Affordable Housing Programs

Housing as the Foundation for Economic Opportunity

Tulsa is working towards a more equitable and inclusive economy. Ensuring that residents have decent, safe, and quality places to live is paramount in supporting thriving communities. Finding affordable housing remains a challenge for many residents, and Tulsa’s Affordable Housing Program is attempting to reduce the impact of historic challenges and pervasive inequities that continue to prevent far too many from having quality places to live.

Tulsa’s Affordable Housing Program is a comprehensive plan that seeks to preserve and produce more affordable housing. With the inclusion of community leaders, developers and experienced social service providers, Tulsa will achieve its goals of equitable community investment and provide long-term economic sustainability for all area residents.

Affordable Housing Strategy
Incentives for Housing Development
Neighborhood Infill Overlay
Downtown Housing Study

Affordable Housing Strategy

Affordable Housing Strategy

The City of Tulsa’s Affordable Housing Strategy presents several programs to reduce evictions, decrease homelessness, and strengthen neighborhoods. As part of the Affordable Housing Strategy, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund provides loans and grants to create safe, quality housing opportunities for all Tulsans. And programs like the Abode Initiative and the Gold Star Landlord program support landlords and property managers to provide quality housing opportunities and maintain the best rental practices.

Incentives for Housing Development

PartnerTulsa and the City of Tulsa offer a variety of incentives and supports for Affordable Housing Development, designed to address a multitude of factors that are critical to developing and preserving housing across the City.

Affordable Housing Trust Fund: Provides incentives to support the development and preservation of affordable housing units.
Tax Increment Finance Districts: Location-specific incentives designed to spur outcomes within a geography. Existing TIF Districts in Downtown Tulsa and at 36th Street North and Peoria offer housing assistance to qualifying projects.
Brownfields and Land Recycling: Grants and loans designed to support assessment and remediation efforts for sites with environmental concerns or identified issues.
Permitting Assistance: PartnerTulsa’s staff offers concierge support to housing projects
City of Tulsa HUD Resources: The City of Tulsa receives and allocates annual and special appropriations of housing-related grants, including CDBG, HOME, ESG, and HOPWA.
Just Home Project: PartnerTulsa received an initial $370,000 grant as part of a national initiative launched by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and Urban Institute designed to advance community-driven efforts to break the link between housing instability and jail incarceration.

Neighborhood Infill Overlay

Neighborhood Infill Overlay

The Neighborhood Infill Overlay is a zoning development initiative set to allow property owners and developers to build residential housing that accommodates the needs of those living in the area. Current regulations make it difficult to build the types of housing that were historically abundant in the neighborhoods surrounding downtown a hundred years ago: duplexes, townhomes, multi-unit houses, quadplexes, and small apartment buildings. The Neighborhood Infill Overlay is intended to make it easier to build these kinds of neighborhood-scale residences. The regulations are also intended to promote housing types that accommodate households of varying sizes and income levels and provide for a more efficient use of residential land.

Downtown Housing Study

Downtown Housing Study

Access the final report here.

The City of Tulsa partnered with St. Louis-based urban planning and real estate consulting firm Development Strategies to create a Housing Market Demand Study & Strategy for Downtown Tulsa and its surrounding neighborhoods. The study generated a detailed assessment of housing needs in the project area, and crafted a holistic development and policy framework to guide equitable housing investments.

The primary objectives of the Housing Market Demand Study & Strategy were to:

Develop a detailed understanding of housing needs in the project area and identify impediments to meeting those needs.
Understand and respect the distinct identities and histories of communities within the project area.
Identify ways in which housing development and preservation can reinforce other community priorities, such as in economic opportunity, workforce attraction, quality of life, and economic development.
Create a development program to inform the approach to housing investment, including the redevelopment of opportunity sites in the project area.
Identify the potential to create new tools and policies that allow housing development to better meet community needs in each of the neighborhoods within the project area.
Evaluate the potential for a wide range of housing typologies that could better meet housing needs and community goals.
Identify roles for a wide range of partners in the creation of attractive and attainable housing opportunities