Green Country Habitat For Humanity Offers Insight On Housing Permits After Debate

Both Rep. Monroe Nichols and Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith said homelessness and affordable housing are the biggest issues facing Tulsa right now.

The two candidates for mayor agree on several policies and ideas, including speeding up the permit process for housing.

“We have to expedite some of these affordable housing projects to ensure that the city is not in the way of us doing what we need to do to get these, these projects out of the ground,” State Rep. Monroe Nichols said at the News On 6 Mayoral debate Monday night.

“It’s just too difficult to get the permits; we should have pre-permitted plans for Habitat for Humanity. It’s the same plan. You shouldn’t have to take it back and forth every time when you’re building the same house over and over,” Tulsa County Commissioner Karen Keith said at the debate.

That plan is already in motion.

The City of Tulsa announced a few weeks ago, Mayor GT Bynum's administration laid the groundwork to make that happen.

Green Country Habitat for Humanity President and CEO Cameron Walker said preapproved permit plans would help get houses built faster.

“When we buy land, the clock starts ticking,” Walker said. “We're ensuring that. We're mowing it. If people illegally dump things on the property, we have to clear them off and so we want to develop that property as quickly as possible.”

Walker, who as a leader of a nonprofit won't endorse a candidate, is encouraged to hear both talk about an issue that could help get more Tulsans in homes.

“Whoever ultimately wins in November, we're gonna be set up really well with somebody that has this kind of right in their bull's-eye,” Walker said.

Keith said, if elected, in her first year she'd like to get at least 200 homes set up for people living on the streets.

Nichols said he would like to get 6,000 new affordable units ready by 2028.

You can watch the full one-hour debate right now, here.