Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

There was an Indian Housing Division created under the Assistant Secretary for Public Housing and Indian Housing. But I am not sure they have yet filled that position.

Let me move now to the Farmers Home Administration. The Farmers Home Administration has programs that can serve IndiansChairman ASHLEY. Mr. Wilson, we are going to have to move along, because we have to hear from Mr. LeBeau.

Mr. WILSON. Sure, Mr. Chairman. I will see if I can finish up.

The Farmers Home Administration programs, however, are not widely used because they do constitute a threat to the trust status of the Indian land, and that in some way needs to be worked out in order for the Farmers Home Administration programs to work, so that that trust status is not threatened.

Let me go then to two suggestions for new programs that we would like to mention. One of them is that we would like to urge the committee to have a look at an Indian housing authority administered revolving loan fund that is currently operated by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency in the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe. This program is basically a loan program that is made available to individual families at a 4-percent interest rate. It is capitalized at $7 million, and used to purchase a home or rehabilitate a home up to $37,000.

At foreclosure the tribe would gain title to the land, so the trust status is protected.

We might ask the committee to look at some kind of national program, revolving loan program on this basis. It would not serve low-income people, but it may serve to take some of the pressure off the programs that already exist.

John Cata, who was the executive director of the All-Indian Pueblo Housing Authority in Albuquerque, N. Mex., made a suggestion back in 1978 for a new program that I would like to mention to you again. It is a lease-purchase program. It would be administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Families would pay basically 15 to 25 percent of their adjusted income for their housing, as they do currently. When payments exceed the administrative charge and the utility payments, the family would continue to pay but the excess payment over those amounts would be credited to their equity account.

If their income drops, as it is often inclined to do, the equity that would be acquired would be held constant and a low-rent program would be substituted until the income goes back up again. And this would avoid one basic problem. It would avoid the need for the local housing authority to evict families when their income drops below their ability to repay, and it would support some families to eventually become homeowners.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

[Mr. Wilson's prepared statement, on behalf of the Housing Assistance Council, follows:]

TESTIMONY OF

HAROLD O. WILSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

HOUSING ASSISTANCE COUNCIL

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

COMMITTEE ON BANKING, FINANCE AND URBAN AFFAIRS

UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

FEBRUARY 20, 1980

[blocks in formation]

The Housing Assistance Council is extremely pleased to see this Subcommittee holding hearings on the critical issue

of Indian housing. To our knowledge, this is the first time that a committee of Congress having jurisdiction over housing programs has done so. You are to be commended. We trust that out of these hearings will come comprehensive legislation designed to eliminate the deplorable Indian housing conditions which exist in this country today. To achieve this goal we urge the Subcommittee to consider a bifurcated approach:

1. Modifying and strengthening existing HUD Indian housing programs and FmHA loan and grant programs to make them more compatible with the unique situation of Indian people.

2. Designing entirely new program alternatives to

complement those which already exist.

In attempting to devise appropriate housing programs for Indian use, success can come only if certain social, economic, and legal factors affecting Indian people in a unique way are adequately taken into account. These factors

are:

1. The federally protected trust status of Indian land

2.

which prohibits its alienation, encumbrance, or

taxation.

The cultural, legal, and geographical diversity of the various Indian tribes.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

The lack of a stable economic base on reservations coupled with a high degree of dependence on Federal

assistance.

The high incidence of extreme poverty among Indians requiring deeper subsidies than are normally

provided in federally assisted housing.

The refusal of Indian people to jeopardize the trust status of their lands and the importance of the Indian land base to the economic, cultural, and political survival of the Indian tribes.

The security risk presented by Indian land status makes private mortgage financing and the various mortgage insurance programs unavailable to Indian people regardless of income.

The lack of privately initiated construction company activity on reservations.

The multiplicty of Federal agencies presently

involved in Indian housing and the lack of

coordination in budgeting and planning among the
agencies.

9. The fragile nature of the delivery system currently

10.

in place on Indian reservations to develop HUD
assisted housing.

The need for special training and technical

assistance for tribes and Indian Housing Authorities

-(IHA's) in developing and managing housing, and in

[blocks in formation]

II.

PRESENT FEDERAL HOUSING PROGRAMS ONLY MINIMALLY
RESPONSIVE TO INDIAN NEED

A. The annual Federal dollar commitment to Indian
housing is inadequate

Without question the American Indian ranks as the worst housed segment of the population of the United States. A 1970 Census Bureau report on housing characteristics indicated that 62.4% of the housing units on Indian reservations were substandard compared to 12.9% for the total U.S. population. In March of 1978 the GAO issued a report on Indian housing which estimated that fully 60% of all Indian families were living in substandard housing. The term "substandard" commonly used in housing circles as a catch-all phrase to connote any housing which deviates however slightly from the norm does not accurately reflect the actual state of much Indian housing. It is not uncommon for Indian people to live in small shacks without benefit of running water or electricity taken for granted by most of the rest of the population.

Overcrowding is severe. A 1973 BIA report

stated that 15,000 of the 92,000 Indian housing units then under its jurisdiction contained two or more Indian families. Due to a boom in the population of Indians in recent years (between 1960 and 1970 the Indian population doubled) and the fact that the median age of Indians is 20.4 there is a sharp increase in new Indian family formation. Correspondingly, the number of new Indian families living in substandard housing is increasing at an average annual rate

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »