NORMAN, OK – Gov. Kevin Stitt’s operation to clear homeless encampments from state land has moved to Norman, but without an offer of funding to house displaced people.
The move comes after the state agreed to pay Oklahoma City up to $800,000 for housing and support services when Stitt’s Operation Safe cleared homeless encampments there last year.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers on Friday morning cleared a homeless encampment on a vacant state-owned field that abuts the Norman homeless shelter Food and Shelter, where an estimated 30 to 50 people were residing. Two homeless service providers in the area told The Frontier the state did not give them prior notice that the camp would be cleared on Friday.
Local and state law enforcement had previously planned to clear the encampment in April and the people living in the camp had been notified, but the efforts were eventually postponed without a newly scheduled date, said Heidi Smith, director of operations at Thunderbird Clubhouse, a Norman nonprofit that serves adults recovering from mental illness.
A video posted by The Norman Transcript shows a bulldozer throwing a mattress into a Dumpster, as state troopers push a grocery cart full of belongings toward the trash pile.
A man named Chris, who was camping in the field, said he heard a loud warning broadcast from a nearby loudspeaker Thursday night, directing people in the area to move off state land or they would be arrested. The Frontier is only using Chris’s first name to protect his privacy.
He, along with his girlfriend, quickly packed their belongings and moved to the other side of the shelter building, which is not state property. Chris expects they’ll have to move again soon.
Signs were posted around the field with a notice to vacate the area. And while Chris managed to move his belongings, others had their tents and bedding thrown away, along with important documents like IDs and birth certificates, some residents said.
His girlfriend’s mother, who stays with the couple, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a condition affecting the lungs that makes it hard to breathe. Moving around is hard for her, Chris said.
“I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” he said, looking at his belongings. “I mean, can I deal without all this I got here? I can’t.”
Norman shelters are nearly always at capacity, and some service providers are closed on the weekends, making a Friday encampment clearing particularly burdensome for those displaced, Smith said.
Smith said providers in Norman don’t have the resources or funding to quickly house 30 to 50 people. Most people move from encampments to permanent housing with a Section 8 housing voucher, but the Norman Housing Authority currently has nearly 600 families on its waitlist.
The state finalized a contract earlier this year to reimburse Oklahoma City the costs of housing those displaced by Operation SAFE who stayed in the housing program for at least a month. As of March, at least 27 people have been placed in the state-funded housing.
But city officials say that offer wasn’t presented in Norman, despite Gov. Stitt’s office telling The Frontier in November the state would extend the deal to other cities where the operation takes place.
“Should Operation SAFE continue to be a success and move to other municipalities, we will use a similar approach, ensuring that any funding available to municipalities and non-profits is stewarded well and that strict guidelines and expectations remain in place,” wrote Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt.
Norman Mayor Stephen Tyler Holman said the state never informed him of plans to bring Operation SAFE to Norman or offered state funding to help those displaced. He called the operation “performative” and said it only “ping pongs” people around the community instead of solving their root causes of homelessness.
“What is Operation Safe actually doing to address the issue of homelessness?” Holman said. “I would argue that it’s not doing anything.”
Tiffany Martinez Vrska, a spokesperson for the City of Norman, said the city “respects the state’s decision to take actions they see fit on their property.”
Tevis Hillis, a spokesperson for Stitt’s office, said individuals impacted by the operation were encouraged to connect to services through the state’s “Be a Neighbor” initiative, an online portal listing different housing and food resources throughout the state.
Smith said there will likely be more people sleeping on the streets in Norman after Operation SAFE. She says the operation only temporarily eliminates visible homelessness.
“It hasn’t solved the problem at all. It’s just made people who are in a bad situation in a worse situation,” Smith said. “If I came to your house and knocked it down, where would you get a house? What would you do tonight if you didn’t have a bank account, and you didn’t have anything, and I came and I took what you had?”
Republished under Creative Commons license from The Frontier, a nonprofit newsroom that produces fearless journalism with impact in Oklahoma. Read more at www.readfrontier.org.
Free Press publishes this report as a collaborative effort to provide the best coverage of state issues that affect our readers.
Maddy Keyes is a reporter for The Frontier, a Tulsa, Oklahoma nonprofit newsroom that reports news from across the state. She may be reached at: maddy@readfrontier.com
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