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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
2024 Census data: Oklahoma ranks as 8th poorest state: Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey, released Sept. 11, show that Oklahoma’s poverty rate was 14.9 percent, which means that more than 1 in 7 state residents live in poverty. While the state’s overall poverty rate improved by a percentage point from last year, Oklahoma ranked as having the nation’s eighth highest poverty rate. [OK Policy]
Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Highlights: Four years of federal surplus propping up Oklahoma’s budget is not enough to save the state’s budget. For the budget year beginning July 1, 2025 (Fiscal Year 2026), state agencies will have $12.08 billion to spend. [Aanahita Ervin / OK Policy]
Bulldozers won’t solve homelessness (Commentary): Gov. Stitt wants Oklahomans to believe a police escort and a bulldozer can solve homelessness. Last week, he ordered the Oklahoma Highway Patrol to sweep homeless encampments from state land in Tulsa, offering people two options: a shelter bed or a jail cell. On paper, it might look like action. In reality, it’s governance by wrecking ball. [Sabine Brown / OK Policy]
WATCH: Out of Reach Rent: Housing is unaffordable for working Oklahomans, seniors, and people with disabilities (video): Oklahoma families are working harder than ever, but rent keeps climbing out of reach. From stagnant wages to rising eviction rates, the housing crisis is squeezing workers, seniors, and people with disabilities. Watch our full interview with Sabine Brown, senior housing policy analyst, as we break down what’s happening — and what lawmakers can do about it. [OK Policy on YouTube]
Policy Matters: Data shouldn’t be political: This week, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual American Community Survey data — one of the clearest mirrors we have to see how Americans are really doing. For most, it will pass quietly; for some leaders, it will be dismissed outright. However, the truth is plain: without trustworthy data, we are steering in the dark. [Shiloh Kantz / The Journal Record]
Oklahoma State Treasurer pushes Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust board to file shareholder proposals (Capitol Update): Oklahoma Watch reported recently that State Treasurer Todd Russ is driving an effort to get the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust (TSET) Board of Investors to make proposals to corporations in which the board invests the $2 billion trust fund. The proposals are intended to sway the companies’ behavior regarding ideological issues. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
OK Policy in the News
Lack of Affordable Housing Prices Out Oklahoma Renters: Amidst a national housing crisis, a quarter of Oklahoma renters met the qualifications to be considered extremely low-income, according to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition. [Oklahoma Watch]
Opinion: Leaders’ decision to target immigrants won’t improve Oklahoma education outcomes: Oklahoma leaders have long undermined students’ education through a variety of policies, such as promoting election lies, marginalizing trans youth, and disinvesting from public schools that serve 90% of Oklahoma students. While these sorts of attacks are not new, this year leaders seem particularly eager to target Oklahoma students with an immigrant background by passing or attempting to pass policies that directly harm these students. [Gabriela Ramirez-Perez / Oklahoma Voice]
Weekly What’s That
Executive Order
Executive Orders are official directives adopted by the U.S. President or a state governor that manages operations of the government. An Executive Order allows the chief executive to act without express legislative action, but may be easily reversed by a subsequent administration. Executive orders are subject to judicial review and may be overturned if the orders lack support by statute or the Constitution.
In Oklahoma, Executive Orders of previous gubernatorial administrations terminate 90 calendar days following the inauguration of the next governor unless otherwise terminated or continued during that time by Executive Order.
At the national level, the text of Executive Orders appears in the daily Federal Register as they are signed by the President. The National Archives maintains a list of all Executive Orders indexed by Presidents, by Order number, and by subject. In Oklahoma, Executive Orders are compiled by the Secretary of State.
Data compiled by the Federal Register shows that President Donald Trump signed 143 Executive Orders within his first 100 days of office in 2025, whereas President Joe Biden signed a total of 162 Executive Orders during his entire 4-year term from 2021-2025.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“There aren’t enough shelter beds for everyone experiencing homelessness, there aren’t enough treatment facilities, mental health facilities, those type of things don’t exist, so you’re really giving people an impossible option.”
