Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Housing Authority host annual Housing Fair in Clinton, OK

By Latoya Lonelodge, Senior Reporter

(CLINTON, OK)

Keeping homeowners up to date with modern day easy house fixes and with current housing information was the goal as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Housing Authority held their annual housing fair May 25 at the Clinton Emergency Response Center in Clinton, Okla.

As several homeowners made their way through the housing fair visiting booths, they were presented with hands-on demonstrations on how to keep home maintenance up to par, with several stations and booths set up around the fair.

Part of the housing fair was to encourage participants to visit each of the stations to complete a scavenger hunt and fill out housing surveys that were presented to them and in return, win door prizes.

Executive Director of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes Housing Authority, Damon Dunbar said as part of their housing fair they have each year, this year they have booths set up for health programs, private programs, realty companies and Tribal HUDVASH.

“Our annual housing fair is the outreach for the housing authority, which we bring all of our pro- grams out and we actually tell all of our home buyers and whoever’s here what kind of services they can get,” Dunbar said. By having the housing fair, Dunbar said the greatest outcome they hope for is collecting surveys.

“So, we can show the needs when we start looking for grants, that’s the main thing, and to educate our tribal citizens on how to change their plumbing, air conditioning, filters, that type of stuff but the survey is really good,” Dunbar said.

Dunbar said as part of their Indian Housing Plan, they are required to do annual fairs and for the year they are planning to do two housing fairs.

“We usually just do one but we’re doing two now so we’re actually trying to reach out to different areas and next year we’ll probably go to Elk City and Woodward,” Dunbar said.

Making their way from station to station at the housing fair, participants were given various demonstrations by maintenance and construction employees of the housing authority.

Chandler Stone, with the housing authority construction, gave a demonstration on an HVAC unit, or electrical hot water