Leveraging Support via Cultural Development Case Study: The Pueblo of Nambe

CASE STUDY: THE PUEBLO OF NAMBE - LESSONS IN LEVERAGING FUNDS AND CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR HOMEOWNERSHIP

Interviewee - Andrew Martinez | Housing Director, & Christina “Tina” Brass | Co-Housing Director/Former Housing Director

THE PUEBLO OF NAMBE TDHE BACKGROUND & CONTEXT

The Nambe tribe or the “People of the Round Earth” translated in Kewa, is almost one of the smaller Pueblo tribes of New Mexico of approximately 700 enrolled members and approximately 19000 acres. The income per capita in the year 2018 for the Nambe tribe sits around $ 28,663. 90 Tribal economic activity is centered around tourism around the Nambe Falls Recreation Area. Of the 19 pueblo tribes, the Nambe were amongst the first to accept HUD development assistance in 1967. Following the passage of NAHASDA, the Nambe departed from the Northern Pueblo Housing Authority to create their own Tribally Designated Housing Entity in 1998. Currently Andrew Martinez serves as Housing Director, proceeding Christina “Tina” Brass who served for 13 years from 2007-2019 and is currently Co-Director with Andrew Martinez.

Traditional Nambe pueblo dwellings feature attached units, with some shared spaces. Pueblo dwellings are clustered around 10-12 plazas and families live next to one another. The average pueblo unit size ranged from 800-1000 sq. ft, 1-story in height and composed of mud/clay exteriors and with either wood or dirt floors. Pueblo units were traditionally built by people within the community and till this day families are still living in pueblo dwellings along the plaza.

1937 HOUSING ACT

According to Housing Director Andrew Martinez and Co-Director Christina Brass, from 1967- 1980, less than 5-10 single family units were built in Nambe Tribal land. The first round of HUD 1937 housing units was detached single-family homes, approximately 800-1000 sq. ft, 2bdrm/1ba and flat roofed and featured unfinished floors. From 1980-1991 an additional 129 homes were built of various different layouts that featured gabled roofs, ranged from 1000-1600 sq. ft, and were typically 2bdrm/1ba to 2bdrm/2ba, and included various different features such as front porches, back porches, and fireplaces. In regard to the 1937 Housing Act producing a cultural impact on housing development in the tribe. Neither Martinez or Brass expressed any significant positive or negative impacts of the 1937 units homes, but agreed they brought a new design language into the tribe. More specifically the introduction of 1937 HUD units brought about the rapid acceleration of scattered homes. Lastly both Martinez and Brass noted from a developer’s standpoint, they appreciated the fact HUD covered the entirety of a project when constructing a 1937 Housing Act unit.

90 Ibid. U.S. Census Information for Native Americans. (2020)

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NAHASDA

The passage of NAHASDA was well received and praised within the Pueblo of Nambe, for its efforts to promote self-determination in housing. However according to Co-Director Brass, it also created a new host of challenges for the Nambe TDHE. The biggest challenge NAHASDA presented was the issue of leveraging funds to complete a project. Leveraging funds for the Pueblo of Nambe proved to be incredibly difficult due to the fact they were annually allotted on average $380,000 USD from NAHASDA’s non-competitive IHBG.

“From 1999 to 2007, absolutely nothing was constructed unless it was from individual people doing their own finances. There was absolutely no housing built through the Pueblos of Nambe TDHE, because we [Nambe] were pulling our money. We didn’t

know which way or housing projects to go [build].” - Christina Brass (Nambe TDHE)

According to Brass early on there was also confusion and differing voices within the tribal council on what housing development initiatives should be pursued. It would not be until 2007, a decade after the passage of NAHASDA. A tribal council member would ultimately decide no new development should occur on scattered sites and housing should be built in a subdivision lot parcel. In addition to learning how to leverage funds, Brass stresses the importance of being able to network and build a working relationship with the tribal council, who gives final approval project proposals. Although Brass champions the freedom NAHASDA offers TDHEs to develop housing choices they deem fit for the tribe. Brass also underscores from her experience as solo housing director, TDHEs’ are at mercy of tribal councils who give final approval of projects.

“NASHADA is really big on networking and that was a learning curve we [Nambe TDHE] had to learn....Initially there were three toxic board members that tried to micro-manage projects that made it difficult to carry out my duties and develop

projects” - Christina Brass (Nambe TDHE)

Now that those toxic board members are gone, both Brass and Martinez agree developing projects utilizing NAHASDA funds is much easier. Although tribal board members are not necessarily HUD’s creation, NAHASDA emphasizes on self-determination gives tribes the freedom to develop and govern their own housing development practices. Martinez notes this freedom can at times inadvertently create scenarios where TDHE’s are repressed by their own tribal council, who don’t understand housing development. This could leave to housing directors vacating positions to avoid the stress and pressure.

“The life of an [housing] executive is about 2 years because dealing with tribal boards can be a real challenge. I met other directors at conferences who told me stories of board members pulling funds from the housing authority.”

