Bush administration withholds $300M from Indian housing

[Waya]

The Bush administration's decision to withhold up to $300 million in Indian housing funds came under fire on Wednesday.

Key members of Congress questioned why the Department of Housing and Urban Administration appeared to be punishing nearly every single federally recognized tribe by denying them access to their money. They suggested a legislative fix may be needed to prevent what tribal housing leaders predicted would be a total disaster.

"Whew," said Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, after being told that $300 million, nearly half of the entire Indian housing block grant program, was being withheld from over 500 tribes.

"It seems to me that would lend some urgency to resolving this situation," he added.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the vice chairman of the committee, agreed. He said HUD was going overboard by tying up the entire program over a lawsuit filed by just one tribe.

"I understand that you may have to recalculate but I assume you could create reserves that would allow you to do that and at least distribute some portion of the housing funds," he said.

Tribal housing leaders drove the same point home during the hearing and at a briefing following the hearing. Marty Shuravaloff, the newly elected president of the National American Indian Housing Council, said some tribes may have to stop building homes altogether as a result of the administration's move.

"This potentially is going to affect every tribe in the country," said Shuravaloff, a housing director from Alaska whose tribe won't be able to access $4 million in the coming year unless HUD changes course.

"They could potentially be looking at closing their doors," he said of other tribes across the country.

Orlando Cabrera, the assistant secretary in charge of public and Indian housing, did not dispute the gravity of the situation. "The impact is that there currently are no awards, no money going to any of the tribes," he told the committee.

But he said the lawsuit forced HUD to suspend the entire program because a federal judge invalidated a key housing regulation. In a May 25 decision, the judge said the way block grant funds are distributed under the Native American Housing and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) is unfair to tribes.

"This particular order throws the entire formula into question," said Cabrera of the ruling.

Not everyone buys that explanation. Susan M. Hammer, the executive director of housing for the Ute Tribe of Utah, accused the administration of trying to "pit tribes against each other" after losing the lawsuit.

"It's just seems unfair that they are restricting funding to all tribes," she said via telephone during NAIHC's briefing. "To punish us all for an adverse position ... it just doesn't seem right."

The lawsuit at issue was filed by the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. The tribal housing authority had received block grant funds in order to "provide affordable housing for low income families," the judge's decision sated.

HUD claimed that the Fort Peck Housing Authority received excess funds under the NAHASDA regulation. A 2003 letter stated that the tribe "received overfunding" in excess of $1 million over a five-year period.

After losing an administrative challenge within HUD, the tribes went to court. U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch examined NAHASDA and the HUD regulation, and found that the regulation has a "perverse effect" on tribes seeking to increase Native American homeownership rates.

"The housing needs of people living on an Indian reservation are not reasonably determined by a formula" in the regulation, he wrote in the 19-page decision.

"As a result, tribes with large numbers of homeownership units suffer decreases in their share of the annual apportionment, and tribes with a large percentage of rental units receive a greater share each year," he wrote in describing the funding inequity.

Cabrera said HUD is trying to find a way to resolve the situation. The Department of Justice has asked for a stay but he said the judge isn't likely to grant it. The case could conceivably go to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals..........


http://indianz.com/News/2006/014716.asp

[Broken_Hero]

1. doesn't

surprise me, but it still sucks...I wonder when Bush is going to take aim at IHS and other services, like education...:(

[Waya]

2. I thought he already messed with IHS .....

.....have to check on it......

[Broken_Hero]

3. I am not sure

if he has or not...I remember about three years ago, IHS/Education was under attack, but nothing came of it...but, I could be extremely wrong....

[existentialist]

4. IHS budget

I know that the IHS budget has received repeated cuts during the Bush Administration, but the extent to which that is the doing of the Bush Administration, and to what extent that of the Republican Congress is unclear.

The 638 contracts have also been taking budget cuts every year.

[CountAllVotes]

5. where I live the local reservation has next to none IHS

I was just told this the other day - it is a total chaotic mess and it is not serving the people well at all.

This is just the beginning and they use those words "self-determination" to get around having to do anything.

Makes me quite angry. :grr:

[Broken_Hero]

6. tell me about

it...the whole IHS affair is dissapointing...do you ever experience, that if you move out of your area, you are no longer considered indian? Herre me out...since I moved away from Alaska, I cannot get any help from my tribe because I don't live there...its like, since I am no longer in Alaska, I'm no longer indian...

