More than 90 Native American communities throughout the United States will receive funding to improve housing conditions and stimulate community development.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced $60 million in Indian Community Development Block Grants (ICDBGs), which help to provide decent housing, suitable living environments, and economic opportunities for Indian and Alaska Native communities.
“These grants will create better housing, spur economic development, and support self-determination in Native American communities,” says HUD Secretary Julián Castro.
Many of this year’s projects focus on rehabbing older housing and providing new housing opportunities.
For example, the Los Coyotes Band of Cahuilla Indians in California will use its grant for the construction of five homes. In Nevada, the Elko Band of the Te-Moak Tribe of Western Shoshone in Nevada will use its funding for seven new manufactured homes for members who are living in overcrowded conditions.
The Blackfeet Housing Authority in Montana will rehabilitate 24 affordable housing units in the communities of Browning and Heart Butte. And in New Mexico, the Ohkay Owingeh Housing Authority in New Mexico will help 15 low- and moderate-income families purchase affordable, energy-efficient homes on the reservation.
For the first time in fiscal 2014, nine tribes have been awarded funding to remediate or prevent mold in housing units that they or other tribal housing entities own or operate.
Recipients include the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona, which will renovate 10 homes in a village at the bottom of the Grand Canyon that have evidence of mold, and the Chippewa Cree Housing Authority in Montana, which will remediate mold in at least 15 homes that suffered from floods in 2010 and 2011 on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation.
For a complete list of projects, visit http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=ICDBG_Grant_Summaries.pdf.