After months of planning, Mayor Monroe Nichols launched Safe Move Tulsa — his $10 million initiative to fix Tulsa’s homelessness epidemic and house at least 300 people over the next nine months.
The city’s initiative is coordinated with Housing Solutions, A Way Home For Tulsa Continuum Care, Tulsa’s tribal nations and other partner organizations. Nichols gathered Wednesday with other officials at Eagle’s Nest, a homeless encampment site known to service providers on the south end of the River Spirit Casino.
The $10 million investment is dedicated to the plan’s first year, with the ultimate goal of ending homelessness by 2030. According to the city, funding for the program comes from:
- $4.4 million from the Walmart Opioid Settlement subfund and Pandemic Relief Recovery Fund
- $2.6 million in COVID-19 relief funds
- $4 million from private donations
“Collaboration really matters,” Nichols said during a press conference. “For quite some time, we have known, we need a better, more coordinated approach to addressing street homelessness in our city. And I believe that Safe Move is that approach.”
Alongside the new launch, Nichols said the Eagle’s Nest site is closing.
“This encampment will not return,” Nichols said. “The Tulsa Police Department and city security will continue to monitor this area daily.”
A total of 25 people who were living at the encampment site were transitioned into housing. Thirteen of them were moved over the summer, and the last few people moved into housing as recently as Tuesday evening.
There will be three phases for Safe Move Tulsa: preventing and eliminating street sleeping, preventing homelessness and securing revenue resources to provide better relief for homeless individuals.
The plan’s formal launch follows shortly after Gov. Kevin Stitt’s Operation SAFE displaced homeless individuals around the city, evicting them from state-owned land and throwing out their belongings. The operation has since expanded to include Oklahoma City.
A $60 million fix?
Clutch Consulting, an organization assessing homelessness in cities across the country, said last month $60 million can fix the Tulsa homeless crisis within three years. A total of 3,100 people in Tulsa enter homelessness annually and 74% of them are experiencing it for the first time, according to the organization.
Nichols previously told the media he wants to “cut that number in half.”
Clutch Consulting mapped out several goals for the city:
- Rehouse 300 people currently living unsheltered
- Sustain annual city revenue to maintain homeless response efforts
- Strategize early intervention plans to prevent homelessness with actions like rapid housing
Housing Solutions CEO Mark Smith said the group has been collaborating with the city since the spring. The closure of Eagle’s Nest was the first of other efforts to clear encampment sites yet still provide housing for homeless Tulsans.
“This is our first encampment decommissioning of this kind where we did not lean into displacement,” Smith said, noting that several people were moved into housing the day before. “They have their own apartment and they will now be provided with resources to make sure they maintain housing.”
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