Two state lawmakers are pushing forward to knock down barriers for low-in-come Oklahomans who want opportunities for better housing and education.
State Reps. Andy Fugate, D-Del City, and Tammy Townley, R-Ardmore, held an interim housing study that focused on the Creating Moves to Opportunity (CMTO) project in Seattle, Wash. The Seattle and King County project examined the obstacles that keep low-income, Section 8 housing voucher recipients from moving to areas with more upward mobility.
Results were positive and showed extra incentives and assistance proved beneficial. The Seattle program involves providing financial and other incentives to encourage more poor families to relocate to the higher opportunity areas where low-income children have grown to lead more successful lives, earn better wages, obtain college degrees and have fewer teen births, according to an article published online at www.npr.org.
The initial results showed the program is working. Families receiving the extra help were almost four times as likely to move to a high-opportunity area as those who did not — 54% compared with 14%.
That type of program could be used in Oklahoma where generations of people continue to live in the same poverty-stricken areas statewide, Fugate said.
The biggest challenge is funding, which would be used to hire navigators or mentors who help low-income residents decide where they want to move and how they should maintain a house or apartment, Townley acknowledged. For instance,
Fugate said, a resident who lives in the low-income area of Oklahoma City’s Capitol Hill district could use the same housing vouchers and the assistance of a navigator to move east to Moore or west to Yukon, which are more affluent suburbs with higher educational opportunities.
The Seattle program revolves around navigator who meet one-on-one with families to explain why moving
to high-opportunity areas will benefit their children. The navigators also guide families through the difficult process of getting an apartment or house in a hot rental market, showing them how to sell themselves as good tenants.
In addition, the program provides additional financial assistance capped at $2,600 per family to cover moving costs and other one-time expenses. Navigators also take the families on tours so they can see the high-opportunity areas around Seattle. In Seattle, most of the rental payments are covered by the federal housing vouchers which allow families to stay in the high-opportunity areas long-term.
“The United States spends over $20 billion each year on Section 8 Housing,” Fugate said. “Most of that money is spent in high-poverty, low-income neighborhoods. Research shows growing up in better neighborhoods means better outcomes for children.”
Funding for an Oklahoma program would likely come from federal housing grants or a revamping of the state budget, but Fugate believes it’s unlikely a program similar to Seattle’s could be developed this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Neither Fugate nor Townley expect any related bills will be introduced for the next legislative session.
“There is no need to reinvent the wheel when we have the opportunity to learn from others,” Fugate said. “CMTO is a joint project between the Seattle/King County Housing Authority and Harvard University’s Opportunity Insight’s Institute. Their approach has proven to improve family outcomes by empowering families to move to areas of higher opportunity.”
People participating in the Seattle/King County CMTO program are referred by one of five housing authorities.
Outside applications are not accepted at this time.
Previous research conducted by Harvard University on the Moving to Opportunity (MTO) project which randomly assigned the offer of housing vouchers to families living in low-opportunity neighborhoods, found young children (under 13) who moved to a higher-opportunity neighborhood with the voucher had substantially improved life outcomes nearly two decades later. Young children who moved to an opportunity neighborhood before age 13 earned 31% more on average in adulthood and were 32% more likely to attend college, the Harvard researchers discovered.
In all probability, a Creating Moves to Opportunity program will be a long-term goal for Oklahoma, Fugate said. He did not provide a timetable.
Still, Oklahoma is in desperate need to move its citizens out of poverty. In 2017, nearly 1 of 6 Oklahomans (15.8%) was living with income below the poverty line which was $24,600 for a family of four. Most of Oklahoma’s poverty areas are located in the eastern and southeastern parts of the state, according to U.S. Census surveys.
The Fugate/Townley study also looked at Oklahoma’s Family Self-Sufficiency program. The FSS program is voluntary and designed to help residents of Section 8 Housing meet their individual financial goals.
“The Family Self-Sufficiency Program is just one of the many wonderful ways that Oklahoma assists low-income families achieve their goals of obtaining homeownership,” Townley said. “It is our hope that through this study more Oklahoma families will take advantage of the programs offered by Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency.”