– Meghan Mueller, president and CEO of the Homeless Alliance, speaking on Governor Stitt’s new Operation SAFE. She emphasized that while the initiative claims to offer unhoused people a choice between jail or services, there are not enough services to meet demand, and that criminalizing homelessness is less effective and more costly than simply investing in housing and support. [KFOR]
Editorial of the Week
The larger issue is whether we as a state are willing to treat mental health as a real priority. When it comes to prisons, we never hesitate to build full-scale facilities. But when it comes to mental health, we trim the vision, scale down the beds and settle for patchwork fixes. If we don’t change course, Oklahoma will keep paying more in the long run — whether in prisons, emergency rooms or lives lost on our streets.
Numbers of the Week
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16% – The share of households served in U.S. shelters in 2022 who could be placed into permanent housing through homeless response systems. Expanding this capacity to house everyone experiencing sheltered homelessness in a given year would be a major step toward ending homelessness; however, it would require an estimated $9.6 billion in additional funding to achieve. [National Alliance to End Homelessness]
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61% – The share of states and territories where demand for shelter outpaced the growth in available beds in 2024. This meant most had less capacity to shelter people than they did in 2023, even as more than 600,000 people entered homelessness for the first time that year. [National Alliance to End Homelessness]
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96% – Share of residential land in Oklahoma City that is zoned exclusively for single-family dwellings. Oklahoma’s three most populous cities are majority zoned for single-family residences by right: Oklahoma City at 96 percent of residential land, Tulsa at 81 percent, and Norman at 98 percent. To build anything other than a detached single-family residence requires a cumbersome review process and approval from the city, requiring both developers and the city officials to manually review and approve each project. [OK Policy]
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38% – The share of people in Oklahoma prisons who currently exhibit symptoms of a serious mental illness. [Oklahoma Department of Corrections]
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1 in 7 – The ratio of Oklahomans who live at or below the federal poverty level, which for an individual was $16,320 or less for a family of three was $25,249 or less. Oklahoma had the nation’s 8th highest poverty rate. [U.S. Census via OK Policy]
What We’re Reading
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The National Guard Won’t End Homelessness. Housing Resources Can: Criminalizing homelessness through forced encampment clearings, policing, or National Guard deployment fails to resolve the underlying issue and often disrupts essential connections to housing, services, and documentation. By contrast, evidence shows that investments in housing — like vouchers and permanent supportive housing — help individuals exit homelessness more effectively and sustainably. Communities that prioritize housing and shelter with wrap‑around support also free up police resources for other public safety responsibilities. [Urban Institute]
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State of Homelessness: 2025 Edition: Homelessness in the U.S. is growing across nearly every population segment—from families and youth to individuals — outpacing the ability of communities to respond. Although service systems are managing to assist more people than ever, the gap in shelter, housing, and support capacity remains wide, underscoring a systemic mismatch between need and available resources. The upward trend has taken root in broader structural factors — such as persistently high housing costs, rising rents, and shrinking rental affordability — that erode progress even in areas with increased shelter availability. [National Alliance to End Homelessness]
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High-Density Housing Is for Families, Too — and We Need More of It: My family of five lives in a 1,100-square-foot, three-bedroom condo in one of the densest neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C., region. We chose the tradeoff of a smaller home in a walkable neighborhood rather than a bigger home in a farther-flung neighborhood, and we’re not alone. High prices in the country’s densest neighborhoods tell us that many people are willing to make the same choice. Unfortunately, not everyone who is inclined to live close to plentiful job opportunities, conveniences and culture — without the need for a daily drive down congested freeways or to water a large yard — gets to do so. A morass of regulations stands in the way. [Governing]
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Reducing Arrest and Jailing of People with Mental Health Disabilities, Including Those with Intersectional Identities: People with mental health disabilities are disproportionately arrested and jailed, often for behaviors tied to unmet treatment needs or crises rather than serious crimes. Structural barriers — including underfunded community services, lack of crisis response alternatives, and reliance on police as first responders — perpetuate this cycle. Expanding community-based care, crisis response teams, and diversion programs are essential to keep people out of jail, while ensuring that those who do encounter the justice system receive adequate protections and access to treatment. [Safety + Justice Challenge]
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To Understand 2024 Census Data, Keep the Bigger Story About Government’s Impact on Poverty, Health Coverage in Mind: The long-term story on poverty is also one of real, but insufficient, progress — with much of the progress coming from improvements in tax-based and non-cash supports, like refundable tax credits and food assistance. Here, too, the federal megabill moves us in the wrong direction, with deep cuts that will take food assistance away from people with low incomes. [Center on Budget and Policy Priorities]
