Oregon Housing and Community Services awards grants to tribes for homebuying, improvements
Oregon Housing and Community Services, or OHCS, seeks to lessen the disproportionate homeownership gap for Native Americans by offering homeownership assistance grants to five federally-recognized tribes in Oregon for the first time.
OHCS selects various housing and community groups each year to receive the awards. The Burns Paiute Tribe, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, Coquille Housing Authority, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde are among those selected for 2023.
The newly allocated funds are part of an effort to level the playing field for Native American homeowners and prospective buyers who face a litany of historical and contemporary challenges in homeownership.
Grant funding
Tribes will use the roughly $5 million in funding for home development projects, purchasing and repairs.
OHCS announced the historic funding after consulting with tribal representatives about their communities’ needs and obstacles in homeownership. The discussions culminated in the designation of two funding streams: one stream for home development, designed to increase the supply of affordable housing on tribal lands, and the other stream to increase non-construction-related homeownership opportunities for Native communities.
Andrea Bell, OHCS director, said the organization will continue to partner with tribes to increase opportunities for tribal citizens to own homes in their communities.
“OHCS is moving beyond words to take intentional steps toward honoring self-determination in directing resources and additional capacity to our Tribal partners across the state,” Bell said. “It is our responsibility and honor to continue to build these relationships and find ways to improve pathways to housing and homeownership for Tribal members.”
Nixyáawii neighborhood
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, or CTUIR, have an ambitious plan with the $3 million in funding it received from OCHS.
The Nixyáawii Neighborhood is an upcoming housing development located on CTUIR tribal land. The approximately 13-acre project contains 42 “shovel-ready” residential lots for tribal members to lease.
With OHCS funding, CTUIR will build 21 new homes available for purchase in the Nixyáawii Neighborhood. The homes will contain two to three bedrooms and be available to parcel leaseholders in Nixyáawii.
Dave Tovey, Nixyáawii Community Financial Services executive director, which oversees the development project, said the funding will create new opportunities for tribal members.
“The State of Oregon is definitely showing their support to the Umatilla Reservation community with the $3 million for homeownership development and the $300,000 for down payment assistance awarded just a few months ago,” Tovey said in an email. “Tribal members have the opportunity to not just own a home but to be a homeowner on the reservation, a dream that has been unattainable for most. The vast majority of Tribal members I’ve worked with want to live on the reservation, in their community, but have to settle for off-reservation after realizing limited or non-existence of affordable homes to purchase on the Umatilla Reservation.”
The new development, located east of Pendleton and south of the Nixyáawii Education Center and Yellowhawk Tribal Health Center, will feature a “safe and walkable” design and provide access to CTUIR services and events.
The neighborhood officially opened at the beginning of June with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“It’s exciting to see all of this come together with the Nixyáawii Neighborhood ready for homes to be built, receiving the development grant so we can start building homes to sell, and the additional down payment funds to help reduce the expense of purchasing a new home,” Tovey said.
In addition to the Nixyáawii Neighborhood, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde will receive the funding to build 6 homes.
The remainder of the funding will go to the Burns Paiute Tribe to assist four homebuyers, the Coquille Tribe to assist three homebuyers, and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw to assist 13 homebuyers and homeowners who need help funding home repairs.
Historical hardships
There are numerous historical and contemporary barriers to homeownership for Native Americans, particularly those living on reservations. Tribal communities still feel the effects of prior laws that sought to sever communal ownership of tribal lands.
Historically, as the U.S. government forced Native peoples onto reservations, many struggled with poverty and substandard living conditions.
Before colonization, Native peoples did not participate in individual land ownership.
Since the formation of the United States, the U.S. government has made extensive efforts to sever communal ownership of tribal lands. Under the Dawes Act in the 19th century, the U.S. government sought to register all Native peoples on the Dawes Rolls lists that would record their tribal affiliation.
Tribes did not consent, nor were they consulted.
Once on the roles, male heads of household would receive a land parcel allotment. The U.S. government would give all “excess” lands to whites, and Native nations’ self-governance would effectively cease to exist.
The Dawes Act resulted in the loss of more than 90% of tribal lands and forced European family structures on Native communities.
Even the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the ultimate goals of the Dawes Act of erasing tribes, which former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia described in his majority opinion in the 1992 case Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Indian Nation v. County of Yakima et al.
“The objectives of (Dawes) allotment were simple and clear-cut: to extinguish tribal sovereignty, erase reservation boundaries, and force the assimilation of Indians into the society at large,” Scalia wrote.
The U.S. government’s efforts to sever communal land ownership did not end with the Dawes Act.
In 1954, Congress signed the Western Oregon Termination Act, which ultimately dissolved the federally recognized status of every federally recognized tribe in Oregon except for the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
With termination came the dissolution of the tribes' reservations, the loss of all treaty rights and land and removal of the U.S. government's obligations to tribes. The impact on tribal communities was devastating.
The U.S. government did not consult with tribes, nor did they offer their consent to termination.
The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde reservation officially “closed” in 1956. The effects of termination were cascading, leaving members without welfare, education or health services. The U.S. government did not restore the tribe’s status until 1983.
Many Native peoples, like in Grand Ronde, could not afford to purchase the land they lived on after termination. No longer able to afford to live in their tribal communities, termination forced them to move away. Termination contributed to the loss of cultural traditions as community members were separated.
The effects of the termination era were long-lasting as it scattered tribal members far from their communities and the services they provided.
Contemporary barriers
Today, poor real estate markets, lack of private investments in housing developments on tribal lands and poverty all play a role in the shortage of affordable housing available to Native people on tribal lands, thus contributing to low homeownership rates.
In 2021, OHCS conducted a “Needs Analysis” to understand the real estate landscape better and inform its Homeowner Assistance Fund. The analysis collected homeowner demographic data, mortgage landscape, and housing cost burdens to homeowners.
The report found 85%, or 871,303, of all homeowners in Oregon identify as non-Hispanic white. Demographically, Oregon’s population is 85.9% non-Hispanic white.
Overall, 67% of white Oregonians are homeowners. The analysis found the homeownership rate for Native Americans is lower — only 59%.
Further, the report found that 0.73%, or 7,467, of homeowners are Native American while making up 1.9% of the state’s population according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
“(The analysis) discovered a lack of affordable and available housing as well as stark inequities in housing accessibility,” the report found. “There is not a large enough supply of low-income housing to meet the needs of its residents,”
OHCS report broke down homeownership demographics by region, finding the Portland metropolitan area contains the highest density of non-white homeowners in the state, including roughly 30% of all Native American homeowners statewide, noting the state’s racial diversity is heavily concentrated in urban centers.
The analysis also found stark differences in income levels across demographics. Oregon homeowners across racial demographics were more likely to make 100% or above the area median income, but non-white homeowners were more likely to have lower income. Statewide, only 58% of Native American homeowners were above 100% area median income compared to 64% of white homeowners.
In Multnomah County specifically, the gap was even wider — only 48% of Native American homeowners made at or above 100% area median income, compared to 66% of white homeowners.
“These data highlight the need for assistance to be prioritized for historically and current marginalized communities,” the report concluded.
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