Tulsa Housing Authority To Close Waitlist For River West, Section 8 Housing Programs

The Tulsa Housing Authority is ending the waitlist for its River West community and Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers because leaders said they have too many people on the waitlist already.

There are over 9,000 applicants on the waitlist for both River West and the voucher program, resulting in a wait time of approximately two years.

The people currently on the lists will stay on. However, the housing authority will close the waitlist to new applicants.

Ginny Hensley, VP of Communications and Public Affairs for the Tulsa Housing Authority, said this is so they can process current applications and prevent even longer wait times for people who need a place to live.

"As you can imagine, most people, when they are applying for housing through the housing authority, they need that now, and so it's not good practice for us to keep accepting applications when the waitlist is that long, and so that's why we're deciding to close those two waitlists," Hensley said.

With more people moving to Tulsa for work, the city has taken some steps to address housing with money from the 'Improve Our Tulsa' package, but Hensley said more needs to be done.

"Those people have to have a place to live, and that place to live has to be affordable for a variety of incomes," Hensley said. "So Tulsa has to rally around this issue to make an impact so we don't head into what could be a true crisis."

Applications for River West and the voucher program are still being accepted until Sept. 18 at 4 p.m.