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Cherokee Nation reports progress on Sallisaw housing, down-payment assistance
Summary
Housing Services reported dozens of new construction and rehab projects underway across Cherokee Nation, detailed the Sallisaw Redbird Smith Estates development and said staff processed multiple down-payment assistance wire transfers with more closings projected this month.
Todd Enloe, the Cherokee Nation housing official who presented the department's monthly report, said the housing program was actively managing rehabilitation and new-construction projects and moving families toward homeownership.
Enloe said the department "touched" 4,860 homes or households in January. He reported 106 homes were under contract and 61 homes had been posted; he also reported 83 individual homes under construction. He said the total number of simultaneous projects across the Nation was "well over 400." The transcript contains minor inconsistencies in the counts Enloe read aloud (for example, he referred to "a total of a 67 homes" immediately after citing 106 and 61), and those figures are presented here as he stated them.
Enloe described Sallisaw's Redbird Smith Estates, a property the Nation acquired in the late 1990s and platted in February 2002. He said 12 single-family homes were under construction there; the houses are three-bedroom, two-bath with a safe room, master closet, two-car garage and a generator hookup. The development will also include eight duplexes (16 rental units total), with the two-bedroom units including at least one accessible unit, a playground, a fenced multiuse court designed as a half basketball / multipurpose court adaptable for pickleball, shade structures, a bicycle repair station and solar-powered lighting.
Enloe said site work has completed streets and infrastructure and that crews were hauling topsoil and finishing punch-list items. He said the playground and courts were expected to be installed soon.
On homeownership assistance, Enloe said staff signed eight wire transfers last Monday and Tuesday for down-payment assistance and that the department was projecting to close on 19 homes this month.
Council members asked several operational questions during the presentation. Councilor Lake asked whether use of the pickleball court would be limited to residents; Enloe said the department was "working on" access and security arrangements to keep the amenity both accessible and secure. Councilor Dora Petzkowski asked about the court dimensions; Enloe said it is a multipurpose (half) court and that he would provide the exact dimensions later.
Enloe credited his staff for the volume of work across multiple communities and highlighted partnerships and upcoming announcements he described as "pretty cool partnerships."
