ANN FELTON GILLILAND
Question: The biggest challenge facing nonprofi ts in Oklahoma is …
Our biggest challenge was acquiring the land to build Cornerstone Creek, our newest affordable-housing development that will eventually have 450 homes located in NW 150th Street and Morgan Road in far northwest Oklahoma City. After we bought the land four years ago, there was some initial concern expressed by the surrounding neighborhoods that their property values might decrease if we built a Habitat neighborhood. We face the NIMBY (Not in My Backyard) issue on a regular basis.
How do we overcome it?
We’ve now built 1,091 affordable homes and Cornerstone Creek will be our fourth housing addition built since 1990. The housing values near our neighborhoods have held steady or continued to grow in value over the years. This development is how Habitat is addressing the lack of affordable housing in the greater Oklahoma City area. We believe Cornerstone Creek will offer a fresh start for hardworking individuals and families who aspire to become homeowners.
We plan to build 450 new safe, energy-efficient and affordable homes at Cornerstone Creek within the next six to eight years. We’re about to complete Phase I with the installation of the infrastructure and then we’ll move onto Phase II. We hope to build 45 new homes in the coming months. It will be a wonderful community and homeowners’ children can attend Piedmont, Oklahoma’s excellent schools. We’ll even have three parks and a gazebo.
What most recent developments have been most beneficial to your nonprofit, and why?
Creating a new and affordable housing development of this magnitude from the ground up is one of the biggest challenges we’ve encountered at Central Oklahoma Habitat. Attaining the financial resources through the blessings of grants and donations is fundamental to fulfilling the promise of Cornerstone Creek. We are grateful to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for recently administering the Oklahoma American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding of $2 million to help fund Phase II of the construction at Cornerstone Creek. I’m especially grateful to our Oklahoma legislators for realizing and addressing the growing need for more affordable housing due to the local and nationwide affordable housing crisis.
Finish this sentence: In the next five years, my nonprofit group hopes to … have greatly expanded affordable homeownership through Central Oklahoma Habitat in the greater Oklahoma City area.
When Cornerstone Creek’s 450 homes are completed in six to eight years, Habitat will have helped hundreds of local individuals and families to become first-time homeowners in a safe and affordable neighborhood. We also hope to find more infill lots in established neighborhoods, as well as look for more land to develop so we can jump on it and build more safe, affordable and energy-efficient housing in the greater Oklahoma City area.
