The Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing, “Identifying Barriers to Indian Housing Development and Finding Solutions,” on April 10. Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA) opened the hearing by describing how Native Americans disproportionally experience homelessness, representing 8% of the country’s homeless population, even though they only represent 1% of the total U.S population. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) described how native Hawaiians also disproportionately experience homelessness, representing as high as 59% of residents in programs that serve families and individuals experiencing homelessness in Hawaii.Many of the witnesses discussed the importance of reauthorizing the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act (NAHASDA) and of providing adequate funding to truly address the severe housing conditions on reservations. NAHASDA is due to be reauthorized this year.Witness Russell Sossamon of the Choctaw Nation Housing Authority urged the Committee to reauthorize NAHASDA by September 30, and to retain and strengthen provisions that allow for a tribally driven negotiated rulemaking process. Witness Paul Iron Cloud, Chief Executive Officer of the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, said in his testimony, “NAHASDA funding levels limit us to building on average no more than 30 to 40 units a year, yet we currently need 4,000 new units and 1,000 homes repaired.” Senators and witnesses also discussed ways to better assess housing needs on reservations so as to better allocate federal resources. Senate Committee on Housing, Banking, and Urban Affairs Chair Tim Johnson (D-SD) asked Mr. Iron Cloud how the Dakota Housing Needs Assessment Pilot Project, being conducted by five tribal housing programs, will help improve housing on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Mr. Iron Cloud said entities running the pilot plan to report to Congress, HUD, and the Office and Management and Budget this summer. Mr. Iron Cloud said that if successful, the pilot could “change how housing need is determined on reservations and result in better allocation of federal tribal housing funds.” Chair Cantwell asked witness Roger Boyd of the Office of Native American Programs at HUD why Congress does not have an accurate assessment of housing needs in Indian Country. Mr. Boyd responded that while his office has conducted housing needs assessments, one outstanding problem is a very low response rate, a problem that occurred the last time such an assessment was conducted in 1996. Mr. Iron Cloud also asked in his testimony for Congress to fully provide for NAHASDA’s self-determination commitments to tribal governments. Mr. Iron Cloud wrote in his testimony that the NAHASDA statute dictates that the block grant program has “to function based on self-determination and tribal self-governance.” To fulfill the commitments of the NAHASDA statute, Mr. Iron Cloud asked that tribal governments be allowed to decide whether to waive the “Brooke Rule,” which requires that residents of assisted housing pay no more than 30% of their income for rent. Mr. Iron Cloud said that the Brooke rule “costs tribal governments an enormous amount of money to administer, it diverts tenant service representatives from performing important management and tenant counseling services, and it creates an unhealthy and adversarial relationship in Indian country that often poisons individual tenant and tribal housing entity relations.”Chair Cantwell asked if and how the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) is being used on tribal lands. Witness Annette Bryan of the Puyallup Nation Housing Authority said that her tribe found it prohibitively expensive to use LIHTC. Ms. Bryan said that tax credits are complex, and that tribes cannot use them to fund housing that requires residents to pay no more than 30% of their income on rents. Ms. Bryan said because unemployment is so high on reservations, tribes are required to pay an unsustainable amount to make up the remainder of costs for households with zero income. Mr. Iron Cloud later said that unemployment on the Pine Ridge Reservation is approximately 80% but that they are considering using the LIHTC to produce more housing because the need for affordable housing is so great. Ms. Cantwell said that the committee will work to determine how LIHTC and similar programs can better work in Indian Country, and be leveraged with private funds.Mr. Iron Cloud closed his remarks by describing the “Trail of Hope” caravan organized by the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing. The Trail of Hope will bring a house to Washington, D.C. the week of April 15. The house, built in 1961, was the first federally assisted housing unit built on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Mr. Iron Cloud invited Senator Johnson and the other Senators to visit the demonstration to see firsthand the dire housing conditions in Indian Country. The house is expected to be placed in Union Square, on 3rd Street NW just west of the U.S. Capitol building, on April 17. Both the Oglala Sioux (Lakota) Housing and the Oglala Sioux Tribe Partnership for Housing are members of NLIHC and Emma “Pinky” Clifford, the Executive Director of the OST Partnership for Housing is a member of the NLIHC Board of Directors. Follow the “Trail of Hope” caravan in their Facebook account.Click here for an archived hearing webcast and all witness testimony.