>> good afternoon.i'm going try again, good afternoon!much better, fabulous. welcome to those of you heretoday, and those who are watching us on the webcast.i'm happy to see so many of you in the room today forthis great panel. so to remind people how we dothis, we have two parts of the day.as usual we begin with kevin cane, our chief marketanalyst who's going to give us an update on housingmarkets and going to use data
from the fourth quarter of2014 to give us a sense of how things are going.then i'm going to switch to our panel discussion, whichtoday is on native american housing, obstacles andopportunities, which also is the focus of our evidencematters issue that we are currently working on.so as many people in the room know, despite someimprovements over the last two decades, native americansare more likely to live in homes that are crowded,physically inadequate, and
unaffordable when compared tothe nation as a whole. 3 many tribal communities lacka developed housing and lending market, leaving themalmost completely dependent upon federal funding toaddress housing needs. over the past 50 years thefederal government has sought to fulfill its obligationsthrough a framework of self determination, allowingtribes to develop and implement programs based onan conducive to local conditions and preferences.our speakers today will mind
data and best practices tooffer a picture of how native americans are faring today.to moderate this panel, we're fortunate to have with you usroger boyd, deputy assistant secretary for hud's office ofnative american programs, better known as onap providefunds to the indians housing block program, alsoadministrators the indian community development blockgrant program and provides homeownership opportunities.roger brings to this panel a wealth of relevant knowledgeand experience beyond his
current work.before he joined us here at hud he was program manager attreasury's cdfi fund and in that role as manager of thefund, he managed the native american program and hedesigned and directed the fund's mandated nativeamerican lending study, and also initiated the fund'snative american t.a. and training program.you can picture the background he brought withhim to his work at hud. 4 throughout his career, rogerhas worked with indian tribal
governments, federalagencies, and the private sector, to explore anddevelop economic development opportunities for the nativeamerican communities with the goal of establishing selfsustaining economies. he is an enrolled member ofthe navajo nation, so thank you for joining us roger.before we move to the panel i'm going to turn things overto kevin to start us off. >>>> thank you dr. o'reagan. before i begin i want toapologize for my appearance.
apparently hair and makeupran out of makeup, so i had to make do with what we'vegot here. as always, before i start, iwant to thank randall goldnight and wendy ip, twofield economists that put together the maps you willsee in my presentation. a note about the map, thecolor themes are all the same.where brown indicates worse off conditions or declines inthe variables and blue indicates better conditionsor increases.
first we're going to discussthe economy, then we will look at the nation's salesand rental markets. the first figure shows theyear over year percentage change.first figure shows the year over year percentage changein nonfarm payroll since 2004.there we go. 5 looking at the 12 month andthree-month averages through 2014.nonfarm payrolls are a measure of the number of jobsin the economy.
the 12 month average is shownin blue. and the three-month averageis shown in red. and during 2014, nonfarmpayrolls averaged 139 million jobs.this was up 1.9%, or 2.60 million jobs, compared with ayear ago. and the three-month averagethrough december was up by a i higher rate of 2.2% from ayear ago. the rates of growth have beenincreasing more noticeably since may of 2014.this is the first time that
we've had year over yearquarterly growth above 2 percent since going back to2006. for the 15th consecutivequarter, every region in the country added jobs relativeto a year ago, and the entire country is in blue.four regions in darker blue grew at a faster rate thanthe national average and that was led by the southwest at3.2%. total job gains in the nationwere led by the professional and business services sector,which added 660,700 jobs.
this was up 3 1/2%.the fastest rates of growth occurred in the constructionand mining and logging sectors, which were up by5.1, and 5 percent, respectively.on a state level, north 6 dakota had the fastest rateof growth in the nation, at 5.1%, and that was led by a16 percent increase in the mining and logging subsector.and texas and utah also had rates of growth that wereabove 3 percent. let's take a closer look atthe midwest region by
metropolitan area.year over year growth in this region during the fourthquarter was 1.2%, a percent below the national average,12 out of the 69 metropolitan areas in the region grewfaster than the national average, and those are shownin the two darker shades of blue.three of those were ranked in the top 10 metropolitan areasfor nonfarm growth in the nation.it was led by elkhart, goshan, illinois which grew8.4%, the lone dark blue dot
on the screen.the light blue areas grew by less than the nationalaverage, and the nine areas in brown had declines inemployment relative to a year ago.the national unemployment rate was 5.5% during thefourth quarter. this was down from 6.7% ayear ago. the six regions in blue had arate that was less than or equal to the national rateled by the rocky mountains at 3.6%.the four regions in brown had
a higher rate than thenational average, and that was led by the pacific, at6.8%. 7 and on a state level, ratesranged from a low of 2.4% in north dakota to a high of7.2% here in washington, d.c. on a national level, theunemployment rate was down 1.2 percentage points fromlast year. the unemployment ratedeclined in every region of the country, all in blue, andof the four in darker blue declined faster than thenational average, led by the
midwest, which was down 1.9%.unemployment rates declined in 49 states, including thedistrict of columbia. let me give an overview ofcurrent housing market conditions.sales market conditions remain balanced throughoutmuch of the country. a background, balancedconditions exist when the quantity equals the quantdemanded, soft markets occur when the quantity of housingsupply exceeds the quantity demand and we have a surplusand tight markets occur when
demand exceeds supply and wehave a shortage. all three home price indicesshow they increase during the fourth quarter with the ratesof gain remaining relatively stable compared with theprevious quarter. home sales decreased by2 percent during the 12 months ending december 2014,and this is after a 1 percent decline that we saw lastquarter. inventories of new homes forsale were up by 15 percent from a year ago, and theywere unchanged for existing 8
homes.based on the current rate of home sales, there's a 5.4month supply of new homes, up from a 5.1 month supply ayear ago and 4.4 months supply of existing homes andthat compares with a 4.6 months supply a year ago.the sales vacancy rate was 1.9% in the fourth quarter,down from 2.1% a year ago. the tightening of rentalmarket conditions that we've been seeing over the lastcouple of years seems to be slowing a bit.markets are still tightening,
but it is slowing a littlebit. 63 percent of apartments thatwere completed last quarter were absorbed in the fourthquarter, compares with the 64 percent rate of absorptiona year ago. multi family productionincreased by 4 percent in the fourth quarter relative to ayear ago. let's take a closer look atregional conditions. these are assessmentsprovided by our field economist around the country.relative to last quarter,
improvements in an area areshaded in blue, and declines in conditions are shaded inbrown. sales market conditionsremain relatively balanced throughout most of thecountry, although they have gotten tight in the rockymountain region. the tightening trend thatwe've been seeing in the rental markets has slowed abit, and several regions have 9 moved to more balancedconditions. you can see those in blue.although, again, when you
look, you can see the tightmarket conditions do remain in most markets.improvements were seen in new england, the mid atlantic,the southeast, as well as the pacific.the next figure shows year over year change in homeprice indices on a monthly basis.taking a look at the three major indices, all of themhave shown a year over year price increase since early tomid 2012. in december of 2014, the s&pindex shown in blue and the
core logic index in blackwere up nearly 5 percent relative to a year ago, andthe fhfa index shown in red was up nearly 6 percent.the slowing in the rates of increase seemed to beleveling off a bit during the last two quarters, and youcan see that with the flattening of the curves tothe right. it's going to be interestingto see where these curves go in the next year.this next map shows the change in the monthly corelogic house price index on a
state level from one yearago. nationally the increase was5 percent. the trend of price increasesin every state which began in the third quarter of 2012finally came to an end in the fourth quarter.prices declined slightly in 10 vermont, maryland, andconnecticut. those are shown in brown.the prices in the light blue states increased by less thanor equal to the national rate, and prices in the 17dark blue states were up by
more than the nationalaverage, and that was led by 8 percent gains in new york,colorado, and texas. according to the censusbureau the median price of a new home in the fourthquarter was $295,100. this was up 8 percent from ayear ago, and according to the national association ofrealtors, the median price of an existing home was$207,600. this was up 6 percent from ayear ago. let's take a closer look atthe new england region, where
prices declined inconnecticut by 2 percent and in vermont by 1 percent.of the 17 metro areas in the region, 12 had an increase inprice, with five areas in dark blue, growing fasterthan the national average, and all of those inmassachusetts. they were led by an 8 percentgain in boston. the three areas in brown haddeclines, two of which are in connecticut, and despite a3 percent increase in the burlington metropolitan areathe rest of vermont had
declines resulting in aslight decline for the state overall.the next map those the percent of home loans thatare nine days delinquent, in 11 foreclosure or reo as ofdecember 2014, reo stands for real estate owned, whichmeans the lender now owns the property.the national average was 4.6% of all loans in those threecategories, and this was down from 5.6% a year ago.it was also half the rate of the recent high of 9.2% thatoccurred in february of 2010.
