On the Home Front

NLIHC sits on the unceded homelands of the Nacotchtank, Anacostan, and Piscataway peoples and recognizes that the genocide of Native people is part of a long legacy of displacement and injustice that continues to impact housing stability today. We humbly work in partnership with Native-led organizations to expand our relationships, further our understanding, and uplift Native housing needs through our research, policy, and advocacy. In this month’s blog post, we honor Native American Heritage Month by reflecting on some of the ways NLIHC works to promote housing justice for Native peoples.

Native Americans and Alaska Natives living on Tribal lands have some of the most acute housing needs in the U.S. due to the legacy of colonization and ongoing discrimination, and NLIHC’s Policy team pushes to ensure the housing stability of Native people everywhere. NLIHC’s Policy team consistently advocates for expanded funding for Tribal housing programs as one of our top priorities in the federal budget. With support from our partners at the United Native American Housing Association (UNAHA) and the National American Indian Housing Council, we have published many articles and factsheets on Native housing and the Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act (NAHASDA). NAHASDA is known as the “backbone of Indian housing,” but the program has not been reauthorized since 2013, and funding levels have not kept pace with inflation or housing needs. NLIHC staff regularly support Native housing leaders in leveraging support on Capitol Hill to push for reauthorization and full funding of NAHASDA. Earlier this year, NLIHC sent a letter to congressional leaders urging them to reauthorize NAHASDA and fully fund Tribal housing programs to address the dire housing needs in Native communities.

NLIHC’s Field team works to maintain and build new relationships with housing advocates across the country, with special attention to those most directly impacted by housing injustice. This year, the Field team helped deepen NLIHC’s partnership with UNAHA and brought new Native people and Native-led organizations into our coalition, including tenant leaders and tribally designated housing entities. By featuring the work of Native housing leaders at our Annual Policy Forum, in our Memo to Members newsletter, on webinars, and in working group calls, NLIHC has drawn attention not only to the unique challenges faced by Native people and Tribal communities in securing quality, affordable housing but also to their successes and innovations. We are eager to add more Native members and Tribal partners to our coalition. If you live in a Tribal housing community, administer a NAHASDA program, or identify as Indigenous and want to advocate for more just housing policies, please reach out to the Field team representative for your region!

NLIHC’s Opportunity Starts at Home (OSAH) campaign has been developing relationships with Native housing and health organizations over the course of the year. Additionally, the OSAH campaign updated its fact sheet on racial equity to include facts and data specific to Native people and Tribal communities. The campaign is currently seeking partnerships with Native-led organizations to help create a new fact sheet focused on the connections between Native policy priorities and affordable housing. For more information, contact Julie Walker.

NLIHC’s Research team is committed to uplifting Native housing challenges through its publications and data resources. To take one example, comprehensive data about projects funded through the Indian Housing Block Grant Program (IHBG) – the primary component of NAHASDA – is currently difficult to access. In response, the Research team is working to add property-level data for projects funded through IHGB into the National Housing Preservation Database, with the support of Native housing leaders at UNAHA and NAIHC. The addition of these data will facilitate critical research and planning about IHGB to ensure that the program continues to serve the lowest-income and most marginalized Native renters. The Research team also advocates for more accurate and inclusive data collection on Native communities by federal agencies like the Census Bureau and HUD, including by calling attention whenever possible to the lack of publicly available data on Native communities.

As Native American Heritage Month draws to a close and many households around the country celebrate Thanksgiving, we extend our deepest gratitude to the many Native people and Native-led organizations within the NLIHC network. We recommit ourselves to undoing the harm caused by centuries of colonization that have led to unjust housing outcomes for Native people, to uplifting Native voices throughout our work, and to creating new partnerships to further our mission.