Oklahoma

Gov. Stitt authorizes Operation SAFE to clear homeless encampments in Oklahoma City

Published

5 months ago

October 27, 2025

Gov. Stitt authorizes Operation SAFE to clear homeless encampments in Oklahoma City

Gov. Kevin Stitt’s efforts to clean up homeless encampments are now being carried out in Oklahoma City, this time in partnership with the city’s Key to Home program.

In a news release late Monday, Stitt announced the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and the Oklahoma Department of Transportation had begun clean ups of encampments on state property.

The operation first started in Tulsa in September. Stitt said it is a state initiative to “restore safety and cleanliness by removing homeless encampments, trash, and debris from state-owned property.” According to the news release, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol has legal authority to target state-owned property including underpasses, highways, state buildings, and other state-controlled land.

State troopers cleaned out at least three homeless encampments on the first day of Stitt’s program to keep unhoused people from camping on state property in Oklahoma City.

Troopers cleaned out the bridges under Interstate 235 on 23rd Street and Reno Avenue. They also cleaned out Interstate 40 from Meridian Avenue to MacArthur Boulevard as a part of Operation SAFE, said Abegail Cave, the communications director in Stitt’s office.

Stitt said Operation SAFE was succcessful in Tulsa and that business leaders and stakeholders quickly requested the state do the same in Oklahoma City.

“The state is doing its job, and just like in Tulsa, it’s the role of the city and non-profits to ensure Oklahoma City stays clean and safe for all residents,” Stitt said in the news release.

Oklahoma partners with Key to Home for Operation SAFE in OKC

According to the news release, the state is partnering with Key to Home, a program that helps connect people to shelter, treatment and housing. Currently, Key to Home’s Encampment Rehousing Initiative has helped nearly 450 people transition from unsheltered homelessness into housing with supportive services. The program’s goal is to rehouse at least 500 people by the end of 2025.

Homeless Strategy Implementation Manager Jamie Caves said the state approached them about addressing encampments on state property and their program was already in place to offer a solution.

“We’ve worked hard to coordinate efforts more effectively and create a streamlined pathway to restoration for our neighbors who are sleeping outside,” Caves said.

Holt appreciates the collaboration between state and city

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt said the city is grateful for any opportunity to collaborate with property owners and demonstrate Key to Home’s continued effectiveness. The program is a major reason why the unsheltered homeless population has declined four years in a row, he added.

“As a property owner in our city, the state government reached out to local authorities in the last few weeks and requested collaboration in addressing homelessness on their state-owned property in Oklahoma City,” Holt said via text to The Oklahoman. “State-owned property is obviously a very limited subset of Oklahoma City’s land mass, so the work of Key to Home will continue long past today.”

Collaboration is the preferred response from the state government on addressing homeless. Moving people from one side of the street to the other is good for the property owner, but it doesn’t do anything for the community because it doesn’t reduce homelessness, Holt said.

The approach of using an existing program that has had success accomplishes the property owner’s goal of clearing their property and reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness, he added.

“The state collaborating with us was a good move, if for no other reason than it took advantage of an existing, proven program,” Holt said.

Operation SAFE repeats efforts in Oklahoma City

In Tulsa, where Stitt first launched the program, it drew the ire of advocates for unhoused people and local officials. Advocates said the program did nothing to help people who are homeless. It simply moved them from one place to the next.

Although Oklahoma Highway Patrol officials said they had no plans to bring the program to Oklahoma City, Cave said that changed when business owners reached out to Stitt in the wake of the cleanout in Tulsa. Those business leaders recommended that Stitt work with Key to Home.

“People asked, and people were willing to step up and help,” Cave said. “We were inclined to do that.”

Key to Home has been working with the capital city since 2023, when they launched their partnership to reduce unsheltered homelessness.

Cave said she does not support efforts that might criminalize homelessness.

Key to Home staff members alerted people in Oklahoma City encampments about state troopers’ plan to clear them out, Cave said. She said the plan came together in the last two weeks.

What happened with Operation SAFE in Tulsa?

The effort lasted 12 days and ended Sept. 17, after Stitt said troopers removed people from 64 encampments.

Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols said the removals have done little to address the root causes of homelessness. The efforts have also drawn comparisons to President Donald Trump’s actions in Washington, D.C.

Beth Edwards Svetlic, assistant executive director at Youth Services of Tulsa, said she has received reports that in the push to move people from their encampments, people have lost vital documents, IDs and prescriptions. She said the actions have created an atmosphere of unease among people who are homeless. Her group helps young people who are homeless.

This story has been updated to add new information.

Source link

Click to comment

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City Thunder writer wants apology from Seattle fans if Sonics return

Published

12 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma City Thunder writer wants apology from Seattle fans if Sonics return

The Seattle SuperSonics haven’t touched the floor in almost 20 years since the beloved team was taken to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder in 2008.
It’s been two decades since one of the most painful relocations in the history of professional sports. That year, Oklahoma investor Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City after purchasing the franchise from Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz two years prior.
Seattle fans still haven’t gotten over the move all these years later, and who could really blame them after the way their team was ripped out of their city. However, Sonics fans are closer than ever to getting the Sonics back after the NBA went public with its hopes to expand to 32 teams by placing teams in Seattle and Las Vegas.
Advertisement

You would think this would be a story that would be celebrated across the universe. And since Oklahoma City just won a championship with the Thunder and are the favorites to win another NBA title this year, you would think that Seattle getting back their Sonics would be the least of their concerns. They won and they continue to win. Seattle getting the Sonics name, history, and colors back from the Thunder already has precedent with the re-christening of the Charlotte Hornets and the complicated web between Charlotte and New Orleans franchises. So what’s the big deal, right?
Well, USA Today’s OKC Thunder wire reporter Clemente Almanza doesn’t quite see it that way.
In a column entitled, “If Sonics want history back, Seattle owes OKC Thunder an apology,” Almanza makes the case that aggrieved Sonics fans should say sorry after actively rooting against the Thunder for so many years.

