SECURING HOMES FOR CHEROKEES

Housing programs create opportunity to strengthen Cherokee families, help them build a stronger foundation for the future

By Allison Cochran Price

estled in the small town of Proctor, Okla., sits Maxine Hamilton’s new replacement home built by the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation.

Hamilton originally applied for rehabilitation to her previous home through the Housing Authority of Cherokee Nation, but upon inspection, it was determined that it would be more effective to replace her home with a new one.

Her previous home, built in the 1940s, had no insulation, bad flooring, a leaky roof, no central heating and air, old windows and asbestos siding. The new two-bedroom, accessible home is equipped to better fit her needs.

“There’s a lot more room to exercise,” Hamilton said. “I try to keep my legs moving.”

Hamilton is most excited about the warmth and “coziness” her new home brings. Though this is the fourth house to sit on her father’s original allotment land, it marks the first time 94-year-old Hamilton will have a laundry room and a safe room in her home.

Carla Henson, Hamilton’s daughter, said the building of her mother’s new home prevented their family from having to place Hamilton into a nursing home.

“Cherokee Nation has done a lot of good things,” Hamilton said. “Having a new home allows me to live with the things that I need to be happy and healthy.”

In 2019, Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. and Deputy Chief Bryan Warner proposed the Housing, Jobs and Sustainable Communities Act, which allocated a historic $30 million dollars to repair hundreds of Cherokee homes, remodel community buildings and create construction jobs. The Council of the Cherokee Nation passed the act and was then signed into law in 2019.

The tribe reauthorized the law in 2022 and expanded it at the request of Chief Hoskin and Deputy Chief Warner. The reauthorization was the largest housing investment ever by the Cherokee Nation and allocated $120 million to assist hundreds of Cherokee families, particularly Cherokee elders, low-income families and Cherokees with disabilities, with affordable housing.

Hundreds of Cherokees have already been assisted through the program, and hundreds more projects are underway or in the planning stages.

Cherokee citizen Alice Imogene Morgan’s previous home was in such bad condition that it was beginning to impact her health.

“It needed so much done to it. It had holes in the floor, there was mold in the house and I’m allergic to mold,” Morgan said.

Morgan, 73, has lived in Big Cabin, Okla., since the 1980s. She applied for housing assistance from the Housing Authority of Cherokee Nation and in September 2022, celebrated the one-year anniversary of her new place.

Morgan’s new, accessible home has brought her peace of mind knowing that she now has railing in the bathroom and doorways wide enough to navigate when she has to use a walker.

“I am so blessed. I still just can’t get over it,” Morgan said. “I just want to tell the Cherokee Nation thank you. Thank you, thank you.”

Along with the tribe’s historic housing efforts throughout the Cherokee Nation, the tribe is also partnering with the U.S. Department of Defense Innovative Readiness Training Program to build 21 new homes for Cherokee veterans in Tahlequah. Construction officially kicked off in April of 2021 with the Air National Guard, Army National Guard, Navy Reserve and Air Force Reserve Command providing personnel to construct the new homes.