Friday March 6, 2009, 10:06 am
HERE IS THE STORY:

WASHINGTON – American Indian housing officials will soon be racing against deadlines to obligate and spend more than half a billion dollars from President Barack Obama’s stimulus measure.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development will award half the money, $255 million, to tribes using the current allocation formula under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act by March 19.

The other half, to be awarded competitively, must be awarded by Sept. 30, said Paula Blunt, HUD acting assistant secretary for public and Indian housing.

Blunt told Indian housing officials at the National American Indian Housing Council’s annual legislative conference that if tribes don’t obligate and spend the money within certain deadlines, HUD will recapture the funds. No extensions will be awarded, she said. New priorities for tribal housing agenda

Having scored a coup by getting the only major American Indian legislation through Congress last year, Indian housing officials are pressing full speed ahead for more money and the elimination of a major roadblock to Native homeownership.

The National American Indian Housing Council will ask Congress for $854 million in fiscal 2010 to fund Indian housing block grants through the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act. Last year Indian housing activists got a bill re-authorizing NAHASDA through Congress.

That amount would be a substantial boost from the $630 million appropriated in the last fiscal year. Fiscal 2009 money, still pending in Congress, has been proposed at $650 million in the Senate and $645 million in the House of Representatives.

NAIHC revealed at its annual legislative conference that it will also ask for $50 million to fund the BIA Housing Improvement Program. This program had been zeroed out in President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget. However, $40 million to help fund HIP has been included in President Obama’s stimulus package.

The group also plans to lobby to reform BIA’s Title Status Report program “to encourage homeownership and business development.” Difficulty in obtaining TSRs in a timely fashion has hurt the effort to extend mortgage lending to tribal homelands.

NAIHC, which recently expanded into advocacy for Native Hawaiians, wants Congress “to swiftly enact the Hawaiian Homeownership and Opportunity Act of 2009 to reauthorize and amend Title VIII of NAHASDA (Housing Assistance for Native Hawaiians).”

The group also seeks federal catastrophic protection for AMERIND Risk Management Corp. in the event of claims exceeding $35 million from fire, wind or flooding. And it would like to see AMERIND’s scope expanded beyond the Department of Housing and Urban Development to other federal agencies.

NAIHC is also seeking an appropriation of $4.8 million to fund its training and technical assistance effort. This program was zeroed out in Bush’s budget for fiscal 2009. It was funded at $2 million in fiscal 2008. The group also wants to “maximize federal resources for the elimination of drugs and drug-related activities in Native communities.”

The competitive portion of the money must be obligated within a year of funding and spent within three years to avoid recapture.

“Start doing what you need to be doing,” Blunt advised the tribal housing officials. “We need to get it obligated. We need to get it spent.”

“I urge you to prepare your project proposals and have them ready to submit to HUD when their guidelines are published,” said Marty Shuravloff, NAIHC chair, at the conference.

And Paul Lumley, NAIHC executive director, commented, “This is an enormous chance for us to show we can implement our programs quickly.” Failure to do so could compromise attempts in the future to secure more funding. He suggests tribes “live up to the challenge Congress and the administration have given us.”

Priorities for the first half of the funds are for “new construction, acquisition, rehabilitation (including energy efficiency and conservation) and infrastructure,” according to an NAIHC white paper. HUD will “give priority to those projects that can be bid and contracted within 180 days from the date the funds were made available to the recipients.”

Construction and rehab projects that will spur employment for low-income and unemployed persons are priorities for the competitive bid part of the financing.

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands is eligible to get two percent of the money ($10.2 million) to provide housing assistance to Native Hawaiians.

According to NAIHC, assistance can go to both rental and homeownership units and can also “be used for certain types of community facilities if the facilities serve eligible, low-income residents.”

Tribal housing will benefit from other provisions in the stimulus, such as $1 billion set aside for the Community Block Development Grant that includes one percent for the Indian version of the program.

In addition, $40 million was voted for the BIA Home Improvement Program, which makes small grants for rehabs.

IHS supports tribal housing through water and wastewater infrastructure, and its Sanitation Facilities Construction Account is receiving $100 million under the stimulus package, NAIHC noted.

Tribes also are eligible for programs through the USDA Rural Development program like the Rural Housing Service, and several RD housing and infrastructure programs are getting money through the stimulus.

Tribes will also be eligible to issue $2 billion of tax exempt bonds for economic development. And the Treasury Department’s CDFI Fund, often used by tribes, will get an additional $8 million.

Blunt and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. cited figures that show an increased number of housing units being developed through Indian housing block grant dollars.

Waters told the conference that in fiscal 2006, HUD money was used to build, acquire or rehab 1,600 rental units and 6,000 homeownership units.

Blunt said 51,000 affordable housing units have been built, acquired or rehabbed with Indian housing block grant money in the past seven years. And she said the Indian Community Development Block Grant program in the last four years had funded 160 community buildings such as firehouses or gymnasiums.

Waters cited a U.S. Civil Rights Commission report on the crisis in Indian housing which found that 90,000 American Indian families were homeless, and that there is a need for 200,000 housing units immediately to combat substandard and overcrowded conditions. According to the report, 12 percent of Native houses lack complete plumbing facilities, 17 percent of homes lacked a telephone, and 11 percent lacked kitchen facilities.

Friday March 6, 2009, 1:10 pm
I hope they can spend it all for housing, it is certainly needed on rez's.
Our people have suffered too long.

Friday March 6, 2009, 2:43 pm
How about having them hiring from the Rez's to build the houses? They need jobs too!

Friday March 6, 2009, 2:52 pm
That might be a good idea off the Rez, Sue. But when the government and the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) are involved, it gets complicated.

Sunday March 8, 2009, 11:10 am
Could they form a group like Habitat for Humanity? That would provide training for folks and useful apprentice job skills.