Three Cities, Three Approaches: How Oklahoma's Homeless Encampment Sweeps Played Out Differently

It is a tale of three cities.

On the morning of May 22, Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers cleared a homeless encampment on vacant state-owned property in Norman under Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Operation SAFE initiative. Service providers said there was no warning that an encampment sweep would be happening.

The move mirrored how Operation SAFE, or Swift Action for Families Everywhere, played out when it was first introduced in Tulsa in September. The three-week campaign saw a rift between Tulsa city officials and state officials, with Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols and Stitt publicly disagreeing over the governor’s handling of the homeless population living on stateowned land in Tulsa.