an interesting split acrossthe country, the five regions in brown on the eastern halfhave a rate that's higher than the national average,while the five regions in blue on the western half havea rate that's below the national average.the rate is still high in new york, new jersey, at morethan 8 percent, and for the sixth consecutive quarter,the rate declined in every region of the country, andalso declined in every single state.the most dramatic decline
occurred in the southeast,which was down by 1.7 percentage points to 5.9%.this was led by a 3.2 percentage point decline inflorida, where the rate is still the second highest inthe country, at 8.3%, slightly lower than the 9.3%in new jersey, which had a decline of 1.6 percentagepoints from a year ago. the rate also declined by 1.1percentage points in new york, new jersey, as well asthe midwest region from a year ago.the decline in the new york,
new jersey region wascertainly helped by a 12 33 percent increase in reosales. just to put this intoperspective, around the country, reo sales were downin nearly every other region, and those declines were inmost cases by double digits. let's take a closer look atthe percentage point decline in the number of loans thatare seriously delinquent or transferred to reo status bymetropolitan area for the new york new jersey region.fourteen of the 20
metropolitan areas in theregion had a decline. those shown in blue.the eight areas in dark blue declined by a rate that wasfaster than the national average, led by 1.7percentage point decline in newark.although six areas in new york had an increase, all byone of those were up by less than one percentage point.based on core logic data, new and existing home sales weredown by 2 percent during 2014 compared with a year ago,with sales down in seven
regions.this is now two consecutive quarter that is we've seenyear over year declines in home sales.areas in dark brown declined faster than the nationalaverage, and in the light brown areas, were less thanthe national average. and the regions in blue hadgains in sales. the largest decline occurredin the pacific, at 9 percent, with double digit declines inhawaii, nevada, and a 13 9 percent decline incalifornia.
the midwest was also down by5 percent. the largest gains were in thegreat plains, also a gain of 5 percent, with relativelymodest changes in all other regions.let's take a closer look at the pacific region, where wehad the largest decrease in sales in the country.in the pacific, traditional resales were up by 2 percent,but new home sales were down by 8 percent.and in addition, reo sales were down by 34 percent andshort sales were down by
32 percent.sales declined in all metro areas, except for three, andthose three shown in blue. the median brown declined bymore than the national rate and dark brown areas declinedby more than 10 percent. that includes such areas aslas vegas, with a 14 percent decline, honolulu, down11 percent, and los angeles and phoenix, which were bothdown by 10 percent. single family home buildingis measured by building permits issued, increased by5 percent, to 133,500 homes
during the fourth quarter,permits were up in six regions, led by the southwestat 13 percent, and the southeast, at 10 percent.activity declined in three regions, led by 8 percentdeclines in new england and new york, new jersey andpermits remained unchanged in the pacific.the number of multi family 14 permits was up by 4 percent,to 103,700 units during the fourth quarter, and seven ofthe 10 regions had gains that were led by double digitincreases in the pacific at
22 percent, the northwest at21 percent, and new england at 17 percent.permits declined by 19 percent in both new york,new jersey, as well as the midwest.according to reese data, the national vacancy rate wasdown .1 percentage points to 4.2% in the fourth quarterrelative to a year ago with rates declining in fourregions shown in brown led by .3 percentage points in themidwest and great plains. rates increased in fourregions and remained
unchanged in two, and thoseare all shown in blue. according to reese whichcovers 275 market areas across the country, vacancyrates were down in 190 market areas, they were up in 76market areas, and unchanged in nine.the decline in vacancy rates have slowed relative torecent quarters. there were 11 markets with adecline of two percentage points or more in the pastquarter. according to the censusbureau for the entire u.s.,
the rental vacancy rate was7 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 8.2% ayear ago. let's take a closer look hereat the midwest region, where vacancy rates declined in 32of the 43 metropolitan areas, 15 those in the shades of brown,10 areas declined more than the national average, thosein dark brown, five were in indiana.the major metropolitan areas of the region, chicago,indianapolis, detroit, cleveland, milwaukee all haddeclines of less than
1 percent.of the 11 areas in blue, 10 had an increase in vacancyrate and one of those had no change.rents were up by 3.4% nationally according to reeseand rents grew in all regions of the country, the wholecountry in blue. the six regions in darkerblue increased faster than the national average, led by6.2% in the rocky mountains where markets are tight.the average market rent in the fourth quarter for the275 areas covered by reese
was $1172, rents increased in258 out of the 275 areas. they were down in 13 areasand unchanged in four. and 48 areas across thecountry increased by more than the national average.let's take a closer look at the rocky mountain region,where rent growth was the strongest.rents in the fourth quarter were up in 11 of themetropolitan areas, all in blue, the light blue areasincreased by less than the national average, boulder wasup 5 percent, denver, fort
collins and greely, all up8 percent or more, and those shown in the darkest blue.and then we've thrown in a 16 bonus map this time aroundfor our discussion on native american housing.the team put together this map showing the indianhousing block grant distributions for 2015.this money is used to provide for a range of affordablehousing activities on indian reservations and indianreserves, the states in blue received funding, those inthe darkest shade of blue
received more than$20 million, while the states in brown received no funding.and with the panel discussion this afternoon, we will hearmore about the issues faced with native american housingacross the country. in summary, year over yearjob growth was 2.2% for the fourth quarter, sales marketsremain balanced throughout the country, prices remainedrelatively stable, the price increases remain stablerelative to last quarter, and total sales declined by2 percent.
the tightening of rentalmarkets throughout the country seems to be slowing alittle bit. however, represents arecontinuing to rise and vacancy rates are continuingto decline. for additional information,please go to the u.s. housing market conditions website onhud user.org, you can talk with your local regionaleconomist or field economist or feel free to contact me.now it is my pleasure to hand things over to roger boyd,who will be leading the panel 17
discussion this afternoon.>> [applause] >> thank you and goodafternoon. what a presentation.i was hoping that maybe someday, can you imagine,being able to stand up here and give a comparable reporton indian country, that's a dream that i think some of ushave, and hopefully it will happen, you know, within mylifetime. but at any rate, i reallyappreciate the opportunity this afternoon.i really thank pd & r for
highlighting this program,especially with regard to the native american community andhousing. i think what i'd like to dois just give you a very quick overview on some -- somefolks may not totally know what the office of nativeamerican programs does and what our programs are.first of all, you may hear the term nahasda, a lot ofpeople, especially in our work, it happens every day,we talk about nahasda. it is a native americanhousing assistance and self
determination act, it waspassed and developed in 1996 as amended.nahasda recognized the right of tribal governance andunique relationship between the federal government andthe governments of indian tribes established by longstanding treaties, court decisions, statutes,executive orders, and, of course, in the beginning, theunited states constitution. 18 so there's been a very longhistory of native american governance throughout thecountry, and i think the
great thing about theimplementation of nahasda, it sealed the relationshipbetween the federal government, state governmentsand tribal governments and recognizing tribalgovernments as the government recognizes state governments,and i think sort of leveled in some circumstances theplaying field of doing business.we run, manage about six programs within ourorganization, and in one way, directly and indirectly, itprovides funding to 566
federally recognized tribesthroughout the united states, including alaska, the lower48, and five state-recognized tribes that weregrandfathered into the indian housing block grant fund, andwe have a block grant program in hawaii, which alsoincludes a loan guarantee program.on the mainland, the core and the background of our programis the indian housing block grant.this is a program that really provides funding every yearto tribes, and the
interesting thing i believeabout the block grant program is it's based on a forum.historically, under the public housing act, tribeshad to compete with these funds, and so i think what'shappened is that through nahasda, it's leveled theplaying field a little bit, 19 so every tribe in thecountry, small, medium or large, are provided fundsevery year on an annual basis, based on the formula.similar to the indian housing block grant is the nativehawaiian housing block grant,
that also -- those funds goto the department of hawaiian homelands every year.that's really the recipient and in turn those funds areused for housing and building housing in communities fornative hawaiian families. then the other program thatwe help manage is the indian community development blockgrant, which is a portion of cdbg.then we have i think which are two really -- threereally great programs that really have helped tribesreally develop the capacity
to bring in additional or newcapital within the community, and that's the title sixprogram which tribes then can leverage on a 5-1 ratio andbringing capital into the community, and that programis a 95 percent loan guarantee program.but what tribes have been doing with that program isthat they've been leveraging it with other federal agencyfunds and with the private sector, especially the lowincome housing tax credits, which is really key, i think,and will remain key into
future years to bring access,new capital, into the community.i think the capacity building on the financial side is abig challenge for many 20 tribes, but also many tribeshave excelled in it, so what they are doing is buildingthe capacity to reach out and compete with the privatesector in accessing new capital and that to me isgoing to be a very, very important key into the futureof sustaining economies and sustaining communities onreservations through housing,
housing development.so with that, i am very pleased with this panel thisafternoon. i think you are going to havea good, diverse panel, a good discussion.what we would like to do is have our panelists providetheir presentations. they have about 10 minutes,12 minutes per presentation, and then we want to open itup for discussion. i think that that's reallyvery, very important, because once we can listen and hear,but also, how do we relate to
each other, how do we relateto maybe your questions and answers which we will alsoask you for, and there's a good variety in our panel andgood experience. our first panelist is nancypundis, nancy is a senior fellow at the urbaninstitute, where she is experienced in policyresearch and project management, specializing inprogram evaluation, organizational behavior, costanalysis, and service delivery.she has been here at the
institute for 25 years, shecurrently directs a very 21 important study, the nativeamerican-alaskan and native hawaiian housing needsassessment. and she will talk a lot aboutthis. but i think the veryimportant thing about this study is that since nahasdawas developed, there was only one study done, that was1996, so we're really way behind the curve on updatingthat, and this is going to be -- we are associated with pd& r and the urban institute
and we're looking forward tothat coming up because the new data that's going to comeout of that study i think is going to us tremendous notonly within the administration but dealingwith members of congress. one of the things that wehave lacked a lot is really good solid data to help uspromote our programs and to provide better services tonative american communities around the country.ms. pundis holds an mba from wharton school university ofpennsylvania, and a b.a. in
biology.it's really interesting, the converse from biology to thewharton school, but i'm sure there are a lot of benefitsin that. she is also a certifiedpublic accountant, licensed in maryland.please. >> thank you roger.welcome, everyone. i'm delighted to be here.i'm glad they are covering this topic at one of thesequarterly meetings. 22 so i'm going to give you alittle bit of background
about this study.it was a congressionally mandated study to hud toprovide national-level figures on housing needs andconditions. it's managed by pd & r.we are working closely with onap throughout the project.it started in late 2010 and they are helping us withtheir tremendous knowledge of the tribal programs, but alsooutreach to the tribes. and the study is beingconducted by the urban institute and severalsubcontractors, norc at
university of chicago,conmetrica, support services international and i thankroger it for not helping me go through the acronyms sincehe explained them, like nahasda.as roger said the last study was done in 1996 by the urbaninstitute, and it provided a national overview at thattime. it informed the debate thatultimately led to the block grant approach that wasincorporated in the nahasda that -- that wasn't the onlything that made that decision
but did add information forthat approach. this is the first nationalstudy that's been done since nahasda was implemented andsince nahasda changed the way federal funding for housingassistance is provided, the idea of going back and seeingwhat's happened since way back in 1996 is reallyimportant. 23 it's a legislation, it's ablock grant legislation, and then there is separatelegislation for the native hawaiian block grants as apart of that legislation.
