National

BIA takes aim at housing with new regulation and agreement

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Veterans open the Apsaalooke Warriors Complex in Crow Agency, Montana on September 1, 2015. The Crow Nation help fund the 15-unit facility by selling tax credits. Photo from Crow Nation News / Facebook

The Bureau of Indian Affairs is asserting a stronger role in addressing housing conditions on reservations across the country.

The agency isn't typically known for its housing initiatives. Tribes usually turn to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to build and repair homes, projects that typically cost tens of millions of dollars.

Yet the BIA's Housing Improvement Program plays a critical role for tribal members who aren't eligible for assistance through other federal sources like the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act. Although it's budget is small -- about $8 million for fiscal year 2015 compared to over $600 million at HUD -- the program has helped hundreds of Indian families over the past decade with housing repairs, renovations and replacements.

"You know, our housing budget is not nearly the size of the budget over at HUD, but our monies are very, very important to tribes," Assistant Secretary Kevin Washburn, the head of the BIA, said during a consultation earlier this year . "We've heard over and over and over from tribes how important our HIP money is and so we need to make sure that we've got adequate flexibility to -- and tribes [get] that adequate flexibility -- in how they use that money."

Ho-Chunk Nation officials in Wisconsin cut the ribbon on the Ho-Chunk Veterans Supportive Housing Project on June 18, 2015,. Photo from Facebook

With that in mind, Washburn finalized a new HIP regulation that was published in today's issue of the Federal Register. The rule raises funding limits for repairs and renovations with the goal of serving more tribal families. The BIA estimates that the program will serve about 140 applicants in the current fiscal year.

The final regulation also embraces tribal self-determination. It gives tribes more flexibility to address long waiting lists for housing in their communities, a major issue throughout Indian Country.

"You know, we have a shortage of housing. We have about 500 people waiting on a waiting list," President "Cowboy" Fisher of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana said during another consultation in February. Current funding levels only allow the tribe to address about two housing units a year, he said, so it could take decades to resolve the waiting list.

During the session, Fisher also brought up another unique issue in Indian Country. He said existing programs fail to take into account the need to provide housing for tribal veterans, who serve in the U.S. military at the highest per capita rates in the nation.

The Northern Cheyenne Tribe of Montana is using its timber resources to address housing conditions on the reservation through the Log Building Pilot Project. Photo courtesy A Cheyenne Voice via Native Sun News

The BIA responded by adding a new ranking factor for veterans "in recognition of both the important contribution to society that veterans have made and the disadvantage many veterans are under economically," the notice states. Tribes will be able to include their veterans housing needs on HIP applications and gain additional "point values" to help determine where to distribute the funds.

The final rule "goes further in supporting the housing needs of our Native veterans, who have long served to protect their tribal homelands and the nation," Washburn said in a press release.

In addition to the HIP regulation, the Obama administration is taking other actions to address housing on reservations. The BIA signed a a memorandum of understanding with other federal agencies to address homelessness in Indian Country.

As part of the effort, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will be establishing a new working group that will focus on issues facing tribal members in reservation and urban settings. The MOU also requires participating agencies to improve data collection on homelessness among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Young members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians help break ground on the Pokégnek Édawat in Hartford, Michigan, on August 26, 2015. Photo from Pokagon Band

"While we do not yet have good data on homelessness on tribal lands, the data that we do have indicates that Native Americans make up 1.2% of the general population, but an estimated 2.3% of people who experience sheltered homelessness off of tribal lands," Matthew Doherty, the executive director of the council, said in a blog post last week.

"In communities with a higher Native American population such as Seattle, the rates of homelessness among Native Americans are even more alarming. Seattle recently found that 18% of their unsheltered population identifies as American Indian or Alaskan Native," Doherty added.

Despite the new initiatives, BIA officials have acknowledged that their funding levels are nowhere near enough to meet housing needs. The HIP budget has been falling steadily since the Bush administration, when it was almost completely eliminated. The program went from a high of $23 million in 2004 to $13.8 million in 2008, just before President Barack Obama came on board.

Congress, however, hasn't restored HIP to its earlier levels amid competing budget priorities. The program held steady at about $12.6 million between 2010 and 2013 but abruptly fell to $8 million in 2014, a sign of the sequestration cuts that were imposed by Capitol Hill a year prior.

Although the BIA envisions helping about 140 applicants with that same level of funding in fiscal year 2015, the agency believes more than 7,000 tribal members are eligible for HIP assistance. Were Congress to provide adequate funding to meet the need, HIP would be receiving more than $963 million, according to the agency's estimates.

Federal Register Notices:
Housing Improvement Program (November 10, 2015)
Housing Improvement Program (January 28, 2015)
Housing Improvement Program (January 2, 2015)