Cherokee Nation: A case study in how to put roofs over the heads of Native Americans who need them

TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — The brick housing project where Nita Sue Barnes lives in the capital of the Cherokee Nation looks like any middle-class neighborhood in the USA.

Homes are adorned with hanging baskets and potted plants, surrounded by colorful flower beds and neatly trimmed lawns.

Barnes, 71, who lives on Social Security, relied on the Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation to help her settle into her one-bedroom apartment. And whenever she needs help, the authority is there. It has replaced the insulation in her ceiling, refurbished her cabinets, even installed new faucets, carpet and windows.

“They will even change your light bulbs for you,” Barnes said. “I feel so grateful.”

The Cherokee Nation is the second-largest recipient of Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act funds allocated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The only tribe that gets more money is the Navajo Nation.

Sami Jo Difuntorum, chairwoman of the National American Indian Housing Council, calls the Cherokee Nation a model when it comes to using NAHASDA money.

The Cherokee Nation distributes funds effectively and efficiently, and leverages them so many tribal members live in secure housing, said Difuntorum, who has two decades of housing industry experience.

The Cherokees, according to HUD records, receive around $28.5 million a year in block grant funds. The tribe has spent nearly every dime — almost $503 million — since the housing program began in 1998.

The Navajo Housing Authority, by contrast, has squandered more than $100 million on failed housing projects, an Arizona Republic investigation has found. It also has accumulated a nearly quarter-billion-dollar surplus despite vast housing needs on the reservation.

The Cherokee Nation nearly two centuries ago adopted lands in the northeastern corner of Oklahoma as its own after the U.S. government forced tribal members to relocate from several Southern states.

The Cherokees in large part arrived in the 1830s after being expelled from their lands in several states, primarily in Georgia and the Carolinas, under President Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy. This diaspora, widely known as the Trail of Tears, resulted in an estimated 4,000 Cherokee deaths from hunger, exposure and disease.

Historical records show these uprooted citizens were industrious, establishing a strong government, schools and businesses after relocating. Buildings from that era, including a stately courthouse, are part of Tahlequah’s quaint downtown, where country superstar Carrie Underwood once waited tables at Sam and Ella's, locally famous for its chicken-and-pickles pizza.

Near downtown is Northeastern State University, which has 9,200 students. Street signs are in both English and Cherokee. The community has a Walmart, strip malls, a lumber company, a car dealership and sit-down restaurants. Tahlequah also is the setting for the classic children’s novel, “Where the Red Fern Grows.”

But the Cherokee Nation is more than this town. It covers parts of 14 northeastern Oklahoma counties, lands that feature green rolling hills and oak, maple and walnut groves.

The tribe uses HUD grant funds to help members with a variety of services: rental and mortgage assistance, housing rehabilitation, maintenance of low-rent apartments and rent-to-own homes, home insurance subsidies, even college-student housing.

Gary Cooper, chief executive of the Cherokee housing agency, said his organization spends its NAHASDA funds judiciously by identifying the most significant needs and then quickly disbursing the funds to low-income residents.

He said it has been difficult for some Cherokees with good jobs to come up with down payments to buy homes.

In response, the housing authority created a program that provides up to $20,000 to cover the down payment and closing cost of a home. Another $5,000 is set aside for repairs during the first five years of occupancy. If that money is not used for repairs, it goes against the home’s principal.

Damon Ford, one of the program’s recipients, is a sixth-grade math teacher who lives just outside Tahlequah.

“Without the assistance of the Cherokee Nation, I would not have been able to do this,” Ford said as he sat inside his 1,500-square-foot home. “Even with my salary, and a college degree, I wasn’t able to afford it.”

Ford, who is raising a teenage daughter, said he makes about $35,000 a year. He cut grass one summer for his school district to help make ends meet.

Cooper said his agency also has used NAHASDA money to help college students with their rent. He said about 140 students receive $1,000 per semester.

The Housing Authority of the Cherokee Nation also uses a separate pot of HUD money, the Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee Program, to build homes. Cooper said once homes are built, NAHASDA money then can be used for the down payment and closing costs.

Cooper said 277 homes, each about 1,000 square feet, were built last year with Section 184 funds.

By comparison, the Navajo Housing Authority built 119 homes and rental units last year using NAHASDA funds.

Cooper said his agency does not use NAHASDA money to build houses unless a structure is so dilapidated that it needs to be replaced.

“If we add one program, we have to cut it from another,” Cooper said. “If we had more funding available, we would serve more people. Every program we have has a waiting list. The housing needs exceed the amount of money we get.”

Cooper was careful not to criticize the Navajo Housing Authority or NHA Chief Executive Aneva “AJ” Yazzie, with whom he has served on a HUD funding committee. He said every tribe has different challenges, and it’s not fair to question how others use their money.

But Cooper noted the large Navajo surplus has made it difficult for tribes like his to get additional money from Congress, because politicians tell him there is a large pool of unspent money.

The bustling town of Tahlequah gives the Cherokee housing agency an advantage other reservations often don’t have: It can more quickly deliver housing services because it has easy access to building supplies and a trained work force.

And the Cherokees don’t live on a reservation. Instead, their lands are part of a checker board of tribal and non-tribal land. That makes it easier for members and the housing authority to find and build on fee-simple private property.

Navajo Housing Authority officials say it is difficult to build homes on the Navajo Reservation because nearly all of the land is owned in trust and there is minimal fee-simple property. That creates a maze of bureaucracy to get approval for homebuilding.

In addition, the Navajo reservation’s size, remote location and rugged landscape are impediments to building or repairing homes.

One key to success in Oklahoma is the political and administrative atmosphere.

Cherokee Chief Bill John Baker and his administration have a strong working relationship with Cooper, who heads the tribe’s housing agency.

Navajo Nation leaders have clashed with the leader of their housing authority, and they remain at odds over the best strategy to improve the housing agency’s performance.

“The housing authority has been a godsend to the Cherokee people,” Baker said. “They take NAHASDA dollars and make as big of an impact as possible.”

The Cherokee Nation also has a major financial driver in nine tribal gaming casinos, with a tenth in the works. Its flagship is the 1.3 million-square-foot Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a Las Vegas-style facility with twin towers housing hundreds of rooms. It’s on a small sliver of Cherokee land, about 11 miles from the Tulsa International Airport.

The Navajos have four small- to medium-size casinos. None is near a major city.

“We are a model for using NAHASDA money. We hope other tribes will emulate us,” said Cherokee Nation Secretary of State Chuck Hoskin Jr.