Summary: Although the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has invested $4.3 billion during the past decade for housing and community development in Native American tribal areas, the Urban Institute recently reported that 40 percent of Native Americans in tribal areas live in overcrowded or physically inadequate housing. Providing safe and decent housing at reasonable cost is difficult in tribal areas because of (1) their remoteness and austere settings, (2) the limited human resources of many Indian housing authorities, (3) land-use restrictions, (4) the difficulty that contractors and Indian housing authorities have in complying with statutory requirements to give hiring preference to Indians, and (5) vandalism and neglect. New Indian housing legislation, set to take effect in October 1997, changes HUD's Indian housing assistance by requiring block grants to each of more than 550 tribes instead of categorical grants to each of 180 housing authorities that now exist. HUD believes that its initial workload could rise significantly.
