ANALYSIS & FINDINGS The following figures and key findings derive from case studies and interviews with Housing Directors of Pueblo TDHEs. Supplementary interviews from Indian architects/urban design consultants, Indian law lawyers, and a tribal bank CEO, non-Indian Santa Fe planners also help inform findings. Interviews from Pueblo TDHE - Housing Directors in addition to supplementary interviews allow for a holistic understanding of the challenges Pueblo tribes face conforming to the rules and regulations the Department of Housing and Urban Development has laid out. From the case studies and supplementary interviews, I concluded five themes that speak to the challenges in housing development for Pueblo tribes: (1) HUD’s cultural misunderstanding of Pueblo tribes living arrangements, (2) leveraging funds to complete projects, (3) adapting to competitive housing programs, (4) access to credit, (5) internal management dilemma.
I. LEVERAGING FUNDS TO COMPLETE PROJECTS IS CHALLENGING Interviewed housing directors unanimously cited their biggest present challenge stemming from Indian housing policies, such as NAHASDA, leveraging enough funds together to complete a project. When questioned about the financial challenges of NAHASDA, Ohkay Owingeh TDHEs’ housing director - Tomasita Duran stated: “NAHASDA was a step in the right direction for tribes, however it still can be improved. On one hand it enables tribes to develop housing types they want, but there is never enough money to complete a project [with NAHASDA funds] alone. On another end, it also forced tribes to learn how to leverage money which is needed in Indian Country.” - Tomasita Duran (Ohkay Owingeh TDHE)
Francisco Simbana, housing director of the Santa Clara Pueblo TDHE, echo a similar sentiment of the difficulties of leveraging funds: “NAHASDA [IHBG] is not enough to build new homes or maintain old homes that people weren’t prepared to maintain in the first place when HUD initially built them...the formula used to determine funds is poor and inadequate. Large tribes like the Navajo Nation get upwards of 18-22 million a year, while smaller ones like Santa Clara get less than 750k.” Francisco Simbana (Santa Clara TDHE)
Prior to the passage of NAHASDA in 1997, HUD’s 1937 Housing Act program completely funded housing units in their entirety. Although all interviewed Pueblo TDHE housing directors agreed NAHASDA was a step in the right direction towards self-determination in Indian housing policy. They find NAHASDA’s IHBG financially restricting and increasingly difficult to utilize to fund new construction in addition to repairing 1937 housing units under the TDHEs authority. While experienced housing directors such as Tomasita Duran of the Ohkay Owingeh tribe and Andrew Martinez & Christina Brass of the Nambe tribe are finding
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