New Program Aims to Tackle Financial Literacy, Homeownership Needs In North Tulsa

Black Americans - who make up over 1⁄3 of the North Tulsa community - are nearly 50% less likely to own their homes compared to White Tulsans - highlighting yet another disparity in the community. Insufficient funds for down payments and closing costs, high debt to income ratios, and bad or no credit all further contribute to this trend.

Evidence suggests that stable housing affords greater capacity to pursue education, employment, better health, or goals to improve quality of life. With help from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, the housing sector of Be Well Community Development Corporation has launched the North Tulsa Forward Program: a culturally competent and virtually-accessible financial literacy program created to support potential and existing North Tulsa homeowners navigate the entire lifecycle of the homeownership process, and ultimately, create generational wealth.

The North Tulsa Forward Program is available at no cost and will:

· Provide on-demand (desktop and mobile) videos in both English and Spanish;

· Support learning via intermittent quizzes to routinely test comprehension;

· Provide access to mentors/one-on-one financial improvement assistance; and

· Offer a financial incentive for course completion (coming in 2022)

Robin Daniels, the coordinator of the North Tulsa Forward Program of Be Well CDC, said: “This initiative is long overdue, and I am extremely excited to be part of a program that will finally address some of the racial and financial disparities that plague Tulsa’s Northside. Homeownership is a vital part of building generational wealth. Therefore, our focus is to ensure that every participant selected for this program receives the financial literacy education and homebuying training they need to become successful homeowners.”

Collaborators:

Tulsa Authority for Economic Improvement (TAEO), City of Tulsa, and Tulsa Health Department, StarCity Homes