Innovative program benefits Tulsa
By: J. David Chapman/March 11, 2021
I was born and raised in Tulsa. My daughter currently lives in Broken Arrow, a Tulsa suburb, and my mother still lives in Tulsa.
My hometown enacted an innovative program to lure workers to Tulsa in fields that are conducive to remote work. The pandemic has taught us that many occupations lend themselves to working at home, and others not so much. For those in fields that remote work is appropriate, it doesn’t matter whether you are 5 miles or 500 miles from your office and customers.
Tulsa recognized that it has a competitive advantage of being in the middle of the U.S. and being one of the most affordable places for workers to live, with house prices at 43% of the national average. They have been touting their new world-renowned park called The Gathering Place and their strong arts programs as a part of this pitch to get workers to make the move to Tulsa. Besides pitching the amenities and beauty of the city, Tulsa also offers workers $10,000 to make the move.
Takers of the $10,000 incentive to move to Tulsa also get a one-year membership in a local co-working space. Originally the $10,000 was dealt out over time as a stipend to augment salaries; however, changes were recently made and Tulsa Remote recipients will now get a lump-sum grant of $10,000 once they purchase a home in Tulsa.
The program was created by the George Kaiser Family Foundation with the intent of recruiting workers from tech hubs such as Austin and Silicon Valley. Tulsa recognizes that many of those professionals they wish to recruit have goals that include homeownership and they have responded to a new option connecting the $10,000 grant to buying a home. This change aims to tie the workers to neighborhoods and make them permanent Tulsa residents. To date, more than 50,000 applications have been received by workers hoping to participate in the relocation program. The city has welcomed more than 600 new residents through the program and retained an amazing 90% of them.
As cities all around the U.S. look for ways to recruit young professionals and a talented workforce, I am proud of my hometown for creating this innovative approach and continuously modifying the program to meet the city’s goals and to benefit our new Tulsans.
J. David Chapman is an associate professor of finance and real estate at the University of Central Oklahoma (jchapman7@uco.edu).