NCTHA Staff pose with US Secretary of HUD Donovan
Mission statement: “The Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority is committed to providing quality and affordable housing services to eligible Northern Cheyenne tribal families living on tribal lands”
The end of the 2009 year is also the beginning of a continuing era at the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority (NCTHA). The Housing program had a ‘memorable year’ in 2009 in bringing in over $5 million of dollars of Stimulus Funding under newly elected President, Barack Obama’s Stimulus Bill. In addition, our program was successful in receiving a $200,000 Rural Housing and Economic Development (RHED) grant from HUD to help with the Tribe’s Economic endeavors. Several projects were completed this past year including the renovation of the vacant Art’s and Craft’s Center, the construction of a new ROSS/Homeownership office, the renovation of 9 original 12-01 Old Mutual Help homes and several new Playgrounds around the reservation.
Additionally, the NCTHA started the $4 million dollar Tax Credit renovation of the Shoulderblade Elderly Complex in early Spring. Several Contractors from in and around the state were hired to start the process of renovating the dilapidated interior and exterior of this 30+ year old building. As of December 2009, 18 of the 35 units in this building were 95% completely renovated and ready for occupancy.
In May, the new U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Shaun Donovan, made a ‘first-ever’ visit to the Northern Cheyenne Reservation along with the Education Secretary, Arne Duncan. This visit was historic as Secretary Donovan was able to see first-hand the issues that have plagued reservations since the inception of HUD funding. Secretary Donovan vowed that he would do all he could to help Native Americans address issues related to Housing. The Tribe had a very nice welcoming for these dignitaries and a Friendship Ceremony was performed by one of our very own Societies.
NCTHA at HUD in Washington D.C.
Today, the NCTHA currently owns and manages 301 low-income rental units and a little over 80-homeownership units located throughout the 5 districts comprising the reservation. All of these homes were developed with funding from the U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) through the U.S. Housing Act of 1937. The NCTHA was created pursuant to a Tribal Ordinance in the early 1960s and approximately 800 homes for tribal members were developed through the mid 1990s (500 Mutual Help and 300 Low-rent). Then, in 1996, Congress passed legislation entitled the Native American Housing Assistance & Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) that has had a dramatic effect on the Indian Housing industry.
NAHASDA is a block grant type of funding system where grants are awarded to the Tribe and then the Tribe may designate an entity to be the recipient of the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) funds. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe designated the existing NCTHA as the recipient of IHBG fund by resolution back in 1997. The transition from the 1937 Housing Act to NAHASDA has been a long and strenuous task and as a result, the NCTHA has been able to develop only 36 new homes since the inception of NAHASDA. Congress has only allocated over $600 million annually in recent years to fund the Indian Housing Block Grant program nationwide. The NCTHA receives about $3.0 million annually in grant funds. So, what’s the problem and why aren’t more new homes being built? There are several explanations;
Under the 1937 Housing Act, HUD basically awarded the NCTHA three different pots of money each year. One pot of money was for managing and maintaining owned and managed homes. Another pot of money was awarded to modernize or rehabilitate owned and managed homes, and yet another pot of money was awarded to build new homes. HUD determined how much money was going to be in each pot every year and neither the Tribe nor the NCTHA had much to say about how the funds were to be spent.
Now, all of that has changed under NAHASDA. The NCTHA, working in cooperation with the Tribe, submits an Indian Housing Plan to HUD each year that describes what eligible activities are to be accomplished utilizing IHBG funds. There is now only one pot of HUD funds and it’s the responsibility of the Tribe and the NCTHA to prioritize where the money goes. In recent years, most of the IHBG funds have been allocated to maintaining and rehabilitating existing homes. For example, previous Indian Housing Plans included over $1.2 million to rehabilitate over 30 vacant or “boarded up’ rental units and up to 35 Mutual Help Homeownership units. NAHASDA requires the NCTHA to allocate adequate funding to manage and maintain the homes that it owns and manages. Therefore, the NCTHA has allocated a majority of its IHBG funds to fix-up many of those vacant or abandoned homes that have fallen into a state of disrepair for various reasons over the past decade. Because the NCTHA is required to take care of what it already owns and manages, there simply hasn’t been enough funding from the HUD Block grant system to develop many new homes.
