Oklahoma City Public Schools and Oklahoma Housing Authority

PROJECT PURPOSE

OCHA and OKCPS propose to create affordable housing opportunities for students and families attending OKCPS schools including unaccompanied youth, parenting teens, transition-age youth, and families experiencing homelessness. Together we believe housing is education and housing is health; therefore, we intend to do this through the purchase of a housing complex. In this partnership, OCHA will own and maintain the property while providing housing subsidies, and OKCPS will receive priority housing for the identified populations and provide services and programming to all residents. This partnership will practice a housing first philosophy to provide shelter and infuse much-needed wraparound services that will help decrease instability, increase access to needed services, and promote economic stability. Children and youth experiencing homelessness without intervention become homeless adults; therefore, providing safety through supportive housing and wraparound services could break the cycle of generational poverty.

EVIDENCE

According to the CDC, it has been well-established that poverty inhibits access to healthy foods and safe neighborhoods and that higher levels of education influence better health. The impact of such factors on health is defined by Healthy People 2020 as social determinants of health: ?Social determinants of health are conditions in the environments in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality-of-life outcomes and risks.? When resources are available to overcome negative social determinants of health, they can significantly impact population health outcomes.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Homelessness is a chronic issue negatively impacting many families with children, individuals, and students each day. Unaccompanied minors often pose a challenge to service delivery as we encounter more difficulty with remaining in constant contact with them. Our Teen Parenting Coordinators (TPPC) reported of their 429, 12 of those students were identified as homeless attached to a family, and 44 were identified as unaccompanied minors/youth. In 2020-2021, OKCPS reported an increase in the total number of foster-care students, now 633 with 107 students, age 16 years or older. We are expecting these numbers to grow as the impact of Covid-19 is fully realized in the new count. Families with children and unaccompanied minors may have transitioned from transitional homeless to chronic homeless due to the scarcity of resources exacerbated by the pandemic.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

OCHA has a proven track record for sustaining and maintaining affordable housing which will help to sustain the Resilience Project for at least the next 20 years. One measure of this would include staying at occupancy rates of 90% or above throughout the life of the project. Other measures will include capturing academic achievement, usage of programs, and reaching economic self-sufficiency through increases in earned income for residents.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma