City Takes Next Steps to Address Housing Shortage, Homelessness

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The City of Tulsa is working to establish a Pre-Approved Plans Program and hire a homeless program lead as work continues address Tulsa's housing shortage and provide enhanced homelessness coordination services.

Funding for the Pre-Approved Plans Program and the new position (homeless program lead) was approved this week by the Tulsa City Council. Both the program and the new position are a critical part of the City's Path to Home initiative, which serves as a central source for all programming related to housing, homelessness, and mental health that is more easily recognizable and representative of the cumulative work taking place within the city of Tulsa.

"We believe our new pre-approved plan program will make housing development much faster and more predictable for those wanting to invest in Tulsa," Mayor G.T. Bynum said. "As we seek ways to incentivize the expansion of available housing in our city, this is a commonsense tool available for developers."

The program and the new position are funded from grant revenues received from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

"Adopting permit-ready homes into our housing program is one smart step forward," District 8 City Councilor and 3H Task Force member Phil Lakin said. "It will reduce costs, erase permitting times, and allow homebuilders to quickly build affordable and comfortable homes that are in high demand and low supply. "

About Pre-Approved Plans Program

The Pre-Approved Plans Program is a recommended action (Goal 1, Action 5) as part of the newly released Mayor/Council 3H Task Force Path to Home Recommendations. This program will allow for the publishing of permit-ready housing construction plans that have been reviewed for conformance with building codes while promoting residential design that fits neighborhoods context. This simple, inexpensive option reduces the permit process time for selected housing types and can contribute to more affordable housing. A request for proposals (RFP) is expected to be released sometime in August to identify qualified consultants to help in program implementation. The total budget for the program is $250,000.

About Homeless Program Lead

This new position will serve as the City's point of contact and liaison for homelessness services including service provider and contractor coordination, as well as efforts requiring collaboration with community partners. The position is initially seeded with 140,000 for the first two years of operations.

To learn more about Path to Home, visit www.cityoftulsa.org/PathToHome.