Northern Cheyenne Tribal Housing Authority

The NCTHA currently owns and manages 301 low-income rental units and a little over 100-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. 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 allocated over $600 million annually in recent years to fund the Indian Housing Block Grant program nationwide. The NCTHA receives about $2.7 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 2007 Indian Housing Plan also includes several different proposals submitted by President Geri Small and members of the Tribal Council. One of the issues Small and the Tribal Council wanted the NCTHA to address is to the large number of vacant and abandoned units. They agreed that our tribal members will 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 proposed that the work to be done on the reservation be contracted out to local independent Cheyenne contractors which will create opportunities for skilled tribal members to start their own businesses. To achieve this, the NCTHA wrote for and received a Resident Opportunity and Self Sufficient Grant (ROSS) to help create and start Small Business’s to achieve this objective.  With regard to abandoned homeownership units, the NCTHA is working with the Land Authority to recapture or buy back these properties. They will then be renovated and sold as part of the Title VI project or sold to eligible families on the Homeownership Waiting List.  

The NCTHA has taken the stance of addressing rising energy costs by purchasing and installing wood burning stoves in several rental units occupied by very low-income tenants.  Again, this objective will also enhance business opportunities for Northern Cheyenne wood vendors.  The NCTHA is currently in the process of procuring the wood stoves and identifying units where the stoves will be installed.  A training and orientation program for residents is also being developed for tenants regarding the proper care and use of wood burning stoves along with how to use the stoves safely.

Another continuing venture as noted previously is the work of several upgrades and additions to the Hestaneo’o Park (The People’ Park) that was built in Sweet Medicine.  Working in cooperation with the Tribe’s Parks & Recreation Dept., Tribal Health and several local contractors, the NCTHA has budgeted funds from the Title VI project to insure that the park is functional and usable for all of our people for years to come. Several tribal functions took place at the Park this year with the “Stingers” Little League Baseball team calling the Park home in their inaugural 2008 season.

The NCTHA has made tremendous strides in developing the administrative capacity to accomplish their objectives.  Only three years ago, the NCTHA was in ‘High Risk’ status with HUD, which basically meant that future funding was in jeopardy because not much was being accomplished.  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, most 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.  A great accomplishment was realized last year with the NCTHA receiving its first ‘Unqualified’ Audit, the first one in over 24-years. Our “Hats off” to all the staff and people who worked hard to make this possible. The 2008 Audit is due by December 31 to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. We are on track to have it in by that date. 

One of the biggest projects the NCTHA has taken on the past couple of years is completing the process of conveying over 300 Mutual Help Homeownership units to their respective homeowners.  This is a cumbersome and time consuming process because of issues concerning land leases, Tenants Accounts Receivables (rent owed), locating the original homebuyer, along with dealing with all of the issues with these homes throughout the past 25-years.  A majority of the land lease issues have been resolved as a result of meeting and working in cooperation with local BIA officials and the Land Authority. A process of streamlining the conveyance process is being developed and the remaining eligible homes should be conveyed by early 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. Solutions, Thinking outside the box and Teamwork !!, that is the approach that the staff has and will be taking in the coming years. 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 three years and strive for even greater accomplishments. I’m looking forward to finishing up the rehabilitation of our vacant and abandoned units, making things right with people  and getting this conveyance process behind us this next year so we can move on.” “We have to 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 or make homebuyer payments, they are simply depriving their own relatives, kids, grandchildren and the 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”. “One solution that we have been working on is the Transitional Living Center. The Tribal Council recently passed a resolution taking land near the BIA Law Enforcement Center out of Federal Trust and putting it back into Tribal Trust. Once this is finalized, the NCTHA will start the preliminary plans of constructing this facility in the Spring of 2009”. 

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 three 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 with President Spang, Vice-President Fox and the Tribal Council in a cooperative manner 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 2009 year.”