Tulsa Mayor Monroe Nichols touted the achievements of his first year in office and framed a vision for the municipality’s future Thursday at the Tulsa Regional Chamber’s State of the City. 

More than 1,250 at the Arvest Convention Center heard Nichols’ address and watched him participate in a formal conversation with 2025 Chamber Chair Bill Knight. 

Nichols, who took office in December, updated the progress of his five-pronged campaign platform, which encompassed the following:  

• Ending homelessness, by achieving functional zero homelessness by 2030  

• Improving outcomes for young people by putting 15,000 additional children on a pathway to economic mobility  

• Expanding economic opportunities for all Tulsans  

• Making Tulsa the Safest Big City in America 
• Improving relations with Tribal Nations  

“Each year in Tulsa, 3,100 adults fall into homelessness -- a rate that we have not been able to keep up with for years -- although there are signs of progress,” Nichols said. “This year, we witnessed an 18% reduction in the growth of homelessness according to our point-in-time count, atestament to the ongoing work across our city.” 

Tulsa opened a winter weather shelter this week and next week, the mayor said he anticipates Tulsa County will vote to sell the former juvenile detention center to make way for the city’s first true low-barrier shelter. 

Addressing Tulsa’s housing shortage, officials this week also announced the Tulsa Housing Impact Fund, which will leverage $47 million funds from Improve Our Tulsa. 

“This partnership allows us to preserve existing homes, build new ones and bring vacant units back into use,” Nichols said. “It’s a smart, long-term strategy that helps us stay on track toward our goal of bringing 6,000 new affordable units online by 2028 while also reducing blight by 60% by that same time.  

“As for improving the lives of children and families, the city has plans to give 1,200 job opportunities to our youth and creating 22,000 after-school slots for children across our community every year,” Nichols said. 

Tulsa economic development projects under way or in the pipeline total $1.7 billion, but the mayor said he also wants the city to focus just as much attention on existing businesses. 

“As we plan for the new, we can never forget that in nearly every state, existing businesses represent over 60% of new investments annually, but few states or cities offer programs proportional to the investments made by existing businesses,” Nichols said. “A major challenge to most of these businesses is access to capital. The ability to provide additional low interest loans for existing businesses would be a game-changer for Tulsa. 

“…It is my intention with the support of the city council and eventually the voting public to create a business retention fund as we begin the work of diversifying our economic development incentive portfolio focused on incentives that create the greatest return on investment for the Tulsa taxpayer.” 

Knight’s sit-down with Nichols delved deeper into the mayor’s priorities, touching on subjects such as budget discipline, education and the city’s proposed convention center hotel, which he called a critical infrastructure piece for Tulsa. 

“We do miss out on getting more eyes on Tulsa,” Nichols said of the planned hotel, set to be completed in 2029. “We know that when we get more eyes on Tulsa, we tend to benefit more than most cities do.” 

Nichols wrapped his remarks optimistically. 

“We are facing a homelessness crisis, but we are meeting it with compassion and bold action,” he said. “We are facing public safety challenges, but we are finding ways to do it with courage and innovation. We face hurdles with our youth, but we are creating new supports and new opportunities 

“…And we face economic headwinds, but we are answering them with investment and growth. We are not shrinking from challenges; we are rising to them.”