Its all very aggravating...its like a veiled attempt to keep indians in one place...because indians will live around IHS, and not branch out...

[CountAllVotes]

7. where I live they do not recognize me at all

I just hang out here, I am not a member of the local tribe. One has an IHS north of me, the other one has an IHS inland.

They only recognize and help those that are registered with the tribe which can be very difficult being you need proof of blood quantum to be eligible for any help.

I can't prove anything being I am a descendant of the Trail of Tears (Cherokee/Choctaw/Chickasaw). My ancestors were not from where I live and you just say you are Cherokee and they say you aren't for real. It makes me rather angry at times as I know I am probably 1/4 blood Indian but I cannot prove it.

The surnames of my ancestors appear of the Final Dawes Rolls. Still that same that is not enough "proof" I guess. I wrote to the Cherokee Nation and they never replied to me after I told them I found my grandmother on the Final Dawes Roll.

So it seems no one wants Indian people like myself.

It is a shame that the ones locally cannot get help even if they are able to prove who they are. If they leave the area, they are in the same boat as you are.

In any event, I really think that the Indian people left here in the USA deserve everything they can possibly get.

When Katrina hit, I sent my donations for help to the Choctaw in Mississippi which is where my other grandmother was from (she was Choctaw, the other one found on the Final Dawes Roll was 1/4 blood Cherokee).

It is all just a mess. I've been involved in this for about 15 years now (locally that is). I'm seeing some change that is good and other change that is not good, like the IHS turning to a no help place to go sadly.

The reservation inland is no better. So much for "self-determination" without any funds to help huh?

[Broken_Hero]

8. True...

Very good points, all of them. My wife is Keetowah Band Cherokee, and IMO I think Cherokee Nation is screwing you over...I have seen cherokee's with 1/5794875498th with a cdib card, and I believe if you can prove descedancy via dawes rolls they cannot deny you...but it looks like they are...maybe Cherokee Nation has crappy workers(which they do), I think you should reapply and start calling....

My wife's work sent a lot of money to the Houma Nation in Lousiana when Katrina hit(wife pushed it through), and your donation brings a smile to my face...a lot of organizations over looked indians during Katrina...

IHS to me, is...corrupt, and run by a bunch of incompetant yahoo's...sorry, I can't say it any better than that. I have seen some good IHS clinics...1, my hometown one is very good...but it took a VERY long time to get there....the clinic I go to in Jay Oklahoma reminds me of my clinic 15yrs ago...but Claremore is pretty decent as a hospital...I can't knock claremore...but I just see a lot more wrong, than right...

[CountAllVotes]

9. "I think Cherokee Nation is screwing you over" ...

I feel this way too but for different reasons than to just get an Indian card. That is not my goal with the Cherokee.

I began looking for the people that adopted my mother - searching for them as they too are Cherokee/Choctaw/Chickasaw.

However, much to my surprise, I did not find many of them. Who I found was my own mother and her grandfather's and half-brother's family. It is a long lineage that is a well-known Cherokee one (as well as Choctaw) that I was able to trace back to c. 1840.

From what I have been able to discover, my own mother could have been as much as 3/4 blood Indian being I found all of their names on the Final Dawes Rolls. What a shock! I had no idea.

At least I know now. It was only one of her grandfather's that said his mother was born in Ireland and that is it (so 1/8th blood Irish she was). Otherwise it appears the were all various tribes c. 1835 that originated in places like Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Tennessee, etc. And then came the Trail of Tears.
And then the records sort of all disappeared and many were changed after that, dates and names and the people were scattered all over the place, many in Arkansas and Missouri/Texas.

My grandmother left a message with my mother. She named her giving her the middle name which was her own surname which also appears numerous times on the Final Dawes Rolls. I recently found out that the Cherokee follow the maternal lines with naming. Once I found this out then I knew for certain that she was indeed Cherokee and that is my grandmother on the Final Dawes Roll. Exact name match in fact, and it is not a very common name either.

It has been a long journey and I am tired and getting old. That was my only goal ever really, just to know. I want nothing from any of the tribes. I never did.

As for Katrina, the tribes were once again forgotten. I hope conditions have improved. Mine were in Louisiana too but I'd heard the ones in Mississippi, another place I have relations from were in great need especially so I sent money to them. As for the Red Cross, :P - they did not get a cent out of me. :)