so we are looking at thehawaiian housing conditions and needs as well.the purpose of the study is to provide clear and credibleand consistent information across the country to informpolicy analysis so that tribes can more effectivelyuse resources to improve housing conditions.and as the congressionally mandated study, it really islooking at the top, top level picture, the nationalpicture. fortunately you're going toget to hear from other
panelists more about what'sactually going on, on the ground, in differentlocalities. this is like a laundry listof our data sources and study components, because it's ahuge study. so just to give you an idea,we are looking at secondary data, census data, and hudadministrative data files. there's an in-personhousehold survey with the nationally representativesample of tribal areas, and then a telephone survey oftribal housing officials
which is really critical inunderstanding what happens since nahasda was implementedbecause that's who is now administering those grantfunds on tribes. as well as some site visitsthat include in-person 24 interviews with tribalofficials, as well as housing administrators.a separate study, separate components include a surveyof lenders that originate home loans in indian country,a study of native americans living in urban areas, andthe native hawaiian
component, which includesinterviews with administrators andstakeholders, as well as household survey of nativehawaiians. so those are just the manypieces of this study. i'm going to say a little bitabout the sample selection and the national survey.this is often very difficult to explain when we go out tothe tribes because it is a nationally representedsample. it means it's going to giveus a very carefully
documented national number.but it is not really going to tell us the in depth detailof what's happening on any particular tribe.so it's a different product, really.we did do proportionate stratification by regions andscience using the 2010 census and selected tribes withineach region, using probability proportion tosize. we have a sample of 38 tribesand a goal of completing 1280 interviews, and a sample of104 tribal housing offices.
you might hear me referringto them as tdhes, the acronym used for the triballydesignated housing 25 authorities.then there are in-person interviews with a smallersample that includes up to 24 sites and targeted housingprogram staff and community leaders.the idea is to provide national estimates and it'snot a tribal level assessment.tribes do, and you will hear back some of this, and theyare undertake their own
surveys and own planningbecause part of the self-determination withnahasda is the tribes set their own priorities for howto use those grant funds so they are now starting to dotheir own studies and surveys so they can do an even betterjob of that. the household survey is goingto be asking questions and observing how the exterior ofhousehold conditions, it's going to be looking at themajor housing problems and needs, things that arecausing or leading to greater
housing needs in indiancountry, what the standard -- whether the standards are metin comparing them to national standards for housing andproblems, the kinds of structures prevalent and alsoasking residents about their preferences for householdsize, different features of housing and things like that,which vary very much across the country.quick information on the current status of the report,i wish i had more findings to present, but we're not quitethere yet. 26
we have completed an interimreport, which is on the hud user website, and that isusing census and mostly census data, and just a fewtidbits from that, we did learn that six out of 10american indians and alaskan natives live in tribal areasand their surrounding counties.there's been a rise in homeownership in indiancountry, but it's still much behind the nonindian rate of65 percent of homeownership. it's 54 percent in indiancountry.
there have been gains ineducation among native americans, but there's stilla large gap between their education attainment and thatof nonnative americans. households are three times aslikely to be overcrowded, and 11 times as likely to haveinadequate plumbing. that's just a few tidbitsabout that. the other thing that you canreally see from the study that the -- the interimreport using the census data is the tremendous diversityacross the country that you
find, even when you look atthe census data, let alone when you go out and visit thevarious tribal areas. in addition, next steps inthe status, we've completed our survey of the tghes, gotan 85 percent response rate for that, that analysis isjust beginning, but we are very excited because it hassuch a good response rate. we've completed in-personinterviews with local housing 27 officials and tribal leadersand community leaders, in 21 tribal areas, and we'vecompleted a separate study of
native americans living inurban areas. we've completed a lenderstudy and a study of hawaii. in hawaii, the survey datacollection is complete, we are working on the data fileand interviews with stakeholders are completed.so the last three are all reports at some draft stageright now so they are coming but not quite ready yet.on the household survey in indian country, we really arewell on our way to completing the most complete nationalhousing survey ever.
of the 38 tribes in thesample we've completed data collection in 33.with those that have closed out, data collection isfinished, we've gotten a 72 percent response rate.this took i don't even want to say.it took a lot of work and a lot of patience.tribal members were trained and hired to conduct theinterviews, in keeping with our commitment to buildcapacity in tribal areas. we worked extensively onoutreach and in partnership
with the tribes, and alaskannative villages, to complete that.and one of the things that really is besides the factthat every tribe as a sovereign nation has theirown procedures, there was a lot of difficultyunderstanding well, what good 28 is this going to do for ussince you're not telling me anything about my tribe.it's just part of a national survey.so i think that is something to keep in mind as we lookahead.
we don't have findings yetfrom that, but we are a compiling a richunderstanding of the varied and difficult circumstancesfaced by tribes, and these are a couple of examples,backlog in meeting new construction, rehabilitationneeds, overcrowding, and consequences of naturaldisasters. and again, this variestremendously, each place that you go to.the study itself, we do believe that the nationalfigures, besides the fact
that congress mandated them,will mean something in terms of any kind of getting theword out about the needs and conditions, because havingthat national number to hang your hat on is a startingpoint, but at the same time, we would really like to seemore capacity being built for the tribal level surveys,sharing best practices across tribes, and linking thehousing needs and conditions to economic development,which is something that nahasda provides moreflexibility than tribes have
that's in the past, so we arehoping that that continues as well.so we are learning more about administration on the ground,and the complexities that the 29 tribes face, and we're goingto hear a lot more now from two panelist who is can tellyou a lot more about the local conditions.thank you. >> [applause]>> thank you nancy. our next presenter is kevinclingvale. this is interesting because ialways thought he was a
lawyer.he is a lawyer, but also, he is also a geographer andformer indian housing lawyer, former manager for the u.s.census bureau during the 2010 census and current managingdirector of big water consulting in seattle,washington. kevin has represented tribalhousing clients in government, the governmentconsultations with the u.s. census bureau and of coursewith hud, and the most recent example of that was throughthe negotiated rule making
that we have been conductingover the past year and a half.and he has consulted with us, with the census bureau, onongoing surveys and collection of housing-relateddata in indian country. he currently serves a memberof technical support group, assisting in indian housingblock grant, formal negotiated rule makingcommittee's data study group. it was interesting, one ofthe things that the negotiated rule makingcommittee did is we made a
decision, because there was alot of concern about other 30 data sources, or otherpossible data source that is would help us in the formula,the census data is very important in helping usformulate the formula for the distribution of block grantmoney they talked about earlier.so we -- on the committee, we set up a study group to spend12 months to lack at other possible data sources, and idon't know if it can be talked about that directly,but maybe about the process
of data collection and theimportance of data collection to help us further ourprograms. so without any further adieu,kevin? >> thank you roger.and thank everyone for coming out, and those online.as nancy was alluding to, i'm going to talking a little bitmore about sort of tribal level data collection anddata utilization. it's kind of an exciting timeright now, because a variety of different organizationsare starting to take a look
at the data that is availablerepresenting indian countries, so you have nciathrough an nsf grant, starting to analyze thefederal data sources and different alternatives andways of collecting data in indian country and you alsohave the proposal in the most recent budget for federaloffice and interior to start to address data sources withrespect to indian country. so for someone who's involvedin working with tribes 31 directly to promote theirinternal capacity to collect
their own data, that's kindof an exciting thing. a lot of people who sort ofdiscuss data with respect to indian country know that it'soften discussed in the context of funding mechanismsand funding formulas, and that's somewhat unfortunate,because as we all suffer through in that arena, theseare funding pies, and so it essentially createscompetition between tribes for limited dollars.it doesn't seek to meet actual need necessarily.it's just a certain amount of
money that's allocated viaformula. sort of like identifying what would beessential to treat a patient and giving them somepercentage of that. or fixing your brakespartially on a regular basis. so what we are all sort ofworking toward i think in this setting is trying tofigure out ways to promote internally data collection sothe tribes can develop stronger management planningpractices and then also as i will describe laterdeveloping that capacity to
analyze and scrutinize thedata sources that describe indian country and make surethat they are more accurate and reflect the conditionsthat are currently present there.data itself also symbolizes sovereignty.it symbolizes independence and self determination in adata sense as well. 32 not having to rely on anothergovernment, another entity, to give you the data thatdescribes your people and your resources and tells yourstory.