- Andrew Martinez (Nambe TDHE)

Besides internal tribal management struggles overall Martinez and Brass believe NAHASDA is a step in the right direction. To take NAHASDA to the next level, Martinez and Brass believe HUD needs to amend their environmental review restrictions on projects and reduce

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cost. Martinez inserts “the environmental review process is only good for 5 years and cost $13,000 to complete. It’s unfair and too costly [for the Pueblo of Nambe] to conduct environmental review twice on a site that takes us years to save and leverage enough funds to begin a project.” Additionally, both agree that the application for a tribe to obtain block grant funding is too demanding in regard to paperwork.

LIHTC

For a smaller tribe like the Pueblo of Acoma, both Martinez and Brass believe LIHTC projects are too complicated and hard to complete.

Brass retorts “at one point we applied to it [LIHTC] and wasn’t successful. Our tribe is too small and getting the right people to fill units would be a disaster.”

- Christina Brass (Nambe TDHE)

Small tribes such as the Pueblo of Nambe, are finding getting the right tenants that meet HUD’s household AMI index challenging. Even more challenging, Brass and Martinez do not see how to construct a LIHTC project and set rent limits that are both affordable to their tribal members and high enough to yield a margin of return to pay off a project’s equity provider within a 15-year loan period. Martinez also deposits enrolled tribal members with successful jobs that can afford higher rent. Typically chooses to live in a house on the tribal land they own or move off the tribal land if it is closer to their job and their children to have access to good schools.

TDHE INNOVATION: IN-HOUSE MORTGAGE FINANCING & MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

In-House Mortgage Financing

For the Pueblo of Nambe TDHE, Martinez and Brass took initiative in creating opportunities to provide more home ownership to enrolled tribal members and exploring cost saving construction techniques to save on cost. Access to credit for bank loans to build or acquire housing is still a major challenge impacting Indian Country today. Although in theory the Section 184 Home Loan program is designed to provide more opportunities for Indian Americans to get approved for home loans. According to Martinez many Nambe tribal members, with no credit history, are being denied the 184 program from banks. To work around this challenge, the Pueblo of Nambe TDHE created an in-house financing program to provide loans to tribal members.

“What bankers and backers of the 184 program do not understand is that we are working with low to moderate income people. Any monthly payment over 400 dollars

would devastate someone here.” - Andrew Martinez (Nambe TDHE)

To develop the Nambe TDHE in-house mortgage financing program. Martinez and Brass applied to and was awarded over $800,000 from the 2019 Indian Community Development Block Grant program and $3,025,760 from the 2019 competitive Indian Housing Block

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Grant. Portions of the competitive grants were used to create an MFA loan program for Nambe tribal members to acquire housing loans. For tribal members to qualify for the TDHE loan program. Martinez and Brass developed an 8-month program in which applicants attend a minimum of 8 hrs. of financial classes and counseling to learn about building credit, managing a mortgage, penalties of late payments, and the positives and negatives of credit cards. Another core requirement is applicants must have a job at the time of applying to be a part of the program. Most importantly, Martinez and Brass pride themselves the most on the fact that through their in-house mortgage program reports tribal member’s payment history to the US Credit Bureau. This is important to note because it helps tribal members build a credit history and access more credit opportunities in the future. According to Martinez, the HUD’s 184 program requires on average 2 years of counseling and training, monthly payments upwards of $700 USD, and it doesn’t report payments to the US Credit Bureau.

“Early on a lot of [Nambe] people were discouraged trying to get a 184 approval, and we [Nambe TDHE] were losing too many people to fact they couldn’t get a bank

loan” - Andrew Martinez (Nambe TDHE)

Modular Construction:

After conducting a community housing assessment survey amongst tribal members. Martinez and Brass discovered an overwhelming majority of tribal members expressed interest in having more opportunities to obtain a single-family home to own. This is interesting to note, because it breaks away from multi-generational housing units that are historically vernacular to the Pueblo of Nambe. Furthermore, according to Brass, managing rental properties are in more cases than any other a liability for TDHEs, who must absorb the maintenance fees, repair fees, landscaping fees. Since the community assessment survey, the Pueblo of Nambe TDHE has recently shifted gear to develop single family housing units and has been utilizing modular construction techniques to save on cost.

The adoption of modular construction housing development has enabled the Pueblo of Nambe TDHE to drop the minimum development cost of $150 psf. down to $98. Even more so according to Martinez and Brass, the TDHE has been able to drastically reduce the building time of a housing unit from 18-20 months to down to 6-8 months. Martinez expressed:

“Right now [in March 2020] we’re [building] 10 [modular] houses that will be done September or October, they’re [modular homes] are just faster, better, and can be

built very well with AC, and great insulation.” -Andrew Martinez (Nambe TDHE)

By converting over to modular construction, Martinez states that the TDHE is able to construct quality gable-roofed stucco single family housing units, with 10ft high ceilings, quality drainage systems, front and back porches. Additionally, the modular homes offer flexibility in design customization and the ability to construct at max 3bd/2ba units.

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