Tulsa – like every other major city – is part of a national housing crisis that is affecting business owners whether they know it or not.

Lack of housing means an increased burden on employees to find affordable places to live. About half of Tulsa renters are cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing.

Affordable housing is an investment in our community’s economic backbone. It ensures that employees have stable living conditions, reduces turnover costs, and stimulates local spending.

The scarcity of housing means lower-income employees live further from their work, stressing infrastructure and causing longer commutes and more traffic.

Employers end up losing that employee to another business closer to home and have to spend more to attract talented workers. Affordable housing means a more reliable workforce and long-term cost savings to business owners.

Key benefits of community-wide investment into housing

Improved health outcomes: People who live in stable housing are more likely to have access to healthy food, exercise, and healthcare. A healthy employee is an effective employee.

Reduced crime rates: Studies have shown that affordable housing can help to reduce crime rates in communities.

Unleash customer spending: Housing costs are tightening every Tulsan’s budget, leaving little or no disposable income. Housing not only solves homelessness, it allows increased spending for all Tulsans. A family who spends less on housing has more money for healthier food choices, entertainment, back-to-school shopping and much more.

Here are some specific ways that we can make affordable housing a reality in Tulsa:

• – Increase funding for affordable housing programs. The City of Tulsa and the Tulsa Housing Authority need more funding to build and preserve affordable housing.
•  
• – Change zoning laws to allow for more affordable housing development. Current zoning laws often make it difficult to build affordable housing. We need to change these laws to make it easier to build affordable housing in all parts of the city.
•  
• – Encourage developers to build affordable housing. We need to make it more profitable for developers to build affordable housing. This could be done by providing tax breaks or other incentives.