Cherokee Nation opens north Tulsa apartments, plans more housing investment

The Cherokee Nation has opened its first affordable rental housing in north Tulsa, a seven-apartment complex for tribal citizens.

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. joined local officials, housing advocates and residents Oct. 28 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Harvard Apartments. The units are for Cherokee citizens selected from the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation’s existing waiting list for low-income rental housing. Several families have already moved in, according to the tribe. 

The apartments were built by Green Country Habitat for Humanity through a partnership with the Cherokee Nation and the city of Tulsa. Construction cost more than $1.35 million, including $450,000 in tribal funds and $900,000 in grants from the city of Tulsa and Partner Tulsa, the city’s economic development arm. 

The tribe’s housing authority already manages the complex under an agreement with Green Country Habitat and plans to purchase it by the end of 2026.

The complex includes seven two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments. Each is 840 square feet.  Three units are accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and one is equipped for residents with visual and hearing impairments.

Hoskin said the project represents the beginning of a larger effort to expand Cherokee Nation housing investment in north Tulsa. Hoskin and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner also signed a letter of intent outlining additional housing investments through 2028. It directs $2.5 million to acquire buildable lots for up to 45 housing units at Flat Rock Ridge, a north Tulsa housing development. 

The letter also includes more than $1.9 million for up to 10 units in Utica Crossing, a mixed-use redevelopment project in the Crutchfield neighborhood northeast of downtown Tulsa that will transform a former industrial site into a community with housing, retail space and public amenities. Work is expected to begin in 2027. 

Another $3 million would be directed to fund three duplexes for Cherokee elders at the tribe’s north Tulsa community center. The tribe’s  Public Public Health and Wellness Fund Act will be the main source of funding for future north Tulsa housing projects, Hoskin said in a statement.  

The housing authority’s planned purchase of the Harvard Apartments from Green Country Habitat for Humanity will be funded through the Cherokee Nation’s Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act, which dedicates $40 million in tribal funding every three years to housing and community infrastructure projects.

“This is a win, I think, for the whole community and it’s more importantly an example of what we can replicate in the future,” Hoskin told the Cherokee Phoenix.