Public safety concerns result in recommendation to close tent city, leaves “nowhere they can go”

The tent city that was established in Lawton was the only exception to the city’s anti-camping ordinance, which was passed back in 2024. The ordinance, in short, made it illegal for a person to “set up camp” on public property. Now, all of that is at risk of disappearing as the Lawton Unhoused Trust Authority (LUTA) made a recent vote to recommend to city council that the property be closed. Additionally, this would include amending the ordinance as it stands to reflect the closing of the exception.

Started by the Salvation Army in Lawton, Captain Bryan Brinlee began what he called the “Engage Community”. This was in response to the anti-camping ordinance and the need for an option for those who are struggling with addiction and wouldn’t be accepted into any high-barrier shelter. While High Barrier shelters are necessary for those experiencing transitional homelessness,, such as losing their job and housing, low barrier shelters are essential for those who struggle with additional obstacles to employment and housing, like addiction or mental illnesses. For years, Lawton has not had a low-barrier shelter for those who don’t meet the requirements for a high-barrier shelter, such as the C. Carter Crane House and Family Promise. 

During the meeting, the trust authority board discussed the future of the property and public safety concerns. Ward 5 Councilman and Chair of the authority Allan Hampton shared with those in attendance that the property is prone to flooding as it’s right next to a canal. City Manager John Ratliff chimed in, sharing that improvements needed to be made to the property, no matter who owns the property. However, he clarified that if the city were to sell the property, then it would be more difficult to make those changes. Hampton went on to say that he spoke with Brinlee about the concerns and potential chance of selling the property, but that the Salvation Army wasn’t interested in buying the property back.

Hampton emphasized that there have been several drowning-related deaths because of the flooding. According to Hampton, in addition to the people camping on the property, he’s seen people camping in the canal itself. These deaths have hurt the community as a whole, according to Hampton.

“When I go over there, and I see those tents on the bank of the canal, I’m concerned,” Hampton stated.

Due to these issues, the authority ultimately voted to initiate the process of closing the property. The larger issue at hand is that this decision removes the only exemption from the anti-camping ordinance. After conversations with Brinlee and Brenda Spencer-Ragland, this leaves those who are chronically homeless with nowhere to go. As a result, their seemingly only option, aside from receiving a fine or jail time after their first offense, is to get written approval to camp on private property.

Dark Roast filed an open records request with the Lawton Police Department to learn how many people were arrested for violating the anti-camping ordinance. According to documents, there have been 17 total arrests, with several being repeat offenders.

Dark Roast reached out to Brinlee to hear how he felt about the decision and the potential impacts this could have. Brinlee explained that the Engage Community did its job and lasted a lot longer than originally planned. LUTA took over the property back in August of 2025, for the price of $1, after the Salvation Army was facing liability issues.

At the time of the conversation, Brinlee stated that there were currently around 17 people who had set up on the property. During the meeting, Hampton stated that the Salvation Army would find accommodations for those who are on the property when asked about what would be done with the people currently camping there. However, Dark Roast asked Brinlee what would happen to those people if the council went forward with approving LUTA’s recommendation, to which he said, “There’s nowhere they can go. They would go into hiding.”

After over a year of providing this vital resource to the community, Brinlee said that it’s very discouraging to not be able to continue helping the chronically homeless to the same capacity. On the other hand, he went on to say they still had their day center available. The day center, according to Brinlee, offers all of the same services, and more, that the Engage Community had while being inside. However, the downside to this alternative is that it’s only open regular business hours and not available on the weekends, leaving gaps in which unhoused individuals would have to find alternative shelter. . Brinlee expanded on the fact that there would be an overnight shelter available during extreme weather conditions.

Because of the lack of other options and there not being any exceptions to this ordinance, Brinlee explained that the number of unhoused would visibly increase. This raises the question of why alternative options weren’t presented at the same time as discussing the property's closure. Ultimately, he stated that the Engage Community was never meant to be a permanent solution.

Hampton went on to say that part of the agreement with the Salvation Army was that they would keep the property clean, by having the people who were camping on the property have some responsibility in that. He added that the city helped in providing dumpsters, but at the end of the day, it was up to the Salvation Army to make sure things were safe on the property. After this explanation, Hampton said that he had the assistance of ChatGPT to help him come to his decision of “staying in your lane”.

“We were not, as a board, setting this up for the city to be involved in taking care of any of the homelessness needs. We were strictly over the management of this property and making sure it's safe,” Hampton explained. “That was our responsibility.”

Dark Roast asked Brinlee about the upkeep of the property, and according to him, it was very financially taxing. Despite it being cheaper than an indoor, overnight shelter, Brinlee said that acquiring funds for the tent-city was very difficult to maintain. 

Overall, Brinlee said that he is very grateful for the number of success stories that came out of the Engage Community. He added that Hampton has been talking about finding another location to restart this initiative, but there are no plans set for that yet. The recommended timeframe for the closure is 30 days. The Lawton Unhoused Trust Authority will continue to have ownership of the land itself and maintain responsibility of the property, but will recommend to the council that this camp needs to be shut down. The council will discuss this during its regular scheduled meeting on June 23.