OKC council votes to give housing authority $55M to renovate, build affordable housing

Oklahoma City's public housing agency will receive $55 million to renovate and even build some new affordable housing, which has proved controversial for some city councilmembers and housing residents.

The Oklahoma City Housing Authority will use the money, along with about $400 million in other private and public funds, to redevelop at least 1,500 units of its current public housing. It also will create more than 600 new units of both supportive and workforce housing units — all part of a plan it first presented to the city council for consideration as a MAPS 4 project in July 2019.

Tuesday, the city council approved a contract to give the MAPS 4 money and operating rights to the housing authority in an 8-to-1 vote, approving some amendments to the original contract that addressed some councilmember's concerns. Councilwoman Nikki Nice voted against the proposal, which she has said she would since the agreement came to the council in February.

"I will not be supporting you all being the operator of this agreement, because I do not appreciate the things that have been taking place in the community that I represent," Nice said. "And it's always, I'm given the run-around about the expectations and what you all have not been doing for the people that I'm serving. And I'm tired of it. And I'm always the bad guy because of that."

Nice has been a critic of the city's public housing agency since some of her constituents living at the Northeast Duplexes were moved out over a year ago in expectation of a demolition and renovation that has yet to take place due to funding issues.

Public housing residents have varying opinions

When The Oklahoman visited several public housing properties in February, residents' experiences varied. This was also true with those who spoke up at Tuesday's meeting.

Lillie Swope, a 40-year resident of public housing and current commissioner on the housing authority's board, said in Tuesday's meeting her family of six was given the opportunity to have a safe and stable home through the Oklahoma City Housing Authority.

"I'm very grateful, I'm very thankful," Swope said.

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Joy Reardon, a longtime resident of public housing property The Towers, has frequented Oklahoma City Council meetings to share frustrations with the housing authority. Her main concerns are that the authority is not responsive to resident complaints about safety, maintenance and other issues.

Reardon said she'd like to see better communication from the housing authority to residents, especially on when board meetings are being held.

"It's laughable, if it wasn't so stupid, the fact that they want to operate a program and have access to all this money when they can't get their house in order," Reardon said.

Most city councilmembers have come to terms with housing authority's operation

While some members of the city council previously expressed concerns about the housing authority receiving the funds, each of them besides Nice voted Tuesday to approve the contract with some updates since the last discussion.

Updates to the contract include:

• an independent third-party conduct an annual resident satisfaction survey.

• a process be set up for residents to submit electronic comments that can be anonymous.

• the authority also must come up with a plan for relocating residents whose properties will be torn down or repaired, giving residents the option to move back when construction is done.

Councilman David Greenwell first brought up uncertainty at the Feb. 14 city council meeting, when he said he'd like to see a survey done of public housing residents before making a decision. He said his concern stemmed from public housing tenants — namely Reardon, Greenwell told The Oklahoman — expressing unhappiness with the authority.

But a survey of this kind would take an estimated three to four months, city staff found. Instead, the new contract will require an annual survey that council can use to evaluate any changes the housing authority should make or problems to address.

Greenwell told The Oklahoman on Tuesday he felt his concerns had been alleviated after meeting with the housing authority.

"Commitments were made to me and I think other members of the council that 'We hear your concerns, we hear Joy's concerns, and we're addressing them as we can,'" Greenwell said.

Councilwoman JoBeth Hamon said she voted to approve the contract reluctantly Tuesday, given the MAPS 4 resolution strictly limits who can receive the funds and that she is hopeful the housing authority is willing to be more transparent in the future.

Thanks to a historic disinvestment in public housing from the federal government, and a lack of attention to the issue from Oklahoma City's municipal government, Hamon said she believes the housing authority has a culture of not being as open with residents about operations while also simply not having the funds to keep properties in good condition. Restoring the public housing authorities in Oklahoma City is a "long overdue need," Hamon said.

"I constantly go back to feeling like it's that rock and a hard place, chicken or the egg sort of situation," Hamon said. "And that's to me why I ended up voting yes, is that I hope, I want to trust, that they're putting forth a good faith effort in instituting some of these changes."

How would the OKC Housing Authority use $55 million to build more affordable housing?

In a plan spanning the next decade, the city would grant five allocations of $11 million to the housing authority. The authority will provide specific benchmarks for each allocation, and each time, the city council can review whether the authority is following through. For the first proposed allocation, the housing authority expects to build or renovate about 700 units.

About 500 of those would be redeveloping Oak Grove apartments and replacing the Northeast Duplexes with the Creston Park project.

A complete renovation will be undertaken at Oak Grove apartments, which were built in the late 1960s and have not seen a "substantial renovation" since they were built, said Kassy Malone, director of Real Estate and Planning for the housing authority. Oak Grove's 288 units are found at S Grand Boulevard and SW 15 and serve over 1,000 residents.

"This will not only upgrade the units and include other necessary infrastructure repairs, but it will also include improvements to the community center, play areas, sports field, a new education center and the construction of a new head start day care facility," Malone said.

A future phase of the Oak Grove project will include building 50 new public housing units and 100 new affordable housing units, Malone said.

On the northeast side, 159 public housing units known as the Northeast Duplexes will be replaced with about 550 units that will be a mix of public housing units, affordable housing units with a sliding rent scale based on income and senior and assisted living. The new community will be known as Creston Park.

The first allocation also will fund two new supportive housing properties, which could include the acquisition and revitalization of existing properties or new construction, Malone said.

Though the housing authority submitted lower overall benchmarks given unpredictable factors, authority Assistant Executive Director Ian Colgan said in the next 10 years it hopes to redevelop nearly 3,000 public housing units, build 655 supportive housing units and 165 workforce housing units.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: OKC Housing Authority to operate MAPS 4 affordable housing properties