Felix Clary
ICT + Tulsa World
MUSKOGEE, Okla. — The day before Independence Day, several Cherokee families carried their lives in boxes into new homes in a first-of-its-kind Cherokee Nation housing subdivision.
The Warrior Addition is the tribe’s first subdivision to be built under the tribe’s historic Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act. A 12-acre plot near Grant Foreman Elementary School now boasts a dozen 1,700-square-foot three-bedroom, two-bath houses, each with a two-car garage and storm shelter.
The lot has space available for up to 30 homes for Cherokee citizens, most of whom have been on a waiting list for affordable housing provided by the tribe.
Also on Wednesday, the Cherokee Nation announced a study to examine housing needs for Cherokee families across the reservation. The comprehensive report, due in two months, will determine shortfalls in affordable rental and homeownership opportunities. Officials said researchers may explore options such as tiny homes, based on family needs.
Housing construction represents about 10 percent of the estimated 60 Cherokee Nation projects worth nearly $1.2 billion underway across the reservation.
The 12 move-in ready homes in the Warrior Addition are all lease-to-own properties, with all utilities included. After paying the lease for a 30-year term, the tenant takes ownership of the home. At $600 a month, Warrior Addition residents will be paying significantly less than tenants renting homes of similar size elsewhere in Muskogee.
Cherokee citizen Jennifer Shrum told ICT and the Tulsa World she was amazed to have been chosen after she entered a lottery last October to live in one of the homes.
“I started my whole life over whenever I went to rehab. I have been sober and living in an Oxford house (sober living housing for women and children) for a while now, and this just gives me that next step toward getting completely better,” she said.
Shrum is working to get her two daughters back into her care and said this new home is the perfect opportunity to reunite her family.
The Warrior Addition, with a playground that also features outdoor exercise equipment for adults, was built through the efforts of several Cherokee Nation businesses.
Brothers David Ross and Mike Ross were the Cherokee tribal employment rights officer contractors for the subdivision.
“When the deputy chief and I took office, we proposed to the council something called the Housing and Jobs Sustainability Act,” Cherokee Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said at the move-in day event. “It was an investment of $30 million, mostly in the cause of housing rehab.”
The Barnett family moved into the Warrior Addition after living in Tulsa.
“We were paying $1,200 a month before, and we were just dying,” Cecilia Barnett said, citing a high electric bill, cracks in the doors and several problems that come with an old house.
“Rents are too high,” Hoskin said. “People that are living on the economic margin are just a few bad breaks away from homelessness.”
The tribe worked with the city of Muskogee to name each street in the subdivision in honor of Cherokee veterans: Jocko Avenue in honor of Navy Admiral Joseph James “Jocko” Clark; Birdwell Street in honor of Army Specialist 5 Dwight Birdwell; Montgomery Street in honor of Army 1st Lieutenant Jack C. Montgomery; and Joshua Avenue in honor of Army Master Sergeant Joshua Wheeler.
Signs and biographies of each veteran were displayed at the event. Birdwell attended the event and had the opportunity to be handed the sign for the street named after him.
This story is co-published by the Tulsa World and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the Oklahoma area.
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