Housing officials and urban designers are calling for more residential feedback as they develop plans for an ambitious project aimed at rebuilding Oklahoma City’s oldest public housing complex and revitalizing surrounding neighborhoods.
Residents at Will Rogers Courts are among the poorest in the city, with many of them making no annual income and lacking transportation. The complex was under scrutiny in late May this year after three fatal shootings occurred within six days at the location.
Revamping the Will Rogers Courts, located between the Stockyards City and the Wheeler districts, is central to the Oklahoma City Housing Authority’s proposal to completely transform a long-impoverished area southwest of downtown.
The transformation plan — being created through a study funded by a $500,000 Choice Neighborhoods Initiative planning grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development — is set to be finalized in August 2025. Mark Gillett, executive director of the Oklahoma City Housing Authority, said the goal is to destigmatize public housing and to change the perception of the neighborhood into “one that would make it proud for you to be a place to call home.”
“While it is targeted towards the public housing development and it has to involve the public housing residents, it’s really about all the partnerships, the community that comes together,” Gillett said. “The businesses, the neighborhood, the residents — all of us working together to develop this vision, this dream, about what it can be to live in this neighborhood.”
The plan includes demolishing the 348 units currently standing at Will Rogers Courts, which were built out of thick concrete and brick during the Great Depression and lack central air conditioning. The housing agency would then build 700 modernized, mixed-income units on the property.
“It’s the old public housing model, where you’ve got a lot of people of extremely low income concentrated in one development,” said Gregory Shinn, assistant director of development with the housing authority. “The idea here is to de-concentrate the poverty and to come back with a mixed-income model where everyone is living alongside each other and all of the units will look the same. You won’t be able to differentiate a market-rate unit from a subsidized unit from a unit that’s for a low-income household that’s working in the community.”
The plan includes demolishing the 348 units currently standing at Will Rogers Courts, which were built out of thick concrete and brick during the Great Depression and lack central air conditioning. The housing agency would then build 700 modernized, mixed-income units on the property.
“It’s the old public housing model, where you’ve got a lot of people of extremely low income concentrated in one development,” said Gregory Shinn, assistant director of development with the housing authority. “The idea here is to de-concentrate the poverty and to come back with a mixed-income model where everyone is living alongside each other and all of the units will look the same. You won’t be able to differentiate a market-rate unit from a subsidized unit from a unit that’s for a low-income household that’s working in the community.”
Residents want more safety, better services
Staff with Urban Design Associates, the architecture firm consulting with the housing agency on the project, held meetings Monday and Tuesday to share current results of household needs surveys for the area. The assessment reflected an ongoing concern about violent crime, drug and gang activity, and issues with stray dogs. Survey results also showed a desire for improved food access, social services and community events.
“I think we are all grappling with what this really means to live with so little,” said Megan O’Hara, principal for Urban Design. “The only flipside of that is, by partnering together and through this program, we can actually make a big improvement in the residents’ lives and in their employment and what that means for their families.”
O’Hara also pointed out that other major cities, including Tulsa and Forth Worth, Texas, are already several phases into implementing similar Choice Neighborhood plans for redeveloping blighted areas in their metro areas.
In mid-2025, the Oklahoma City Housing Authority will compile the feedback of different stakeholders in the broader Will Rogers Courts area, including residents, schools, businesses and the police, for an application toward another competitive federal grant that would help designers implement the transformation plan.
First, Urban Design hopes to present an initial plan for early action activity to city officials about the end of this summer. If approved, the designers could move forward in early 2025 on some type of placemaking concept on the grounds, like a mural, a creative lighting project, or a designated space that could serve as a hub for food trucks, mobile clinics and libraries.
Jordan Davis, a Lynn Institute employee who lives near the Rotary Park right next to Will Rogers Courts, suggested a community garden project could also help address the residents’ requests for better nutrition education and opportunities.
“I’ve always dreamed of just having a place to do local food better, stuff that’s fresh, stuff that’s nutrient-dense, stuff that’s going to be healthy for people’s bodies,” Davis said. “That’s a lot of what we’re missing in our food system, especially people who are low-income and can’t afford the fresher stuff.”
“To really do good food well, you need a lot of hands, so even when you think of things like employment or giving people dignity, that’s something to do and to put their hands toward and feel accomplished, I think farming checks all those boxes,” he added.
More feedback needed to better inform investment opportunities
So far, community engagement has resulted in more than 600 comments, nearly 150 resident needs assessments, and about a dozen neighborhood surveys. But design planners say they need more feedback through the surveys and are hoping that a QR code, along with mailers and paper copies, can expand their reach.
A revitalization proposal for Will Rogers Courts and its surrounding neighborhood potentially could attract a grocery store, a community clinic, a recreation center and other service-oriented development to the area. Housing officials admit south Oklahoma City often has felt neglected when it comes to resources, but they are hopeful a new and exciting project in the area can help reverse a decades-long history of disinvestment.
“The Stockyards are a huge tourist attraction already, so if we can just build on that and beautify this neighborhood and make it a place where people want to move to, the market demand is there,” Shinn said. “Will Rogers is 95% occupied, despite the fact that it needs to be modernized, so the demand for the affordable housing is huge.”
“We need everybody to weigh in because this is a great opportunity, and this is a moment in time that we can capitalize and rebuild Will Rogers at the same time.”
This article was originally sourced here.