as carol will describe, weuse information to tell the story of our tribes and thepeople that we work with. but also, data, as imentioned, it sort of serves as this symbol of selfdetermination. the more you can do with yourown data and the more you can do it to streamline and makeyour programs more efficient and take better care of yourpeople, then the farther you've moved toward true selfdetermination and self governance.the difficulty when relying
on another data source is youdon't have the ability to look at the raw data. youdon't have the ability to look at the relationshipswithin the data or even really analyze truly whetherit's flawed or inaccurate because it's aggregated andcompiled by someone else and given to you in a differentformat. but the other thing aboutbecoming self governing or working towards selfdetermination is promoting did thea literacy,understanding how it
describes you, and gives youthat sense, that ability to determine whether or not itaccurately represents you or not.i'm going to describe one example that i worked on,which was called the dakota 33 housing needs assessmentpilot project, and this particular project had fivemember tribes in north dakota and south dakota, and theyrepresented in part three of the poorest counties in theunited states. now, basically, the projectstarted out as a challenge of
census data.many of you probably know that tribes are allowed tochallenge census data that's used in the formula if theyfeel it inaccurately represents the needs fortheir tribes and members. it also served as a model forcensus challenge purposes or needs assessment purposesbeyond the census challenge. these five tribes conducted amapping of all of the housing units on their reservationsand then used that map or that list which became thesurvey frame to conduct
housing needs surveys on thefive reservations, and they visited just over 3600housing units in that process, and they were alsoincluding, and this is an important piece of this, theyincluded supplemental questions for each tribewhich they determined were important to them in futureplanning for not just housing programs but for otherprograms as well. one of the key features ofthis project as we went along was that in order todetermine whether your
challenge was going to besuccessful, first of all the challenge process requiresthat you mirror the census 34 essentially on yourreservation and ask the same questions.but you also then have to examine as the data comes inand you compile the data whether or not you will betruly successful in that challenge.one of the big problems that we were finding in analyzingthe formula and the different data sources was an issue oftransparency.
could we take apart, could wedissect the formula and pull it apart.again this was part of the capacity building.this is something that the negotiated rule makingcommittee is exploring in greater depth so i'm notgoing to discuss it. i'm really just discussingthe capacity building part of the project.but one of the key features of collecting data andbecoming part of this data world was that the tribesthen recognized that we don't
need to collect data just forcensus challenge purposes. why aren't we out there doingfield data collection to collect whatever data weneed, when we want it, and use it how we want to use it.beyond that, they started looking around at otherprograms and saying well, land and natural resourceshas certain data and water resources has certain data,and even programs for education have certain data.why can't we see that, see their maps, use that.by talk about data silos and 35
cylinders, as todd richardsonmentioned earlier, and so they started looking atprojects to promote data integration among theprograms to maximize the data they collect.they as you all know, the various programs collect aton of data, but it's never compiled or aggregated in oneplace, they are never allowed to examine the relationshipsbetween it. so that was another thing westarted looking at. and then that, of course,extends to sort of the
culmination, which is whydon't we have our own tribe at statistical office,somebody that can go around and collect data, analyzedata, provide data for grants, for the differentprograms, do it impartially with verifiable practices,work with other tribes to create data collectionprotocol so the data collected by various tribescan be put together in data sets, and so this is whatstemmed from the dakota pilot project.i always talk about the
beginning, but it's moreimportant to talk about where it went.one caveat to this i would mention, these processesdon't happen overnight and these aren't projects thatyou can just write a check for.you know, there are certain construction projects andthings where there's a thought that if we find theright person we can sort of 36 have them do this but thisactually requires a fairly significant investment andwill on the part of the tribe
to get involved in trainingtheir staff and becoming data-literate.it also requires them to sit down and identify what theirunique concerns and interests and challenges are, as ithink nancy was alluding to. the data -- national datasets are great and express generalized concerns andgeneralized needs, but each of the tribes that we aretalking about here has different challenges.carol gore is in alaska. i'm dealing with tribes inthe northern plains.
i live in the northwest.they all have different issues and differentconcerns. so part of this project isrecognizing that you need to be able to articulate yourspecific challenges, but then also work toward a betternational data set that can represent tribes generallyand hopefully promote greater funding and greater -- notjust funding, but mechanisms for addressing that need inspecific areas. i put this picture up becausethis is the rose bud sioux
tribe's i.t. department, inthe red log building on the reservation.i just wanted to put it up initially to kind of showwhere we are starting from. you know, this is a very oldbuilding, it looks very similar on the & as it doeson the outside. 37 but part of why i show youthis, this is a starting point.but i've been working with this tribe, among others, fora while now. and so we started in withdata collection, started
training in field datacollection, and identifying what the managers needed,what they wanted. we also trained the fieldstaff for the housing authority itself and otherprograms as to how to use tablet devices, use thedigital forms in the field. so they can map features,they can quantify resources, they can ask qualitativequestions of tenants and residents to see what theirexperience has been like, and have different ways ofviewing that information.
it can be limited to programdata, but eventually they could scale up to do theirfull-scale consensus. this leads to full-scale datacollection efforts and this is just -- there's a video ofdakota pilot project available online if you wantto see more about the project, type in dakota pilotproject. but basically, what thisleads to is specialized data collection efforts.so in all these different data collection projects, westart to look at the
reservations themselves, thecommunities, we start to use different tools like aerialimagery to break apart the reservations into differentparts and see how we want to 38 best address them.one example of specialized data collection is the recenthomeless counts, the point in time counts, that go on injanuary. but also, state level effortsto count doubled up populations.most tribes are aware of the fact that tribes and tribalmembers experience this
doubling up.folks who are not counted as homeless by hud in the pointin time count because they are temporarily housed by afriend or family member. some states, including southdakota, promote doubled up counts.rose bud is currently, swa corporation of rose bud isdoing one of these double counts now.in addition to combining it with a point in time count sothat they can capture that data at one time.i want to recognize here,
while i helped coordinatethis and my staff helped coordinate this, they are theones collecting the data on the ground, they are the onesbringing in the forms and doing this.other things like surveys of off-reservation populationswhich is very key for tribes where their population hasmoved to urban centers, things like updating 911maps. people are familiar with thefact that 911 is creating maps, for e911 and differentservices that are provided in
rural areas, especially.but i put this image up in 39 part to show you how 911often creates those maps. this is the image that theyare looking at, probably in slightly greater detail.but unless you do work on the ground, the data collectionwe're talking about, you don't know whether that'struly a house, whether it's been burned out, occupied ornot occupied, you don't have the information you need tocreate an accurate map. so we work with 911 and theother programs to get the
maps that they already haveto save resources initially, but then update it andprovide that back to them. it also helps for unifyingaddressing systems, anyone familiar with reservations inthe middle part of the country know there could befour or five different addresses for the samehousing unit. so there's also a broaderassessment of community needs and other specialized thingsthat can flow from this. so then once you get into thedata analysis and
visualization phase, you havethe ability then to incorporate gis training intothe training of office staff. so i don't have the slide,but i do have a picture of the rose bud, swa corporationstaff in their gis training, same group whose i.t.department workings in the red log building, learninghow to actually do the mapping.not contracted out, not hired me to do it, but learned howto do the mapping for 40 themselves.they can start to analyze the
relationships within thedata. this was also something thatwas part of the pilot project.so then the analysis and visualization helps to driveand depoliticize the decision making because you can bringthese maps and data to the decision making meetings.it also allows us, as i think carol is going to describe,the assessment of achievements andopportunities within current programs, measurements of howyou are doing and the
successes you've had.these are some products of the dakota pilot project, amap of all housing units at pine ridge, for example, amap of radio reception coverage at cheyenne river,indian reservation, you can see in the lower left, thisgives them the tools to determine how to increaseradio reception in the southwest corner of theirreservation when it's used for emergency managementpurposes. this is an example ofqualitative presentation of
data when they asked peoplewhat they wanted in their housing, how they wanted tochange their housing. it calls out the things thatwere said most often. and there are different waysyou can present that data. this is just one that is sortof visually appealing. this was rose bud's count bythe way for their doubled up 41 and homeless count, then lead-- them leading the charge on their own data collection.this is cheyenne river housing authority's gedprogram, adult learning
initiative.and i wanted to highlight it, because this was anotheropportunity for us to take data that had been collected,that hadn't been analyzed, and say look, let's take alook at it and see what you have achieved, what barriersyou've brought down, what barriers still exist for yourstudents. so this was one way that theywere able to say hey look, we've found that in ourgraduate students, you know, they initially identified thefinancial issue as a
tremendous barrier, but theygraduated, so we must have been able to help solve that.there are ways that they could dig into this data andstart to examine what they still needed to address andwhat they've been successful at addressing.then you move into the data integration setting.again as i mentioned, it maximizes available tribaldata, brings programs together and coordinatestheir efforts in ways that many of them have neverreally done in the past, it
promotes efficiency, becausethey are not collecting the same information twice, whichoften happens, it illustrates relationships betweenfeatures, so the second you lay water lines over the topof housing units, over the 42 top of roads, these programsstart to see that they may not be planning in the samedirection. and so it gives them anopportunity to start to integrate those efforts,integrate planning efforts in ways that they hadn't triedbefore.
