The Oklahoma Legislative Office of Fiscal Transparency released a new report about affordable housing in the state.
The report narrowed in on three key findings for Oklahoma’s affordable housing needs. Those findings include rising rents and the lack of housing development are “blunting the impact” of the agency’s programs.
It also finds that Oklahoma is feeling the effects of a “nationwide decline” in housing construction. This results in a few outcomes, including having more demand for housing than what is available. It also found Oklahoma continues to grow thanks to new workforce programs — becoming the 8th most populous state between 2021 and 2022, however housing availability only grew “by just 0.8 percent” during that time.
In 2023, the Oklahoma State Legislature enacted a program called the Oklahoma Housing Stability Program to encourage construction of affordable housing. The program is administered by the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) with a total budget of $215 million dollars.
The Oklahoma Housing Stability Program is still in the process of developing their strategies for how to spend that money but so far, proposes three programs — a zero-interest loan to encourage single-family owner houses, a loan forgiveness program, and a zero-interest loan for development of rental units.
The report has a few considerations — that Oklahoma needs the ability to “be fast and flexible with its housing,” particularly in the short-term, as well as having the state prioritize new technologies and building practices to build fast, cost-efficient construction that meet quality standards.
The report asks lawmakers to provide more detailed direction to the Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency about the objectives to be accomplished with the new programs.