CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND SCOPE OF REVIEW The Indian housing program is operated under the joint plans of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of the Interior; the Department of Housing and Urban Development; and the Indian Health Service, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1401) established as a national goal that each American family have a decent, safe, and sanitary home. The Congress, in the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (42 U.S.C. 1441a), affirmed the national goal and stated that it should be met by the end of the 1970's. Until 1967 only a limited housing program existed on Indian reservations. In 1967, however, the Bureau accelerated the effort to improve Indian housing and set as a goal the elimination of all substandard Indian housing. The current goal of the program is to eliminate substandard Indian housing on reservations in the 1970's. Bureau statistics showed that about 15,000 housing units were completed on Indian reservations during fiscal years 1967 through 1970. Our review included housing projects on 25 reservations having about 40 percent of the total housing units. Our review included also an examination into applicable Federal laws and Bureau and HUD administrative policies and practices and an examination of pertinent records and files. We also observed and inspected housing units on selected reservations and interviewed the occupants; tribal representatives; and officials of the Bureau, HUD, and the tribal housing authorities. Our review was made at the Bureau and HUD headquarters in Washington, D. C.; at the HUD regional offices in Chicago, Illinois, and San Francisco, California; at Bureau area offices in Aberdeen, South Dakota; Billings, Montana; Phoenix, Arizona; Portland, Oregon; and Window Rock, Arizona; and at 25 Indian reservations. OVERALL PERSPECTIVE We believe that the accomplishments of the Indian housing program should be appraised within the framework of the social and economic conditions on Indian reservations and of the problems and factors encountered by Federal agencies in administering assistance programs for Indians. The President, in his July 1970 message to the Congress on new policies and goals for American Indians, pointed out that Indians were the most deprived and isolated minority group in our Nation. On virtually every scale of measurement--employment, income, education, and health--the condition of the Indian people ranks lowest. The President stated: --That unemployment was 10 times the national average; the unemployment rate ran as high as 80 percent on some of the poor reservations. --That 80 percent of Indian families living on reserva- --That school dropout rates for Indians were twice the national average and that the average educational level of Indians under Federal supervision was less than 6 school years. --That the health of Indian people still lagged 20 to In testimony before the Subcommittees on Department of the Interior and Related Agencies, Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, during fiscal year 1970 and 1971 appropriation hearings, Federal officials stated that some of the problems or factors that had an impact on the accomplishments of the Federal assistance programs were: --Fear of termination of the special trustee relationship with the Federal Government resulted in hesitancy on the part of some tribes to actively participate in Federal programs. -- Federal agencies providing assistance to Indians --Cultural patterns of the Indian tribes differed from those of the dominant culture of the United States. PROGRAM DESCRIPTION The primary Federal assistance programs under which efforts have been made to improve housing on Indian reservations have been HUD's low-rent and mutual-help (homeownership) public housing programs and the Bureau's housing improvement program. HUD provides financial assistance through local tribal housing authorities, and the Bureau provides financial assistance directly to Indian families. The tribal housing authority, with assistance from HUD and the Bureau, plans, designs, and supervises the construction of conventional low-rent housing. Also low-rent housing is constructed under the turnkey method, whereby a developer is responsible for the design and construction of a low-rent housing project and upon completion, the housing authority assumes responsibility for management of the project. The housing is rented to Indian families; the amount of the rent is based on family size and income. The housing authority generally is responsible for maintenance of the low-rent housing. For several years the only HUD-financed homeownership program available to Indians on reservations was a force account mutual-help housing program. Under this program, the tribe or individual Indian participant furnished the land and the participant contributed his labor during the construction period. He obtained an equity in the house through his labor contribution. Recently homeownership also has become available through the turnkey III and turnkey mutual-help methods. Under turnkey III, a developer constructs the house for the tribal housing authority and the Indian family obtains an equity in the house through monthly payments and through maintenance of its house. Under the turnkey mutual-help method, the Indian family participates in the construction of the house under the supervision of the turnkey developer and generally is responsible for maintenance of its house. The Bureau's housing improvement program provides both new and renovated housing for families when their needs cannot be met under other programs. The emphasis of the program has been on renovating and enlarging existing houses. During fiscal years 1967 through 1970, the cost of the various HUD-financed housing programs and the Bureau's housing improvement program was about $108 million. Under these programs, about 8,000 new housing units were constructed and 7,000 units were renovated. The Indian Health Service generally provides water and sanitation facilities for new and renovated housing on Indian reservations under its sanitation facilities program. CHAPTER 2 INDIAN HOUSING PROGRAM PROGRESS We believe that, considering the progress in constructing and renovating houses, as shown in Bureau reports for fiscal years 1967 through 1970, and considering the problems that have continued to affect housing construction and maintenance, the Bureau's goal to eliminate substandard Indian housing on reservations in the 1970's will not be achieved unless the program is accelerated substantially. The Bureau's criteria regarding what constitutes standard housing are that which is decent, safe, and sanitary and that which meets the minimum housing codes adopted by a tribe or otherwise applicable to a locality. The charts on pages 11 and 12 show (1) the Bureau's estimates of housing needs for fiscal years 1967-70 and (2) a comparison of planned with actual construction and renovation of houses for the same period. The living conditions of Indian families in new or renovated housing units generally have improved. (The photographs on pp. 14 and 15 are examples of unimproved and new reservation housing.) Our analysis of the estimated housing needs and of the actions taken to meet these needs shows, however, that the impact of these actions on reducing the number of families living in substandard housing has been offset by increases in the total number of Indian families. For example, in June 1968 the Bureau estimated that 68,300 Indian families were living in substandard housing. On June 30, 1970, after the construction of about 4,800 houses and the renovation of 5,700 houses, the Bureau estimated that 63,000 families still were living in substandard housing. The disparity in these statistics, as discussed in chapter 3, is caused, in part, by the Bureau's not having obtained accurate data on housing needs. Assuming that the June 30, 1970, estimate of housing needs was both accurate and static and that the same level of construction and renovation--about 5,475 units in fiscal |