this is something that therose bud tribe right now is really working hard on, hasbrought five or six of the key players to the table, andhas created a server at the tribal level and is worktoward incorporating all the data in the same place.i won't go into too much detail about tribal censusbureau and statistics departments but i will say tohave a standing data collection entity that cancreate verifiable collection standards and adopt intertribal data collection
protocols and of course theall-important limit the oversurveying of tribalmembers is really key. i can't also state enoughthat if they can serve as a bridge to the federal census,anyone who has worked on national-level datacollection understands how difficult that can be and tomaintain a continuing contact with the tribe is criticallyimportant. they also provide datasecurity and they can facilitate the integration ofdata sources as a standing
entity to bring the datatogether and, of course, send it back out in an integratedformat to the other programs. 43 so as i mentioned at thebeginning, what does this culminate in?you have tribes that have this capacity to then viewtheir data, integrate their data, collect their own data,and become not only users of data but promote the economicdevelopment that was discussed earlier, becausethen they have all the tools available to create centersfor investors and others to
come and actually examine thelay of the land. they can fill gaps inexisting data collection, for example, in unemployment andemployment where we don't really have a good source ofinformation for that now. but then tribes can alsoengage in, to a greater degree, things likenegotiated rule making and in other processes wherecritically analyzing and scrutinizing existing datasources works better. it allows them to discuss thecurrent definitions and terms
and units of measurement andthings like that that at times when we discuss thecensus and talk about fixing it or making changes to itthat tribes want, or even promoting tribal datacollection that can feed into a federal data source or anew tribal survey, or administrative data thattribes collect and use to supplement an existingfederal source, all of these things become possible, butas nancy mentioned, you have to start at the verybeginning, send someone out 44
with a tablet, and have themstart collecting data and start mapping it, andeventually it culminates in these things.but what i'm here to talk about is that first step,just getting tribes to understand that thereshouldn't be as many barriers and obstacles to datacollection as it seems like there are right now.and i'm glad to see that the federal government and someof the federal agencies are already -- and ncia and ihcand others are starting to
address this issue.and i appreciate you having me, and i will pass it off tocarol gore. >> [applause]>> thank you kevin. our next presenter is carolgore. as she says on her bio, i'm aproud alaskan of alliut descent.that almost says it all about her.but there's a lot more to say.i've had the privilege of working with carol over thepast years, as i've worked
with other tdhes, designatedhousing authorities around the country.carol for the past 15 years has been at the helm of thecooke inlet housing authority as president and ceo, leadingthe charge for responsible community development throughinnovation and collaboration. carol's leadership at cihateam has more than doubled its affordable rental housingfrom 267 units in 2000, to 45 over 1000 units owned andmanaged in 2015. i've also had the privilegeof being in anchorage, in
alaska, to see the progressand the really, really important impact that hergood work has had within the community.so the next presenter, carol, thank you.>> >> good afternoon.nice to see friends in the crowd and good morning to thepeople i know are watching from alaska.yes, there's a four-hour time difference, so when i hadlunch today, i was actually having breakfast.just to give you a clue.
i want to thank toddrichardson for the invitation.it's really a privilege to be here.the purpose of my presentation is to provideevidence of the difference an indian housing block grantapproach that is based on self-determination hasprovided. my approach to our work beganby seizing the idea that as alaskan native people wealready know community better than anyone.we know it takes a village,
sharing all of its human andother resources to build a sustainable community.i wanted cooke inlet housing to lead the engagement anddevelopment of our neighborhoods, demonstratingthat alaska native community could use housing to createthe right opportunities to 46 empower our people and buildour community. i truly believe theself-determination of nahasda allows us to lead our housingand community development at our diverse local levels tomake systemic and sustainable
change in indian country.so this is going to look like a different slide than whatyou saw with the first presenter.this map demonstrates why we call the contiguous statesthe lower 48, and you might hear me say that in mypresentation. like hawaii, we do not shareland boundaries and are separated by miles of oceanfrom the rest of you. so if you were to drive fromseattle to anchorage, alaska on the alaska highway, itwould take you just over two
days to get there.alaska is huge. i think this is a much bettermap than the first map, and better from the firstpresented. it's so huge that it makeslogistics like shipping and travel a nightmare.the climate is also very diverse, from maritime rainforests to artic desert, and the topography andenvironmental conditions range from permafrost,bedrock, tundra, mountains, oceans, rivers, flood zones,and more recently, global
warming.you may notice at the very top of the map, tnha servethis is region, they partnered with cole climateresearch to develop housing 47 and villages that experiencetemperatures that are 60 below zero in the winter.the result was a design that uses 18 percent of the energyof a traditional home and will last 100 years or more.more than 30 homes have already been built in 30villages. i'm going to spend a littletime on this map.
it might be difficult for youto see from where you are seated, but i want you to geta sense of what the state is like.so anchorage, where we are located, is circled in yellowon this map. it's kind of in the center,if you can see it. i don't know if this willwork. >> apparently i'm notcoordinated enough. our service area is thesurrounding 45,000 square miles.the four communities that are
circled in red are areaswhere we've either worked are going to be part of thepresentation that is coming up.you can see by this map that alaska has limitedinfrastructure. few roads or large airports,limited water and sewer and very expensive heatingoptions. this lack of infrastructuremakes it incredibly difficult and expensive to build newhousing. building materials must beshipped from seattle, barged
up rivers, or flown in onsmall planes. 48 and for communities off theroad system, materials can only be delivered when theocean is free of ice and the rivers are open and full.several early statistics from the draft pd & r report areworth sharing with you. housing and pluming in alaskais especially vulnerable to extreme weather conditions.these conditions make it challenging to maintain andpreserve existing housing. alaska has been identified asone of two regions, along
with arizona and new mexico,as having much worse housing quantity and quality problemswhen compared to other regions.alaska exhibits the highest rates of alaska nativeovercrowding and highest rate of households with incompleteplumbing and lack of complete kitchen facilities.54 percent of alaska native households in alaskaexperience one or more housing problems.the next highest regional rate is 44 percent forarizona, new mexico, and
california and nevada.from our own state housing needs assessment, the rate ofovercrowding in alaska is twice as high as the nationalaverage, and the housing cost burden is highest in thecooke inlet region where we are located.sometimes the unique house -- this slide provides acomparison of our cost of living and the differentialwith the alaskan native american indian populations.finally, some pictures. 49 this series of slidescaptures the benefit of
nahasda through a series ofbefore and after pictures to demonstrate the existinghousing conditions and the difference the diversehousing we are building has made for our families andcommunities. our was to do more than justbuild housing. we wanted to catalyze betterand safer community with educational and economicoutcomes. we built studio, one, two,three, and 4-bedroom rental homes.we built single family homes
in a rent to buy model andfor immediate hone ownership. we built homes forindividuals, families and elders.we built buildings with both housing and small businessincubator space. we removed the blight ofhomes that were known locations for drugs and crimeand replaced them with homes that were safe andenergy-efficient. we removed contaminated gasstation and replaced them with mixed use buildings thatwere catalysts for new
economic investments such ascredit unions and schools and jobs.we built homes our people needed that resulted instabilizing families and communities.to capture the real history of indian housing, considerhaving someone who lives in phoenix design a home forsomeone living in baro. 50 that actually happened.or perhaps even more interesting for you toconsider, having someone who lives in nome, design a homefor you in washington, d.c.
