The Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency has recently announced several initiatives to address housing shortages and the lack of affordable housing in the state.
This month OHFA awarded more than $12 million to five builders for new construction in Wynnewood, OKC, Marietta, Sperry and Inola. Buyers of these new homes will be eligible for down payment assistance.
A second program from OHFA will award $3.6 million for multifamily rental units in Tulsa and Spencer.
Other programs target at risk people, some of whom are unhoused, what we used to call homeless. Some projects, in Tulsa and McAlester, will build rental units. Other offer support services to Tulsa, Rogers County, OKC, Enid, Tulsa, Canadian, Cleveland and Oklahoma counties.
These are all great first steps toward tackling a giant problem.
But I want to know how Watonga and Blaine County get on those lists to build or rehab housing here? We have the same issues. And it is next to impossible to grow considering the Gordian knot we are living with.
That knot is how do we lure industry without workers? Yes, the high school and CTTC are turning out good employees.
But without jobs here, they leave or commute. To bring jobs here, we need workers, and workers need housing. Where do we start ?
Well, if builders could get in on these initiatives, it might do a couple of things. One, it would provide some construction jobs here, at least for a time. Most of those pay decent wages. Using the same programs, the employees might be able to afford a home here. Maybe one or two would continue their education and open a construction company here. That would go a long way toward spinning the town and county out of its stagnation.
But who is there that will do the mountain of paperwork and legwork required to find a builder willing to work here and then go after the financing? Maybe once the city council is voted on and seated, it can recruit a Watonga Economic Development Authority staff to take that project on.
I’m not talking about the city being in competition with private owners of rental or homes for sale. I’m talking about the city helping a builder get what they need to make affordable housing construction a profitable endeavor. And once the infrastructure projects are online, we are that much closer to finding that builder willing to cut our Gordian knot right down the center.