If the Sonics are brought back, how do the Thunder address the giant elephant in the room? Of course, I’m talking about Seattle’s NBA history from 1967 to 2007. Does OKC gift it back to Seattle, when it technically doesn’t have to, when you look at the nitty-gritty of the original contract details?

The Thunder give the Sonics back their history, it’s not that hard. They’re not going to take the 2025 NBA Finals trophy with them! And it’s not even like the Thunder are using Sonics-inspired throwback jerseys with the famous green and gold color combos like the Tennessee Titans do with the history of the Houston Oilers.

Yeah. Sure. Might as well. Not like the Thunder acknowledges the Sonics’ history even though they technically own it.

Ok good, now everyone is on the same page and we should be able to move forward together.
Advertisement

But under one caveat — an apology.

* insert blinking guy gif here *
Sonics fans in Seattle owe Oklahoma City and Thunder fans an apology? After going without a basketball team for 20 years and seeing the franchise that was taken away from them build the best young team in the league that looks like they are turning into a dynasty before their eyes? What about other fans that have had to suffer from losing their teams? Should Oakland A’s fans just thank John Fisher for the memories and wish them well in Sacramento and Las Vegas and wherever else they actually play?

For 18 years, Thunder fans have dealt with Sonics fans’ bitter behavior. When an inconvenience happens to OKC, Seattleites are the first to celebrate with online parties. Angered over a dramatic divorce, that group of people is directing their emotions at the wrong group.
Sonics fans should really be mad at Howard Schultz and the previous group. After all, they’re the ones who sold the NBA franchise to Bennett. Once that move was made, the writing was on the wall with an eventual relocation — especially since Seattle didn’t want to pony up for a new NBA arena.

Professional sports fans are beginning to warm up to the idea that billion dollar local government bailouts for billionaire owners aren’t exactly the best use of public funds. There were even serious questions about the renovation of KeyArena (now Climate Pledge Arena) when it happened in 2018 and that was without a guarantee that the Sonics would ever return. Now Seattle has an NHL team and perhaps an NBA team on the way. But it has certainly come at a significant cost.
And for that matter, are Thunder fans really watching over their shoulder worried about what people in a city almost 2,000 miles away think about their basketball teams? It’s not like Seattle fans are conducting operations in the streets of Oklahoma City to deface Thunder billboards or anything. Where are the Thunder fans who are so agonized that Seattle didn’t enjoy their title as much as they did in Oklahoma City?!?
Advertisement

They weren’t the ones who refused to accommodate an NBA team. They weren’t the ones who sold the team to an out-of-state ownership group when local groups were interested. They weren’t the ones who were gullible enough to believe an out-of-state ownership group had a real interest in staying put.
I digress. Feels like that should be water under the bridge soon. Seattle should get an NBA team by the end of the decade. But if they want their Sonics’ history back, an apology is in order. That’s what happens when you have nearly two decades of misguided anger.

Telling Sonics fans not to be angry at Clay Bennett for moving the Sonics to Oklahoma City is like asking Cleveland Browns fans not to be angry at Art Modell. It’s never going to happen in a million years. Seattle basketball fans got to see Kevin Durant’s rookie season and then he left. That’s one of the biggest teases in sports history. Let alone multiple eras of sustained success in Oklahoma City. You can understand there might be some bitterness! And it’s totally natural and understandable. As are the replies on social media that aren’t exactly in agreement with Almanza’s column.
Trying to hold the Sonics history hostage for a mythical apology is a hot take that not even ChatGPT could conjure up if you asked it to create the most scorching opinion about the entire situation. The column may get some cheers locally, and maybe that’s all it’s meant to do. But the only thing it will really accomplish is making the bad blood in Seattle boil even more after being told what to do by someone representing who they believe truly wronged them. That first visit of the Thunder to Seattle will only be matched by LeBron James’ first game back in Cleveland after joining the Miami Heat. And it’ll be must-see TV for basketball fans everywhere.

Source link

Oklahoma

Oklahoma County Commissioner comments on news of Myles Davidson’s resignation

Published

24 hours ago

March 21, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma County Commissioner comments on news of Myles Davidson’s resignation

Oklahoma County Commissioner Myles Davidson is resigning.

Commissioner Brian Maughan released a statement to Fox 25 Friday night regarding Davidson’s resignation saying it “allows us to focus on solving the problems with our budget this year and the construction of the new jail.”

News of his resignation comes just over a week after a Cleveland County judge granted a final order of protection against Davidson. Court records show the order is effective until March 11, 2029.

There have previously been calls for him to resign after allegations of sexual assault came to light in September.

Fox 25 is working to obtain more information about Davidson’s decision to resign.

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

This is a developing story.

Source link

Oklahoma

Oklahoma vs Idaho predictions, picks, odds for NCAA Tournament First Round

Published

1 day ago

March 20, 2026

Press Room

Oklahoma vs Idaho predictions, picks, odds for NCAA Tournament First Round

The First Round of the women’s 2026 NCAA Tournament continues Friday with a slate featuring No. 4 Oklahoma vs. No. 13 Idaho on the 16-game schedule.

Here is the latest on Friday’s March Madness matchup, including expert picks from reporters across the USA TODAY Sports Network.

USA TODAY Sports has a team of journalists covering the women’s NCAA Tournament to keep you up to date with every point scored, rebound grabbed and game won in the 68-team tournament.

USA TODAY Studio IX: Check out our women’s sports hub for in-depth analysis, commentary and more

Join the USA TODAY $1 million Bracket Challenge