you may not like theaesthetics but it will be highly energy-efficient, ican assure you. today, nahasda is allowingnative people to address our specific and diverse housingneeds using the strategies and designs that are mosteffective in our tribal communities, rather thanstrategies mandated by well intentioned officials workingin offices thousands of miles away.this slide reflects our own journey in indian housing.twenty-three years of
pre-nahasda production, webuilt 811 units, 34 units a year, 13 years underpost-nahasda, we built over 1600 units, or an average of124 homes a year. nahasda tripled production ofhousing compared to the 1937 act, over 110,000 housingunits have been built, acquired, or rehabbed,according to hud. the greatest rate of increasein indian country came from alaska.according to the pd & r interim housing study, thankyou nancy, the number of
tribal area housing units inalaska increased by 23 percent, from 2000-2010,as compared to a 14 percent increase nationwide.nahasda has allowed alaska to begin addressing itsinadequate housing problems. 51 although alaska still has thehighest incomplete plumbing and kitchen rates in thenation, those rates decreased by 6-7 points over this sameperiod. next couple of slides arereally about leveraging, to though you what we areo toshow what you we are doing
with nahasda, beyond justbuilding homes and leveraging it.with our ara and nahasda funds, and ara was severalyears ago when our funding was doubled in a year's timefor a one-time event, with the ara and nahasda funds wecould have built housing for eight ears.instead we built 59 units of affordable senior housing,leveraging housing funds to house 59 units instead ofeight. this is the ara funds wherewe were able to turn $1 into
10.ara and nahasda were the first funds in andrepresented just 12 percent of the funding sources.yet, without those first end funding this housing wouldnot have been built. this is another 08 unitfamily development that was built by leveraging nahasdaat about 20 percent of the total development cost.my goal here is to demonstrate the complexity ofthe leveraging tribes are demonstrating today.evidence of our increased
capacity to identifyresources and mix the funding sources to build the housingwe need. 52 nahasda catalyzed thisoutcome of growing capacity and increasing production.before i present an example of a complex rule developmenti want to set the stage by sharing how alaska is workingtogether. we have over 240 federallyrecognized tribes and eight primary native ethnicgroupings. these ethnic groupings arehow we self-identify.
aliuh, a -->> [contributing tribes] >> the names of our 240federally recognized tribes are place-based names and notreflective of how we self-identify as alaskannatives. our congressional landsettlement in 1972 established 12 regions orland areas that represented on this map.we do not have a rebound ace-based system like otherlower 48 tribes -- reservation-based system likethe other 48 tribes.
there is one located insoutheast alaska. in alaska, we recognize thediversity of our environments and traditionally workthrough regional entities. that is the case for housingwhere there are 12 regional housing authorities that werecreated to address the indian housing needs in the state.with more minimum funded tribes than any other region,the tribes often work together to pool resources toprovide funding. one example of how they areworking together is the 53
chilista region, which is thepoorest and has the lowest income of anywhere in thestate. that's where adzp regionalhousing authority works with 52 tribes.rather than try to save multiple years of nahasdafunding to build one home, abcp worked with tribes,these 52 tribes to, pool funds and build 40 homes ayear, five homes in each of eight villages.they use local labor and rotate the village locationseach year so the rotation
results in five homes, everysix years or so, for every village.another example is allutian housing, they use nahasdawhen grow capacity, they were able to deploy state fundingto remote community of apca where they providedweatherization services resulting in an annual costsavings of over $4100 for each person, each year.the abcp housing authority oust bethel invited us tohelp them develop a 19 unit family development in hooperbay, where there had been a
disastrous fire.hooper bay is located on the most western coast of alaska,a very harsh environment. but abcp brought the localknow-how and we brought the expertise to develop andoperate a complex housing development.we continue to partner with them to support their lowincome housing tax credit compliance.these modular homes were 54 built in anacordis,washington, barged through the inside passage, andaround the allutian islands,
where the badge anchored offthe coast where hooper bay is located.the barge also carried a crane to lift the homes inplace, because there was no dock or other equipment.we used local labor to net the homes together.you will notice they are built on steel pilings.that's because they are built on very sensitive tundra andpermafrost. we know that leveraging moneyis important. there simply is not enoughmoney to meet our needs.
but we think equallyimportant is leveraging capacity.and we believe there is a need for more tribes tocollaborate where they have capacity limitations so thatthey can experience and grow their own capacity.with all our success, challenges still exist, and ithought nothing could present that better than this slide.block funding is problematic as our dollar is shrinkingand developments require maintenance and operatingsupport.
and so our leveler productionis likely to shrink and stall, unless funding isincreased. due to inflation, nahasda'spurchasing power has been reduced by nearly half sincethe first ind ain housing block grants were awarded in1998. 55 tightening federal budgetshave made it even more challenging for indianhousing providers to find the resources necessary toimprove housing conditions in tribal communities.and 201015, the indian
housing block grantappropriation is just 1.5% larger than the amountcongress appropriated 14 years ago, in 2001.finally, i wish to introduce myself properly.i'm the great granddaughter of elizabeth clasnikot, i'mthe granddaughter of charles joe cooper and sashaalexandria crawford. it always makes me emotional.i'm the proud daughter of erna cooper and richardwilton. my mom grew up as one of 12concern in a one-bedroom
home, her parents in thebedroom, and the children in the attic, boys on one side,girls on the other. i grew up loving my mom'sfamily for their spirit, their ingenuity, and mostly,their laughter. they were always workingtogether to make a better place, where everyonemattered, and everyone was essential.at cooke inlet housing, i saw an opportunity to use housingto build this same spirit in the neighborhoods of mycommunity, where neighbors
and people could be so muchmore. so for me, our workdemonstrates what great things can come from acommunity that is led by 56 native people who worktogether. thank you for the privilege.>> [applause] >> thank you carol, andcertainly kevin and nancy. what we want to do now isstart a little conversation among the panelists, butalso, we also want to entertain questions from thefolks here.
i think we have the abilityto have questions come in from the field.is that correct? okay, good.that would be great. so my observation in thesethree presentations is i think we couldn't have hadmore of a diverse group looking at different things,different ways. so what i wanted to do wasmaybe put on the table for discussion aboutinstitutional building capacity, leveraging,sustainability, and
certainly, in the long run,how do we measure success in what we are doing.and i thought kevin made a really important observation,and because i think this is true, has been truethroughout indian country, given the state of theeconomy and his point was that right now, some datacollection is used for funding, and funding alone,maybe, and it's become very competitive, andunderstandably so. and then he migrated into ithink what i would consider
capacity building to workwith folks, i think, but then 57 how do we tie all thistogether, how do we tie the data collection, theanalysis, so that we eventually create greatersustainability within our communities and within oureconomies. i think the important threadthrough all of this is housing and housingdevelopment. a lot of times folks don'trealize, and i think it was demonstrated quite well, thathousing really is economic
development, and a lot offolks i think in our communities still think ofhousing as a social venture, whereas -- where it reallyhelps -- it's an instrument that is used it to buildeconomies, to build sustainability within thecommunities. and i know there are veryinteresting examples of how that evolves.and so i would like to ask the panelists to just thinkabout that a minute, and maybe if i could, start withcarol to talk about your
experience.and then in the measuring of success, also very important,so if you could just sort of address that briefly.>> well, we've been working in one community for morethan 10 years. that was community that hitthe front page of the paper with every bad news story youcan imagine, and yet, it was the neighborhood where therewere more alaska natives living than most of thevillages in alaska. 58 so we began to work with thatneighborhood, and we took a
different approach, reallybeing more strategic and taking out the blight andtrying very hard not to lose the character of theneighborhood, though that was hard to find in thebeginning. but our goal was really tomake sure that we were doing more than just sprinklingnice homes in an old neighborhood that was a placewhere nobody wanted to live. we wanted that neighborhoodto change and we wanted economic opportunity to cometo that neighborhood.
