoming homeless. In 2023, the number of people who were homeless in the city grew by 20%. Last year, it grew by 4%, he said in a statement.

Twenty-seven people have died by homicide this year in Tulsa, according to numbers from the FBI. There were 38 homicides in the city last year. The U.S. News & World Report did not include any Oklahoma cities in its top 25 ranking of the most dangerous cities in the country for 2025.

“We have a long way to go, but we are making progress and will continue to do so,” Nichols said in a statement. “I will not be distracted or deterred from doing what we know is necessary to end this crisis in Tulsa.”

Nichols said his office has a program, the Safe Move Initiative, which has a goal to end homelessness in the city by 2030.

The newly launched Operation SAFE has raised questions about whether the effort will expand to Oklahoma City next.

When asked if the governor had intentions of announcing similar plans for OKC, Meyer Siegfried, a spokesman for Stitt, said there was “nothing to announce right now,” but did not rule out the possibility of Operation SAFE rolling out elsewhere.

“I will just remind you, the name of the Operation is Swift Action for Families Everywhere,” Siegfried said.

Officials in Oklahoma City told The Oklahoman they’ve not heard anything that indicated the governor intended to announce a similar directive for the OKC metro.

Kristy Yager, public information director for the city, said Friday she had not heard from Stitt. Erika Warren, a spokeswoman for the Key to Home Partnership addressing homelessness in OKC, also said she’d not heard anything from the governor’s office, but reiterated the city’s commitment to its current rehousing initiatives. “We’re much further along than Tulsa with our street-to-housing pathway,” Warren said. “We’ve already got systems in place, processes in place, to address the concern of unsheltered homelessness, so that will be our response and our approach moving forward.”

There has been at least one call to expand the reach of Operation SAFE. Republican Sen. Lisa Standridge urged Stitt to take similar action in her hometown of Norman.

“I applaud Gov. Stitt for taking decisive action to address the growing threats that homeless encampments pose to our communities,” Standridge said in a statement.