The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday it has awarded Oklahoma City a $7.1 million grant to aid the city’s homelessness programs.
HUD Regional Administrator Candace Valenzuela presented the $7.1 million check — $2.4 million more than last year’s award — to Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt at City Hall late Thursday morning.
“It’s no secret that Americans are facing unprecedented difficulty when it comes to housing,” Valenzuela said. “We have a challenging rental market, we’ve had expiring pandemic-era housing programs, and we had an increase in people experiencing homelessness for the first time that contributed to an overall national increase in homelessness, reflected in the data collected from our 2023 Point In Time Count.”
Last year, an estimated 650,000 people were classified as homeless nationwide, which Valenzuela said was a 12% increase from the previous year. But she also said Oklahoma City had, in comparison, managed to “buck the trend,” with an increase of about 6% since 2022.