so at the end of eight years,we did a social and economic impact study really to detectwhether or not there was any evidence our work hadmattered to that neighborhood.and we looked at educational outcomes, reading, writingand math scores went up 20-80 percent.the number of people who had lived in that neighborhoodfive years or more was at 50 percent.we started at 5 percent. the crime had gone up, butthe reason it had gone up
according to the police isbecause suddenly people cared.they are picking up the phone and calling the police andweren't afraid to call them. we made sure the homes thatwe built had eyes on the street.kind of a crime prevention design principle.so they didn't have to leave 59 the safety of their home tocall the police. what was a surprise to us wasthe fire department. who said golly, we hardlycome here anymore, because
you've taken out all the oldstructures. i think the difference itmade to the people that live there, there's now a creditunion. there's now a brand newmiddle school that had been built in the '50s, and wasfraught with buckets in the hallways and now the city hasput in streets and safety barriers and lights on thestreets and benches where nobody ever dared to evenwalk the streets, much less sit on a bench.so i think it's really
important that the data lookat the difference we are making to people while we arebuilding housing units -- while we are building housesit's really about people. the idea that maybe congressonly counts the number of units we build, it'scounterintuitive to why we are all invested in thiswork. thank you.>> thank you. and again, kevin, given yourexperience, and i think it's really -- what you havedemonstrated today was really
the tribe taking theinitiative to build the capacity to collect thisdata, and i think it's important to think, then,beyond that, where does this go, and i think you sort ofstarted talking a little bit 60 about the next steps, but incomparison, maybe to what carol has been doing, and theoutcome of that, is that -- can you talk a little bitabout what the eventual next steps for these communitiesthat you've been working are? >> the big part of measuringsuccess is defining what --
figuring out how you woulddefine success. and there's a differencebetween just managing a program, just to sort of, youknow, make sure that you are in compliance versus trulyachieving success. and i think one of the bestthings that comes about from just building the datacollection analysis capacity is you ask the questions,what are your unique challenges here for thistribe, for this reservation, what are we working, one, toovercome, what are your goals
and how would you define ormeasure whether you have achieved them.and so you get to crystallize that.and that may be at an individual program level.but then when we talk about the integration at the triballevel, that's where it gets really fun, to be honest withyou, because then you realize that it isn't just aboutbuilding those six homes, it's about building those sixhomes in the right place, in conjunction with waterresources and transportation
and economic development, sothat it is coordinated. and so that everyone'sdefinitions of success get 61 tied together, so it's sortof tribal success, rather than programmatic.and i think for me, that's when we really know that weare achieving something, is when the different programsare in the room, talking about the same ways ofmeasuring success. >> and nancy, i know that youare not on the development side, but you certainly, ithink, the work that you have
done, and especially veryimportantly the housing user assessment that you folks aredoing, data collection, what's your vision or what doyou think, then -- how do we use this data.>> well, i think as kevin had said, i think there is a wayto look at data as a way to bring people to the table andto bring people together. some of that has evenhappened in trying to do the survey in certain placeswhere they don't have good 911 lists or address lists,you know, the housing
authority doesn't have a fulllist, 911 department doesn't have a full list, there'ssomebody else that does mapping and geography, sogetting those people to talk to each other, it's not thatthey don't want to talk to each other, but you have tohave a reason, they have to feel like they're going toget something of use out of spending the time, sittingaround the table. so i think that having somedata and sharing it and learning with others is a wayto do that. 62
i think also that whole ideaof saying well, i'm not just -- i don't want just anotherway to count house that is need rehab.i also want to talk to the people in the community andsay what else do we measure to see if we are going to dobeo to be doing something useful, so you bring inpeople from other departments or the community to say countthe number of houses but also, count this, and countthis, and look at how many people went to school, lookat how many businesses open,
you know, look at things likethat. so i think it's a way tobring people together as well.>> i agree. it was very interesting, iknow that when i was up there in alaska, and i was talkingto carol and we went out to look at the development thatshe mentioned, in her presentation, something thatreally struck me and stood out was the measurement, howdo we measure that success, you know.a lot of times we do it just
by the numbers.you know, how many homes were built, how many new homeswere rehabbed. but we forget about the factthat this has a huge impact on communities.and one area that struck me very much, and that everybody-- that i started thinking more about, was health andeducation. and safety.and i think that in this 63 particular situation, theybegan to find that the retention rates in schoolwere going up, and health was
improving, and all of thathad to do with the fact that they were reducingovercrowding and overcrowding is a huge, huge issuethroughout indian country. so we have begun to reallythink in addition to just counting widgets, you know,let's really, we are beginning to look at theoutcome and improvement within the communities, andthen i think the challenge, it's not impossible, but ithink there is a challenge about how do we sustain allof this.
how do we really put all thisto work so that it is passed down from generation togeneration of workers in some kind of institutional body.i think that institution is extremely important.i think kevin mentioned that now they have an i.t.organization, or office. that's in itself is aninstitution. tdhe is a designated housingentity, are an institution within tribal communities.so that really begins to help add sustainability.lending institutions are also
other forms of ways ofstabilizing communities and adding to the value of thecommunities. and a good story that reallypleased me to hear this, having worked over attreasury and on the cdfi fund, carol alluded to thefact that a new credit union 64 has come in, but what sheforgot to tell you is that the financial institutionswithin the community were pawnshops, and that is sorelevant throughout indian country.predatory lending is huge.
and so this whole newdevelopment literally chased the pawnshops out of thecommunity and a credit union popped in.so that's another form of measurement that we arelooking at. so we are broadening ouranalysis and our evaluation of the success of ourprograms. and of course, that successreally happens within the respective tribalcommunities. so i appreciate yourcomments, your presentation
today and i'd like to open itup for questions from the audience here, as well asfrom those who are looking at us from the webinar.we have a question from our webcast audience.brad henderson writes thank you to all with respect tothis discussion. >> [inaudible question]>> >> what advice would you havefor a professional wanting to find work to address theseissues? >> so was that a statement ora question?
>> was that a statement or aquestion? i couldn't hear very well.>> mr. henderson writes what advice would you have for ayoungish professional wanting 65 to find work addressing theseissues? apparently he is a communitydevelopment professional with an interest in supportingsustainable development on indian lands.>> kevin, do you want to take a shot at that?>> maybe i'm biased but i would say there are certaintools of the trade that you
employ in any communitydevelopment planning mode, and as i mentioned earlier,there is certain geographic information software andthings like that. you at least have to become literateto start to take advantage of the data that's collected.and then i think one of the things that would separate aperson in community planning is that once you have thosetools, ensuring that you don't lose connection withthe community, because i think that's one of the realstrengths is when you find
somebody who has thosetechnical tools but can then step back out of the officeand reconnect with those that they are trying to serve, ithink there is value. >> carol?>> i would just add that a skill set is good listening.before we launched our work we spent two years listeningand trying to navigate what we were being told andconnect that to existing data.so we really had a foundation of what they were saying andvalidating what they were
saying by using data, whichgave them credibility with 66 funders, it gave themcredibility in the community, and if you use your tools ina way that demonstrates you are sensitive to the culture,that you are willing to listen, you are willing to goback a second tile and ask did i get it right, don'tmake assumptions about what you heard, because in somecultural places, the way people frame things isintended to detect whether or not you are really thelistener you are pretending
to be.so i would just suggest don't ever take anything forgranted and listen, listen, listen.thank you. >> i don't think there's toomuch more to add. i think there are a lot ofgood nonprofit organizations all around the localcommunities that one could get started with, stillneeding to bring those technical skills andlistening skills, but there's a lot of people out therethat you can just learn a
tremendous amount from.so i would say that. >> roger, can i add onething? just adding on to what nancymentioned, i think looking at case studies and sort ofexploring positive examples of community development andlooking at process. a lot of times people justlook purely at the building or the development thatresulted, and it's important to look at how they wentabout doing that. 67 because if it's a trulyreflective structure or
design for the community,then they did other things right along the way.>> thank you. todd?>> [inaudible question] >> i want to thank all of youfor the invitation to come here today.it has been really helpful. in fact i think as you knowi've worked with you on a lot of these issues over theyears. and i've learned a lot todaythat i didn't know before. one of the questions thatcame to mind that i hadn't
really thought about beforethis presentation is perhaps you can talk a little aboutwhat you think the impact nahasda has had onarchitecture in tribal areas. so when i travel to tribalareas i feel like there's a pre-nahasda architecture andpost-nahasda architecture and i wonder if any of you hadthe same impression. >> i will take that firsttodd. i tried to politely allude tothe change. truly pre-nahasda, there wasone house that was prescribed
by hud that had been vettedby national architects. that design had one door.i can tell you in alaska, no carpet was allowed because --we finally had to argue that it was insulation.so that one size fits all home was built in arizona, itwas built in alaska, california, texas, it wasbuilt everywhere. 68 then along came nahasda.so what were the differences? we were able to adapt to anorthern climate. so energy efficiency for uswas a top priority.
i might share one story.when i first came to my job, 15 years ago, i read innahasda that we were able to build culturally respectfulhousing, and i thought well, what does that mean.so i went to my local hud office and i said could youplease define this for me and they said well, you know,it's like the housing you grew up in, and i said youare kidding me. why would i build that?a coal-fired stove, there are cultural housing designs, butfor the most part when we
talk about need, people needsomething that's safe from the environment, that'senergy-efficient, that protects their family, thatgives them enough bedrooms so they are not overcrowded.it's fairly simple. and being able to build ahouse that has five bedrooms because that's a family size,instead of the prescribed 3-bedroom home for everyfamily, no matter the size that is been a real blessing.i guess that's how i would respond to the architecturaldesigns.
