Cherokee Nation celebrated the opening of a seven-unit apartment complex Wednesday on North Harvard. It’s the first time the nation has invested in housing in north Tulsa.
“This is a milestone day in the Cherokee Nation,” said Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
The complex comprises seven two-bed/one-bath units that are 840 square feet each. Rent is income-based.
Hoskin said they are trying to do their part to support Mayor Monroe Nichols’ goal of creating 6,000 new housing units by 2028 and called the lack of housing a public health crisis.
It took partnerships to bring the project to life, Hoskin said. Tulsa helped fund the project while the Green Country Habitat for Humanity assisted in building the units.
Hoskin said bringing more housing to Tulsa is not the sole responsibility of one government agency, for profit or nonprofit.
“It’s all of our problem. And if we treat it that way, we can chip away at it,” he said.
For Nichols, the project exemplifies his campaign promise of co-governing with tribal nations.
Each unit went to a Cherokee citizen that was on the Cherokee Nation Housing Authority’s waitlist.
Clara Locust, one of the seven tenants, told The Eagle she has lived in north Tulsa for over 20 years and it’s “the best apartment I’ve ever had.”
“I’d been on the waiting list for a long time. I finally got it and I’m so happy,” Locust said.
Hoskin estimated nearly 30,000 Cherokee citizens call the Tulsa metro home. He promised more investments were coming to north Tulsa — an area of town the nation had not invested in “like we should have.”
“It won’t be easy, but we won’t do it if we throw up our hands and say, ‘this is somebody else’s problem,’” he said. “Today is a milestone day. It’s a great chapter in the history of investment in north Tulsa by the Cherokee Nation, but it can’t be the last chapter.”
Also on Wednesday, the Cherokee Nation announced plans that will include mortgage assistance for Cherokee citizens purchasing homes at Flat Rock Ridge as well as purchasing lots for 45 new units in the community, though Hoskin said that project is still in the planning phase.
Additionally, they are looking at the possibility of building rental units for seniors on the site of the community center they opened in north Tulsa earlier this year.
