Motel Near Bricktown To Be Converted Into Affordable Housing
The Oklahoma City Housing Authority is set to purchase an old Motel 6 to convert into affordable housing.
The first of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority’s MAPS4-funded homelessness reduction projects will include 75 motel rooms converted into studio apartments for low-income residents.
The units will be leased using a combination of project-based vouchers and Section 8 housing vouchers.
The old Motel 6 near Bricktown is being purchased for $3.75 million. An additional $2 million will be spent on renovations, which are estimated to take between nine and 12 months.
The MAPS4 homelessness reduction project has a total budget of more than $55 million to be spent on expanding affordable housing over the next several years.
OKC Homeless Shelter Opens For Winter Season
An Oklahoma City homeless shelter is opening its doors for the winter season.
The Homeless Alliance has opened a new permanent winter shelter near the organization’s Resource Center.
The shelter is open nightly through March 31.
The alliance says there is space for 200 people with the capacity to flex to 300 in cases of extreme weather.
The Homeless Alliance has also expanded its Day Shelter services to include Saturdays and Sundays.
Unpaid Tolls Prevent Oklahomans From Renewing Vehicle Registrations
Unpaid tolls are creating problems for thousands of Oklahoma drivers as they renew their vehicle registrations.
Visiting a tag agency for routine paperwork is already not a lot of fun. But, the nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Voice reports: there are extra headaches for thousands of Oklahomans who currently have frozen accounts due to unpaid tolls they may not even know about.
The Oklahoma Turnpike Authority will place a hold on drivers’ accounts for unpaid tolls and late fees that often rise.
OTA officials say when an issue is discovered, they work with customers to immediately remove the account hold, so long as that person agrees to pay the fees.
The problem is expected to get worse as the state implements cashless tolling on all its turnpikes. But the authority hopes higher fees with the PlatePay system will encourage drivers to buy a PikePass.
Dream Keepers Awards
The Greater Tulsa Indian Affairs Commission is recognizing outstanding Indigenous people and groups with Dream Keepers Awards.
The awards go to outstanding Indigenous individuals and organizations recognized for their leadership, language preservation, promoting the importance of spirituality and cultural preservation.
Muscogee and Seminole writer and director Sterlin Harjo co-created Reservation Dogs. And he took home the Mosceleyne Larkin Cultural Achievement Award.
"It's an honor to live here and tell stories from here and I'll continue to do as long as I can,” Harjo said.
Other recipients included Cherokee citizen Charlie Soap, who heads the Wilma Mankiller Foundation along with the late Johnny Williams, an Osage citizen who worked as a cultural advisor on the film Killers of the Flower Moon.
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