certainly there are somelocal preferences, and you saw many different designswhen i showed pictures. we are trying to stretch theenvelope and look for things that are simple, inexpensiveto build. 69 so while we stretch and testthose principles, we still want to think about what isright for the people that are going to live there.>> i think there's a movement away from some of the clusterhousing in a lot of places where that was built earlier.as carol mentioned, the
flexibility to actuallydecide what it is that you want, what your residentswant, both cultural sensitivities, but also justin terms of layout for the sizes of families.the energy efficiency i think has been big for severalyears now, and almost every tribe that i have talked tois keenly aware of it. and i think modular housingand other things like that, in an effort to reduceprices, you know, quality modular housing, not what wethink of in the past, and
actually tribes buildinghousing not just for their own reservation tribalmembers but as a commercial enterprise so that they cansell those units affordably to other reservations andtribes nearby. those are some things theythink jump out to me. >> it's hard for me tocompare pre and post because i didn't follow housing thatlong but i've seen a lot since i've been around,particularly the focus on the energy efficiency.but there really, there seems
to be, when i talk to housingauthorities, a lot of making it not only comfortable andsafe, but making it easier 70 for the families that areactually living in the houses, you know, a littleeasier to maintain, a little safer in terms of hand rails,for instance, for elders, just extra features.when i did the tour with you, i loved the fact that theturnkey house was turnkey, there were window shadesalready, there were nice rods.they are sometimes small
touches but havingflexibility in funding and those decisions really helpedmeet the community needs. >> i think from my ownexperience, i spent a lot of time on my own reservation,there was always this stigma about the hud home, and oh,you must live in a hud home, or see that -- there was aclear architectural distinction and a design.today, it's really changed. it's changed because of ourprogram and based on self-determination, thetribes really then decide for
themselves what kind ofhousing they are going to have, and in some areasaround the country, i have the advantage of lookingaround the country from my office, and if you look atthe beginning of time, housing was really -- i mean,the integration of the culture, the buildingmaterials, really defined the homes that people lived in,and it varied from the northwest to alaska to thesouthwest to new england and the south, and you could see,if you look at the historical 71
-- many of the homes, theyreflected the region and culture of that respectivearea, and what's happening now, though, is that a lot oftribes are going back and they are looking at thetraditional housing, the long house in the northwest, andthey are replicating that using modern buildingmaterials, but designs are almost the same, but theimportant thing is it's a reflection now of therespective tribe, and so you see that beginning to evolve,and i hope that that stays
that way.>> i am one of the few people here who was associated withthat first study that is on the pd & r site.i think the term culturally relevant came out of thatstudy. my question is directed tonancy. nancy, this is the study, ibelieve, an evaluation, the current study of the ihbg,i'm wondering, the need for part of it, and looking atthe availability side of needs, are you at all lookingat programs of the bureau of
indian affairs, if the hipais still around or those programs of the usda,development, how they might factor into the supply ofhousing? i'm not sure if the indianhealth service, wasn't some of those programs -- how arethey factoring in, are you looking at some of that forthis time? thank you.>> thank you for the 72 question.there are a few places where we touch on that.the study is really focused
on the housing assistancethrough nahasda, but on the actual survey, both for thetribal housing, the pdhes that are surveyed, they areasked about other sources of both funding and assistanceand other programs that they coordinate with for housing,so we do hear about some of those other programs, andthen we get into more of that on some of the sites, wherepeople have said go talk to these folks in ruraldevelopment that partner with us or go talk to these folkswho run the shelter, so we
can get a fuller picturewhile we are out there. on the smaller number ofsites we are able to learn about those as well.>> peter ashley with hud's office of lead, hazardcontrol and healthy homes. we look at the connectionbetween homes and health. i'm going to get into theweeds a little bit. carol, you talked about --well, both of you talked about energy-efficient homes,and that's certainly -- makes a lot of sense.but you have to be careful,
of course, when you tightenup a home that you preserve the air quality, you don'thave moisture buildup, mold, of course, is bad for health,and you need to -- if you are burning, if you have woodstoves, agency set remarks you get a lot of contaminantsbuilding up. 73 i'm wondering, when you aredesigning energy-efficient homes, how you are accountingfor indoor environmental quality.thanks. >> got my green light.thank you for that question.
we build to a five star andhave recently moved to a six star energy rating.mold was a huge issue, especially in the originalhud homes. so a lot of our early moneyfrom the nahadha was rehabbing those homes to getthe right ventilation because they were truly overinsulatedand people didn't understand the design i think early on.but i would also say that this is true of maybe a lotof folks in indian country, we are also building verygreen, and we were doing so
before it was sort ofromantic to do so. because having not just anenergy-efficient home, but something that's lowmaintenance made a lot of sense.we want our homes to last. you heard me talk about100-year-old home. but using green technologyand recycled materials has been especially important ina northern climate like alaska.you might find this hard to believe but we recently put asolar installation, that's
the largest residentialinstall in alaska, on a senior housing development,and we are eager to see the first year's result, but wethink it's going to save us 74 upwards of 40 percent of ourenergy costs on our boiler system.so even in alaska we can try solar.we are doing geothermal on our next development.but that's in part that sustainability equivalent,and really trying to get into the weeds of what's theboiler system.
i think self-determination,allowing us to do that research, which windows, wehave triple and quadruple pane windows in some homeswhere we've been forced to do so or it's made sense from anenergy perspective. i will say all that costs alot of money and the cost per unit on a home raiseseyebrows when we are doing that kind of work, but ithink it makes good sense from a sustainabilityperspective. thank you.>> that segues into our next
agree the webcast audience.amar oskari, office of the comptroller of the currencywrites could the panelists speak to the role of banks infacilitating housing development and what canbanking regulators do to increase bank participationin this area. >> the question is could thepanelists speak to the role of banks in facilitatinghousing development and what can banking regulators do toincrease bank participation in this area.>> well, i think banks have
played a critical part.like any investor, they want 75 to see us walk first, but iwill say we become pretty interested investments frombanks. so from their cradepartments, they have a little bit of granting, we'vealso become a cdfi, which is where roger was before hecame to hud. at a a cdfi, we're now amember of the federal home loan bank system.all of that gives us access to funding sources to help usleverage other banking
resources.we do carry traditional debt, but not very much of it.if you looked at our leveraging on the slides ishowed, about the maximum we can use is 10-15 percent.but there's also a construction loan in betweenthat a bank would have a pretty serious interest incarrying that through the larger development.i think banking in indian country is starting to takeits force, but it's more difficult onreservation-based tribes
where there are tough landissues, the new passage of the hearth act will helprelieve some of that tension on the trust lands, butbanking is interested in indian country, and i willsay nahasda has had a lot to do with that.we can use our nahasda money to guarantee that debt, andthat's been very meaningful to indian country.we're now exercising the courage to really take onthat debt, where indian 76 country didn't do that 15years ago.
i hope that answers thequestion. >> i want to add just onemore thing, just to stay tuned on the home buyer'sside. we do have a study comingout, a survey of lenders on mortgage lending in indiancountry and the 184 program. so it's coming.>> elizabeth cox with the building technology part.i think it's fantastic that local communities and thenative american community are undertaking some of their ownresearch, but what can we do
to help that.what is the research you would like hud to do thatwould assist you in any of the efforts that the three ofyou have discussed this afternoon?>> want me to take that? >> well, i think that one ofthe things that we are working on from the tribalside is this development of sort of protocols and thingsthat would help unify protocols to help developdata collection practices across reservations acrosstribes, and i think pd & r
can help sort of guide thatprocess and provide some resources for just explainingsome of the basic elements of data collection.i guess i would think of something like the laborforce report where at one point in time there was aneffort to do some tribal data collection and it wasrecognized that there were 77 certain aspects of it thatweren't providing a verifiable or accurate dataset. i think taking another shotat something like that and
promoting tribal datacollection and a connection between tribal datacollection and federal programs may be a kind ofbaby steps approach would be a great way to start.>> could i add just one thing?because that's such a generous offer.i do think the needs assessment study that's beingdone might be a good baseline for us to think about whatare the next steps in data, really looking at social andeconomic data, much as kevin
has described, might be thenext set of data. there's a really absence ofthat sort of data in tribal country in general, and sohaving some baseline would help us articulate our needto congress in a much deeper way than we are able to dotoday. thank you.>> we will take one more question.>> i wanted to ask the question about the structurethat is employed today in both alaska and in the lower48 as far as housing
authorities are concerned.when the alaska native settlement claims act wasdone in about '74, there was great expectation that thecorporations would be able to take a forward step away fromwhat the authorities were 78 doing in the housing handbook. what's the structure in termsof what the corporations are doing in the housing?>> i'm going to try to make this a short answer.so let me give you just the three steps.so first were eight
indigenous groups, alliut,apabakan, agency seta. in 1972, congress settled ourland claims, largely because of the gas line.so we were far behind the curve from the lower 48tribes and they formed 14 corporations and over 200village corporations and we all became shareholders.then along in 1996, the federal government recognizedus and they recognized 240 federally recognized tribes.so you wonder why we are confused and why the lower 48tribes are confused about us,
that's the brief history.as for the corporations, corporations are reallyfor-profit, and that's what congress intended.so when we do our housing, we are independent of those 14regional corporations. we are also independent ofthose village corporations. i serve a board of five, andthey are, they work independently.so all of the regional housing authorities work inthat fashion. the corporations themselves,some of them have been, just
like any other business,hugely successful, and others have not been so.some of them distribute 79 dividends and most do not.but i can tell you that most of them, profit or not, haveformed an educational foundation where they areinvesting in scholarships and that sort of thing, andthat's how most of us are grooming people to succeedus. so they have made investmentsin that education, but they are entities that are housingunder the ia, that would be a
separate entity and indianhealth services, another separate entity, so they areworking independently but we collaborate is the way iwould say that. i don't know if i've answeredthe question, but it is a unique relationship withcongress that we enjoy in alaska.>> thank you carol. and with that, i would liketo thank the panel and our discussion today.thank you very much. >> [applause]>>
>> good afternoon, i'm thegeneral deputy from secretary and pd & r and let's give awarm round of applause to all of our speakers today.>> [applause] >> unfortunately, we ran outof time, it was truly an informative panel discussion.we actually have a number of questions on e-mail and viatwitter that we weren't able to get to.but with that, i wanted to put in a plug for huduser.org. we just published a recent 80report in february on
sustainable buildingtechnologies in indian country, and i know we had alot of discussion about design and building, so iencourage all of you to check our report out, and ofcourse, our interim report on the housing needs assessmentis available, and in the coming months we will havethe final report. our next quarterly will be injune, and it will be on regional planning, and wewill also have a partner publication in evidencematters on that very same
topic, so stay tuned, and ihope you can join us again for the next quarterly.thank you.