Conclusion

The housing development challenges Pueblo TDHEs face today resulting from lack of federal government financial support, assimilation driven policies, lack of access to capital are not entirely new. Many of the challenges Pueblo TDHEs face today stem from the implications of centuries of Anti-Indian housing policies, designed to dispossess Indian land and control Indian Country. Although HUD’s passage of NAHASDA in 1996, signaled a new era of selfdetermination in Indian housing that seeks to give tribes the power to develop tribal housing that best suits their needs. NAHASDA’s IHBG funding is significantly underfunded and is gradually becoming weaker each passing year as inflation and cost of construction all while IHBG funding remains stagnant.

This report recommends a set of actions to be taken both by HUD and Pueblo TDHEs in effort to resolve housing development challenges for TDHEs and better enable tribal members access mortgages. The implementation of these recommendations can potentially provide more funding to TDHEs to complete projects and ultimately enable tribes to become more self-reliant and establish their own financial institution(s) to administer mortgages to tribal members.

My goal of this research is to holistically understand and shed light on the unique challenges contemporary federal Indian housing policies present to Pueblo TDHEs’ ability to develop and provide housing to tribal members. To understand the present challenges, it is crucial to understand the evolution of federal Indian policy in the United States to avoid enacting the same paternalistic driven policies based on non-Indian mainstream customs. Adequate funding support is the main challenge impacting TDHEs, that can be resolved by the federal government who owes a trust responsibility to Indian tribes. If the federal seeks to continue championing self-determination driven Indian housing policies, it is vital the federal government provides adequate funding to make Indian housing programs effective.

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