The NCTHA’s 2008 Indian Housing Plan included several different proposals submitted by President Leroy Spang and members of the Tribal Council. One of the issues was that they wanted the NCTHA to address is to the vacant and abandoned units. They agreed that our tribal members deserve to have a safe and decent place to live. Additionally, much emphasis and funding has been placed in the areas of; Street lights, Law Enforcement, Solid Waste and Playgrounds. The Tribal Council emphasized that the work to be done on the reservation, should be contracted out to local independent Cheyenne contractors as much as it can, which will create opportunities for them to continue to operate their own businesses. With that in mind, the NCTHA had it’s first Resident Opportunity and Self Sufficient Grant (ROSS) participants complete the first-ever classes which helps to create and start Small Business’s.
The NCTHA has taken the stance of addressing rising energy costs using Stimulus Funding. This funding was secured to help Weatherize over 150 Old Mutual Help units by installing new Energy efficient windows, doors, roofs and furnaces. Again, this objective will also enhance business opportunities for new Northern Cheyenne contractors who are in the process of starting their own business. There will be many contracts bid out as our program has several million dollars of funding that needs to be spent on these units. The NCTHA is currently procuring Windows, Doors and Roofing materials for these projects as there is only a 3-year window to have all these projects completed under the Stimulus Bill.
NCT Delegates meet with HUD ONAP Deputy Assistant Directory Boyd
The NCTHA has made tremendous strides in developing the administrative capacity to accomplish their objectives. Only four years ago, the NCTHA was in ‘High Risk’ status with HUD. There were numerous open fiscal audit findings that weren’t being addressed along with many HUD monitoring concerns. Through the diligent efforts of the NCTHA staff, Ahoy Leasing and the Board of Commissioners, all of the findings and concerns were addressed and have been closed. As a result of all of the hard work and cooperation between the Tribal Council, the Board of Commissioners and the NCTHA administration, today the NCTHA is no longer considered ‘High Risk’ and is in good standing with HUD and other Federal agencies. Our latest accomplishment for the latter part of this last year was that we recently received our third (3rd) ‘Unqualified’ Audit for fiscal year 2008/2009.
Executive Director and long-time NCTHA employee, Lafe Haugen, believes the NCTHA has a bright future. “We have had a new attitude at the NCTHA over the last five years; Solutions, Thinking outside the box and Teamwork !! That is the approach that the staff has had. Finding solutions to things that just haven’t worked for our administration in the past has been the key to our success. We will continue to build on the successes and accomplishments over the last five years and strive for even greater accomplishments. We are looking forward to finishing up the rehabilitation of these Old Mutual Help units, helping our tribal members become Homebuyers and getting more funding so we can continue to address the Housing Waiting List.” “We will continue to educate our tenants and homebuyers to remind them that the housing we have is not an entitlement program. When tribal members don’t pay their rent, tear up these units or refuse to come into compliance, they are simply depriving their own relatives, kids, grandchildren and other needy families on our waiting list of a safe and decent place to live.” “We rely on this money so we can continue to provide better services and more housing to our people”.
NCTHA Board of Commission Chairman, Claude Leedom, shares Haugen’s spirit of optimism about the future. “We wish to continue to build upon the foundation and our success over the last five years to develop more homeownership financing opportunities for our tribal members.” “The United States economy is driven by Housing development and the Northern Cheyenne economy is no different” Leedom stated. He goes on to explain that he and the other 4- members of the NCTHA Board of Commissioners are looking forward to working in a cooperative manner with all of the Tribal Programs in compiling a long range work plan that identifies and describes the many funding sources along with an estimated number of homes that will be developed for Northern Cheyenne members in the coming years. Leedom also emphasized that he and the rest of the Commissioners are on board with whatever direction the Tribal Council wants to take this year.”We are looking forward to the 2010 year with a possibility of more Stimulus funding coming down the pipeline for our people”.