TULSA, Okla. — The City of Tulsa is turning to local churches for help addressing the city's housing shortage.
The newly launched Faith-Based Housing Initiative, created in partnership with the George Kaiser Family Foundation, asks congregations to consider developing their underutilized space to meet growing housing demand.
WATCH: City, GKFF ask Tulsa churches to help address housing shortage
Five local parishes have been selected for the pilot program, including Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Tulsa.
Shelley Nachtigall, Operations Manager at Trinity, said her congregation has been on board long before the FBHI came along.
“It was perfect timing because Trinity, starting a few months ago, had put together an internal committee looking at the very same thing," she said. "We were looking at what to do with the space that we have now that would benefit Tulsa. We were looking at all sorts of things, not just housing, and so when that came up, we thought 'let’s do it.'”
The other four parishes are Antioch Baptist Church, Metropolitan Baptist Church, New Jerusalem Baptist Church and University United Methodist Church.
While it's too early to determine specific development plans, Nachtigall said any potential housing project would likely be built on the church property where the Iron Gate operation began in 1978.
Gene Bulmash, Senior Advisor on Housing to Mayor Nichols, said each church will have flexibility in how they approach development depending on their property.
"The option is really up to each specific organization as to whether they build on an existing parking lot, whether they build a new building and then tear down the old building or whether it's a combination of the two," Bulmash said.
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Bulmash said everything is on the table, from tiny homes to single or multi-family units.
The initiative supports Mayor Nichols goal of adding 6,000 new housing units by 2028. By partnering with faith communities, city leaders hope to identify creative solutions for expanding Tulsa's housing stock.
"We don't know if it will look like apartments, we don't know if it will include housing at all, we don't know but we like the opportunity to walk alongside the City of Tulsa," Nachtigall said.
The city hopes each participating congregation can draft a development plan within about five months and then be ready to lease or sell portions of their land for housing development.
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