Heidi Frechette Deputy Assistant Secretary Office of Native American Programs U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) ONAP works with tribal and other governments, federal agencies, community organizations, and the private sector to provide a coordinated and comprehensive response to Indian Country’s housing and community development needs.

ONAP: Mission To ensure safe, decent, and affordable housing is available to low- and middle-income Native American families. To create economic opportunities for tribes and their residents of assisted housing. To help tribes plan community development; and to ensure fiscal integrity in the operation of the programs.

Government-to-Government Relationship Tribal sovereignty and tribal self-determination drive HUD’s Indian housing programs. This approach is grounded long standing-standing treaties, court decisions, statues, Executives Orders, the United States Constitution and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self- Determination Act (NAHASDA). NAHASDA emphasizes the government-to-government relationship between the federal government and tribes, and recognizes that tribes should make policy decisions and manage programs for their constituents. HUD supports this relationship in its Tribal Consultation Policy.

ONAP Programs Indian Housing Block Grant Program Title VI Loan Guarantee Program Indian Community Development Block Grant Tribal HUD-VASH Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program

ONAP Programs: Indian Housing Block Grant Authorized by NAHASDA, the IHBG program is the largest housing program for Indian Country. About $650 million annually is distributed to tribal governments by formula. Recipients are tribal governments or their designated housing entities; beneficiaries are primarily low-income American Indians or Alaska Natives. Funds the construction and acquisition of new affordable units, and rehabilitation of existing units and other housing and infrastructure related activities. In FY 2017, about 851 new units were built or acquired, and 4,611 homes were substantially rehabilitated using IHBG funds.

ONAP Programs: Title VI Loan Guarantee Authorized by NAHASDA and has a budget of approximately $17 million annually. Borrowers must be IHBG recipients (tribes or their designated housing entities); beneficiaries are low-income. Tribes borrow up to five times their IHBG grant to do large scale, infrastructure, construction and rehabilitation projects. About five of these loans are made each year. In 18 years of operation, 100 loans have been guaranteed, for more than $243 million.

ONAP Programs: Indian Community Development Block Grant Program (ICDBG) About $60 million is distributed to about 80 American Indian and Alaska Native communities annually through a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) competition. Beneficiaries must be primarily low- or moderate- income persons. Projects in Indian Country tend to focus on affordable housing rehabilitation, and construction of community buildings and infrastructure.

ONAP Programs: Tribal HUD-VASH Joint program between HUD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Provides housing vouchers to homeless Native American Veterans in Indian Country. The program has been appropriated $17.9 million. As of April 10, 2018, 319 Native American veterans were receiving case management services from the VA, and 271 of them were housed.

ONAP Programs: Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program The Section 184 program is a home mortgage product specifically designed for American Indian and Alaska Native families, tribes, Alaska villages or tribally designated housing entities. About $6 million annually currently provides nearly 5,000 guaranteed loans for qualified borrowers in Indian Country. Since 1995, more than 40,000 loans have been made for almost 6.8 billion.

ONAP Programs: Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program Under Section 184 borrowers can get home loans which can be used both on and off native lands, for new construction, rehabilitation, purchase of existing homes or refinancing. The program is not income restricted, meaning a homeowner does not need to be low income to apply.

ONAP Programs: Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program Tribes apply to participate in the program. Then the tribe or tribal members may apply for housing loans with a participating 184 lender. ONAP guarantees the Section 184 loans made by lenders. This means HUD assures the full payment of the loan in the event of a foreclosure.

Section 184: Housing for Professionals Tribes can obtain a loan from a participating lender for new construction, rehabilitation or acquisition of housing units. Tribes can then sell or rent the housing units financed by the program and use the sale proceeds or rent to pay for the monthly payment (debt service) on the Section 184 loan. In FY 17, Congress authorized $421 million specifically for the construction of rental housing for law enforcement, healthcare, educational, technical and other skilled workers.

ONAP Contacts Heidi Frechette, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Native American Programs Heidi.J.Frechette@HUD.gov Krisa Johnson, Deputy Director, Office of Loan Guarantee (Section184 Program), Krisa.M.Johnson@HUD.gov Deana O’Hara, Senior Advisor, Office of Native American Programs, Deana.K.OHara@HUD.gov